Rural Cat issues

My husband and I (and our seven cats) have lived in our rural house for over a year and a half. As our cats were primarily indoor cats (with an enclosed outside run) when we lived in the city, we took several months to acclimate them to the rural setting. They've all taken a shine to it, loving the freedom of being able to go in and out when they want.

A few weeks back, two of my cats had some pretty bad looking injuries to their heads - they've since scabbed over and healed, and there are no new markings. These have been their first big injuries since we moved in early last year.

Yesterday, my parents (who live in the general area out here too) told me that my neighbor says my cats have been beating her cat up, and her cat has some very bad facial injuries.

I inspected all of my cats, and none of them have any new signs of fighting on them.

I will be talking to my neighbor (according to my parents she was pretty sure that it was one of my cats) to find out what's going on, but I would like some opinions first!

If her cat and mine were fighting, and her cat has really bad facial injuries, shouldn't mine be at least somewhat marked up?

Why would my cats and hers start fighting now, instead of last year when they were first exploring their new territory?

Isn't it more likely that it's a new cat to the neighborhood, first beating mine up a few weeks ago, and now moving on to her lot to establish dominance (especially since mine don't show any signs of fighting)?

Welcome to TCS!

I, too live ina rural area. IMO, it isn't your cats or her cats fighting, it is a raccoon, possum, skunk, etc. There are many other animals out there to consider. I have 8 outside cats that are rarely outside without my supervision.

It is possible for cats to fight & for one to sustain injuries & the other to come off without a scratch.

When talking to your neighbor, you might want to ask if there are any wildlife animals around that might be doing it as well. Mention you noticed some scratches on two of your cats awhile back, & that you were wondering if there were any animals that could do that(besides her cats). Hopefully, your neighbor is nice & this can be easily resolved!

Hard to say. We also live in a rural area, and the animals have their own world out there.

You are applying logic, which is fine, animals do have logic. But there may be other factors which you are not aware of. For example, a neighbor's cat used to beat up on Grey, our previous cat. Well we got a puppy in Nov 2002 and he is a protective little stinker. One morning little Zircon growled fiercely at our front door from the inside. There in our front yard was the neighbor's cat, trying his best to look like the Halloween cat. I opened the door. Cat hissed and arched back. Zircie was not impressed and ran him off promptly. We never saw that cat again so it is possible he went looking for some other place to hang out.

We also have skunks, porcupines, raccoons, deer, moose, you name it. So it may not depend that much on when you and your cats arrived, but also on what all the other critters are doing.