Stray cat tormenting Buddy

Hi everyone!
About a month ago our indoor cat Buddy escaped, and we luckily found him a day later. Anyway it seems that since then he will meow extremely loud and still tries to get out especially at night. Some nights it's just becasue he wants to play since he's bored. But we have noticed most it's becasue of a stray that comes around and seems to torment him.
Buddy will go from room to room crying and whaling (our neighbors have to hear him), he has ripped all the plastic insulation we had to pur up to keep the winter drafts out in the windows.
Any ideas to stopping the feral from coming around, it's reaking havoc on our sleep. Poor Buddy could porbbaly use a break too.
Thanks!

P.S. we can't let Buddy be an indoor/outdoor because of the high traffic street we live on.

Is Buddy neutered?

If the cat outside runs from you every time you go out, then you can go to a barber shop or beauty shop and get some hair clippings from that day and bring them home and sprinkle them around your house outside where the cat appears. The human smell will keep the cat away.

But if this cat is also a tomcat the best thing to do would be to trap him, get him neutered and either work with him to socialize him or just release him after his surgery is over in the same place you trapped him.

This is a difficult situation. Some of the things you could try are to use the commercial animal repellents available in either a granular form or a spray around the windows of the house; I have heard that vinegar sprinkled around the windows and doors of the house will work - (I have used both of these and had no neighbour cats visit but don't know if it is coincidence or the deterrents); if it is a true 'feral' stray then it may avoid anything that smells of people, so there is a trick of getting hair clippings from a beauty parlour or salon and sprinkling them around the doors and windows as well.

There is a company that manufactures deterrents that use bobcat urine, or wolf urine or bear urine that triggers a predator/prey response in unwelcome animals and they keep away. I have seen it online but don't recall the name of the product.

There are motion detectors that can be hooked to hoses or sprinklers that come on when something sets it off and these are available in garden nurseries and possibly hardware stores.

I also put up bristol board sheets over any windows low enough for the cats to see out overnight (with masking tape) and then remove them during the day, although it doesn't stop them hearing the outside cat, and possibly smelling the feral if he sprays.

Good luck - it is very hard on indoor cats when their territory is invaded and they can't do anything about it.

Kathryn

Thanks for the ideas. Buddy is neutered. I have no idea if the other cat is a Tom cat or not. He doesn't really run away as soon as we come out, it's more of a "semi-chase" him away situation.
Just a question about the hair clippings, don't they just blow away?
We tried using cardboard or anything to block the windows, although we can never hear the other cat, apparently Buddy does and he just freaks out more 'cause he can't see him.
I feel bad becasue he can't protect his territory and you can tell he's mad at us every morning becasue he hsa no probelm sassing us when we get up.

Well it would depend on where you place the clippings. But yes they do blow away if it is windy enough. Another thing to do would be to invest in a blacklight and see if you have cat pee on the outside walls of your home. If you do, then that could be setting off Buddy as well.

Some garden shops sell lion dung (dried!) to put on flower beds, supposed to stop cats from pooping in your flowers. perhaps you could get some of that & put it round your house.

Sue