Scratchin the windows

All of this will get better once he is neutered! I would recommend doing it as soon as possible, for your sanity.

Hi @goldie61 and welcome to TCS!

Good on you for taking this boy in.. his life will be so much better and there will be one less tom creating kittens!

Yes, the sooner you get him spayed the better.. having an intact tom is absolutely no fun.  Keeping him in till you do that (and after - great you want him to be an indoor cat) is essential.  Can you do that very, very soon and keep him in an enclosed space where the cleaning up won't be so bad?

We have people who are really good with strays.. see if they have any ideas for how to look after him till he gets done.

Tucker goes this coming thursday to be neutered. Then he will be an indoor cat!  I have 3 other cats that get along with him.  I think he knows we are doing our best to ,make him part of our family!    He is using the litter boxes. I have 3 litter throughout the house. When he uses the litter box he does not cover up his urine which has such a strong odor. I will cover it or scoop it  out to get rid of the smell.   

That sounds like an excellent idea.  I was concerned he may be spraying...

Yep, the smell should be much better within a month of being neutered. Thank you for caring for him! He's a lucky guy to have you.

Somehow Tucker escaped today without us knowing. I was outside and I heard a cat fight and I thought it sounded like Tucker!  Sure enough, he wasn't inside the house. I found him and he was so innocent like "what?"  ...so we got him back inside.  He was not a happy camper at all.  Thursdy can't get here soon enough!  

Hi there!   I am so sorry for not giving an update sooner with Tucker.  Tucker was neutered April 28,2016 and we are seeing really good changes in him!  We did not let him outside for about a week after his neutering.  Since the weather has gotten  warmer we have doors open so he can come and go as he pleases.  He roams around but lays outside on the back step mostly.  The birds are not happy with him at all... So far he has brought in to the house 4 baby robins,3 of which he killed and the other has managed to survive Tucker attacks. He is definitely changing into a really good cat since his neutering! 

That's a great update!

Shorthly after I posted, here come Tucker with ANOTHER baby robin!  Feathers going everywhere  This time because the bird is bigger and flying. I got him to drop it and the bird flew out the back door with Tucker chasing!  The bird made it into the treeline and Tucker followed and came back out with it!  I got him to drop it and got him inside.  I don't think the bird is gonna make it. Looks like its leg is messed up/  I will go check on it after awhile. I can here the parents squaking still...I know it's a cats nature but those babies deserve a chance to///Tucker is acting like a teenager right now...He wants out but I am not letting him out right mow.

Can you try to keep him inside while there are so many baby animals outside?

We dotry  but he scratches at every window he can and bellows  to the annoying point. He has taken the babies from the robin that makes her nest in the same spot every year.  It is a month this week since he has been neutered so I think his hormone level has dropped considerably but still has that "teenager" stubornes going on inside him!

  Thank you for taking Tucker in and getting him neutered!!!! It sounds like he needs tons more play time (as if we have extra time for play, between family, jobs, cat rescue, other pets, right?).  I give even my feral cat colonies a good selection of toys to keep their prey drive satisfied.  My more "tame kitties" will show waaayyyy too much interest in birds if I don't give them enough attention by pulling a feather teaser/ fishing pole with toy attached. I have read that those motion-detector-sprinklers can be used to keep cats away from certain areas - maybe that would work to keep Tucker from the nesting tree.

I would suggest that you either get him a collar with jingle bells on it so the birds have a fighting chance, or teach him to go out on a harness and lead like I did with my cat, Sonny. He won't like the harness at first---no cat does. However, they quickly learn to associate the harness with getting to go out, and accept it, and even if they don't walk beside you like a dog, they enjoy doing their own thing. Some people try to harness train by putting the harness on the cat inside so he can get used to it, but in my experience this doesn't work well. If you take the cat out immediately with the harness and lead, he will immediately associate it with being outside, which is a good thing. Your other option is to allow him outside only while you're outside with him, supervising him. It's upsetting to many people when cats kill birds, and I know of situations where outdoor cats have been caught by neighbors and either taken to a shelter or to a barn because they were killing birds and other wildlife. In the case of ferals, it's understandable, because they're hunting to survive. In the case of a pet who is being fed by a human, it's about hunting for sport. There's no reason for your cat to be killing birds. I also agree that feather wand toys are a great way to re-direct. 

I had to chuckle to myself when you said to try the harness on Tucker because I did do that a few times when were keeping him inside just before he got neutered.   He actually did pretty good with it!    I can tell that he seems bored when he can't go outside.  We also have 3 siamese cats that live inside but they do like to sit on the back porch when I have the door open. I get the look from Tucker as if he is saying "why can they sit outside" so I get this guilt trip from him LOL!.I am going to get him some feather toys and make another t-shirt tent that he liked when he first showed up. I am going to get a feather duster for him. We had a cat years ago that would carry  the feather duster around...Thank you all for the great advise...!