Need Advice on Outside cats.

In the last couple of months, we have had some new neighbors move in with 3 cats, that are always outside.

(For certain one of them was not neutered, but supposedly that has been taken care of.)

They are very scared cats and will not come to me, but they keep coming to my front and back door. The back of the house is all windows, so they are very visiable to my cats.

They just sit at the door and lounge around the pool, daily.

Tino freaked out and him, Ducky and Laura actually got into a huge fight from the redirected aggression.

Everytime Tino sees them, he instantly starts growling, puffing up and in turn the others get really stressed, too. Laura will growl back at Tino and Ducky will run and hide

I am using Rescue Remedy and Feliway, but nothing will calm Tino down, except when the cats go away.

Im worried about the stress that my babys are under right now, they are so "jumpy" and its affecting their dispositions.

Does anyone know why the cats may be coming to the door?

If I could figure out why they are insistantly coming, then maybe I can figure out a way to distract them to somewhere else.

They are very very scared so its surprising that they would be so brave to be out in the open like that.

I have no actual experience with a situation like this but I would imagine that they can smell/sense the presence of your cats and are coming over to investigate. It sounds like they aren't even aggressive at all when they see your cats; you said that they more or less just sit around. Maybe they're trying to make new friends?

Or maybe they want to be indoor cats (or at the very least indoor/outdoor) but their owners have other ideas. They see your cats inside and they're jealous.

Are you on good terms with your neighbors yet? It sounds like you might have to ask them if they can build some sort of enclosure to prevent their cats from being seen by yours, while still allowing their cats to be outdoor cats. Chances are they won't be very accommodating, though. I wouldn't even bother asking about the possibility of them keeping their cats inside; that probably has even less likelihood of succeeding.

If that doesn't work, the only other thing I can think of is window treatments, but that's a huge expense and apparently isn't something that you want anyway, because if you did you would have installed them by now.

It's really unfortunate (but understandable) that your cats are so stressed by this. I hope that other people come along with better suggestions and that this situation can get resolved without too much distress.

One of ours was tearing apart the bottom of our screened porch door to look at the birds outside, so my husband put a piece of 3' high thin plywood over the bottom half of the door, and that did the trick (the cat can still see the birds through other windows!).

If the males were ever able to spray, they probably still do and your boys can tell that and will react to it. The only way I know to keep them away is to get some of that Keep Away spray from Petsmart that you can spray on your plantings and around your yard. Or you can mix up your own, here's an organic recipe from Jerry Baker, and it won't hurt your yard:

5 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp powdered mustard
3 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp chili powder
2 qts warm water

Mix well and sprinkle around areas you want them to stay out of.

Our dogs tend to keep the wandering cats away. If dogs are not an option for you, I think you need a heart to heart with your neighbor.

Thanks guys .........

Nita I will try that recipe. Helen was also telling me about some other stuff that I might try as well.

The very day they moved in, they just let their cats out with no introductions to the area and one of them (possibly all 3) were not neutered. One came up missing, but they eventually found him.

I was so upset, so I have let Jim handle all conversations with them. They are aware of the situation, but say, they are cats and deserve to be outside.

One of them was out there soaking wet when it was freezing and I tried for hours to coax him in to get him out of the cold, but he would not come. But that is how they regard them. Its very sad.

Amy, we do have a dog and he barks at every outside cat he has ever seen, but hes an inside dog.

Thanks again, Everyone.