What's my cat saying?

Early this morning I woke with a start, thinking that the neighbor kids had to be killing eachother from the screams and screeches I was hearing. Turns out it was my male cat Charley sitting at our back door with one of the neighbor's cats (female, I'm pretty sure) on the other side. Neither of them were acting very aggressive, but they were both projecting these closed-mouth siren-like sounds of varying pitch, and when one would start the other would join in. These two have sniffed eachother over before, but aren't exactly friends (though definitely not enemies, we let this cat inside our house once and had no problems and it trips through our yard a few times a day without notice from our sometimes territorial cats). We cracked the door to see what their reaction would be, and to hopefully quiet them down if they could hear eachother better, and they didn't seem all that interested in sniffing at eachother and just sat still howling at eachother. Does anyone have any insight into this new behavior? My boyfriend suggested that the other cat was in heat. Charley's been neutered, though not until after he had matured, so maybe he was responding? I've never seen anything like this and none of our other cats seemed all that interested in what was going on...

Wow, that's interesting. I bet it was quite a sight! I don't know, but am curious to see what people think!

How old is Charley? Most likely he isn't so interested in her if shes in heat, moreso that she is another cat and that is his territory. When my cat Clover was young (and neutered) he was still very territorial, though often hung low on teh totem pole in our neighborhood. Cat fights and defending on territory is par for the course for outdoor cats.

I have heard those long howling sounds between cats before, and they usually precede a fight. I would interrupt and separate tham before they go at it.

Charley is about five years old. He's usually pretty quiet and passive, but he can certainly be territorial when he wants to be and likes to playfully pick on our other cats sometimes. He was the baby of one of the abandoned neighborhood cats and adopted us when he was about six months old and settled into house-cat mode, but would still go out a few hours a day. Since we moved he's become a lazy house-cat, but still explores our backyard every so often, so he and our neighbor's cats have checked eachother out, but have never had to compete with oneanother. The other cat is an outside-during-the-day/inside-at-night cat.

But these really didn't sound like agressive mews at all, and both cats were pretty relaxed, body-language wise. Seriously, if I'd taken a picture you would think that the two cats were just napping on either side of this glass door, but those siren voices of theirs!

This sound is generally a prelude to a fight. If the cats are not fixed, the sounds are first a warning and then can escalate. It is also possible that the one outside is ill and therefore smells "different" and not recognizable to Charley. Or, that the one outside got into a fight with another cat and got sprayed on in the process, also making him or her smell different. I would suggest not letting these two get close. Keep the door shut-

Outside cat: YO DUDE! LOOK AT ME! I'M OUT HERE RUNNIN' AROUND FREE BUT YOUR MAMA WON'T LET YOU OUT! TOO BAD FOR YOU, SUCKA!

Inside cat: IF I EVER *DO* GET OUT, YOU'RE GONNA BE A RUG ON MY MAMA'S HEARTH!

lol

that is hilarious!!

When we first moved in to our new house, and I was keeping the cats inside for a month, this orange and white would come to the glass door and bait Harry, my very territorial Norwegian Forest. I used to joke that Harry dreamt at night about the cat coming around when the door was actually open and taunting just like Vibiana suggests, with Harry responding, "Well, guess what? The door's open . . . Now whose the sucka?!!" Sure enough, the orange got a pretty good stomping when Harry first caught up with him. We haven't seen him around too much since! LoL