Stray That Is Becoming A Problem

We live outside of town about 2 miles so while we live near the highway, we have enough land surrounded by woods that we have some outside cats. They were about a month or two old when their mother left them and they eventually grew tame and have been living here for about a year. We have an appointment to get the one boy neutered this week actually now that he's tame enough to do so.

Recently another stray male cat who looks to be 2 or 3 years old and is extremely friendly and tame [I'm assuming he was someone's pet and they decided to throw him out] has shown up on our land and lays around our deck etc. The problem is, is that he's run our male cat off. At first our boy, Matty, would sneak back whenever the stray wasn't around and then would leave again when he came back.

We only have a crappy branch of the humane society and they will euthanized the stray if we take him there and we have no no-kill shelters anywhere around here. If he were able to live friendly with our male without scaring him away we'd just keep him but because he is terrifying our outdoor cats, especially our boy, we need to get rid of him.

No one will take him because no one would even take one of the orphaned kittens we have. We took him to a barn about 5 or 6 miles away where we know there are other barn cats and mice and plenty of water etc and then a day or two later he showed up here again! He found his way back.

I really don't know what to do about this situation. Matty has been gone for almost 3 whole days now without coming back because he's so afraid of this stray. What can I do!?

I'm sorry, I'm confused - are there more than the one prior outside cat (Matty) before the new stray turned up?

When you say you have an appointment to get the one boy spayed this week - do you mean Matty? It sounds like there are others - and they're female? They've been spayed?

The new stray - is he neutered?

All of that asked.... we just had a similar situation. We live in a rural area that has feral cats, it is also a place where people dump cats. So we have ferals, but friendly cats turn up. There are also ferals that have been around people from a very young age - so they're almost like strays.

We trap, neuter and release them. We work to get the adoptable ones adopted out - but due to a health issue with DH, our networking ability is about 0 right now. Thankfully, we just hooked up with a foster network that has been so helpful. Unfortunately, they're full right now (of course) - and we had the exact problem you just wrote about.

We had a really friendly kitty show up (Cool Kitty) - but he was VERY EXTREMELY food aggressive - and shortly after he showed up, the food would disappear, but we'd NEVER see the ferals anymore (we put the food out just outside the window, next to the deck in a place where they can dart under the deck), and no one would show up for wet food.

There was another friendly kitty here (Fat Head) we were working on getting to the vet (issue was DH and his health - we use a trap, we don't wait for them to tame up).

Fat Head was living under our home and was around ALL the time (well, for the three weeks or so he was here). When Cool Kitty turned up, they would growl at each other when we came out to feed them wet food. After two days of this, the next morning there was orange hair EVERYWHERE (Fat Head is orange) and he was nowhere to be found. For a few days, we'd see Fat Head show up at dusk, when he was sure Cool Kitty wasn't around. Then he disappeared for three days. We were freaked out.

I went out to put wet food out for Cool Kitty that 3rd evening - and heard a pitiful meowing coming from a direction I never see cats. I went over to the field - to find Fat Head limping towards me, not walking on one of his front feet. Grabbed the carrier, got him in there, rushed to the vet and dropped him off. Turns out he had a bad abscess from a bite wound. I expect it was from the fight he had with Cool Kitty.

We got him treated for the wound, of course, but did all the normal stuff - rabies, treatment for parasites (Revolution - treats internal and external) - there's a problem with lung worm and giardia around here, so we got him tested for those - he needed treatment for lung worm but not giardia - and we had him neutered and ear tipped. Thankfully the foster network was able to take him after his week at the vet.

But what to do about Cool Kitty? We grabbed him and got him to the vet. Neutering is the quickest way there is to calm down an aggressive cat.

But because he was friendly - we didn't feel right just releasing him back outside.

So we're fostering him inside - and now that he understands food is available all the time, he is no longer food aggressive. All the ferals are back to the normal feeding schedule now that he's not outside anymore. We're going to foster him until we can find him a home, or until the foster network can take him. We've got posters up everywhere, and the vet staff all know to refer people to us if someone calls wanting to adopt an older kitty (and there's a poster of him with those pull-off tabs with our contact info on them at the vet office).

It's been several weeks and we've had no calls on him - but he's a love bug and quite adoptable now, even to a multi-cat household. If we HAD to release him back outside, I expect he would no longer be food aggressive and not upset the ferals feeding out there anymore.

Once you have a cat neutered, it takes about a month or so for the hormones to cycle out of their system - but Cool Kitty's (now named Charlie) pee stopped with that strong smell after just three or four days. He used the litter boxes after one accident, and didn't spray to mark at all anywhere once inside.

I don't know how any of this information helps you.

But if you don't already have low-cost spay/neuter service you know about, I'd search, and I would NOT wait until cats are tame to get them spayed/neutered. I'd buy, borrow, or rent a trap (many local vets or shelters will lend them to you or rent them to you - some want a deposit that you get back when you bring the trap back).

If you have a room you can dedicate to the new tame kitty, you may want to think about bringing him inside, at least for a little while - enough time for Matty to "come home" and get whatever vet attention he needs.

....and relocating a cat by taking them somewhere and putting them there doesn't work. Did you speak to the owner of the barn? A cat that lives outside really has to be caged for like three weeks/a month and fed on a schedule for them to understand the new place is "home" and that they will be cared for there. If the owner of the property is willing to take on the stray as a barn kitty (and if you're willing to get him neutered, they may be more willing to take him on), then you may have to provide the large dog-crate type thing that would be required to make it work. (It has to be a large enough crate that there is room for food, water, litter box, and a bed, and it has to be set up in such a way that the kitty can be contained in the back of the crate while litter is scooped and food and water dishes cleaned and refilled).

Matty is OK.

BTW, can you take the new tame kitty to the Humane Society or a vet to be neutered and if he already is, he should at least be scanned for a microchip on the long shot.... I'd also put up "found" posters around and pay for a small ad in the newspaper. Someone may be missing their kitty, and finding his home may solve your problem!