Cats fighting, in need of a lot of advice.

[tonyb500]

Okay, so, almost a year ago, I lost the most precious gift God had ever given me; my baby girl, Snowball. And after she passed, I wasn't sure I could ever care about another cat the same way as I did with her. And honestly? I know that I never will love another cat the way I loved her.

However, last summer, there was this orange-striped kitten who was coming by the house, and it seemed to be a stray. It didn't go near any of the other houses on my street, and it kept coming back to the back yard. Over time, me and my mom fed this little kitten from afar because it didn't have anyone. Eventually, it started coming in the house and took a liking to us. A couple months later...I would say we adopted him, but he pretty much adopted us. We named him Rascal because he's a bit of a troublemaker. At first, he lashed out at times toward mom and once at me, and (even now) he sprays different parts of the house. Thankfully, we're getting him fixed soon now that we have the money.

But now, on to the real problem...the neighbor's cat.

First of all, we do not get along with our neighbors (a couple with three kids). This lady has had at least a dozen cats since she and her family moved next-door back in late 2010. They have had a couple female cats they kept letting get pregnant, and at least half of these cats have ended up as strays. The cat they currently have is this really dark brown (almost black) striped cat that is slightly smaller than Rascal, but...is far more aggressive. They are both tomcats who try to tear each other apart when they see each other. And Rascal gets a bit aggressive when we don't let him outside from time to time. But when he goes outside, the neighbor's stops him from coming back in and it gets pretty bad. He's actually taken a tiny sliver of the tip of Rascal's left ear off, and today Rascal's ears were literally covered in blood. Oh, and it doesn't help that the neighbor's cat is trying to come here as well and sneaked into the house a couple times and ate Rascal's food. Now, the cat is fighting Rascal for his territory, and the neighbors just constantly leave their cat out almost all the time.

I cannot stand to see him go through this anymore. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ms. Freya]

Thank you for taking rascal in and giving him a chance. He's lucky to have found you!

I'm annoyed at your neighbors for not being responsible with their cats, though.

For Rascal, the neutering will definitely help as it will diminish his desire to fight and act like a tomcat. It might also make him less of a target when he' outside because his hormones will no longer mark him as a potential rival.

Other than that, is it possible to keep him indoors or build him a closed in enclosure to allow him to go out, but not access the neighbors cat? Even a screened porch would be a good solution, otherwise you may want to supervise him while he's outside, just to make sure the neighbor cat doesn't attack him. Sadly, if they're that cavalier with leaving their cat un-neutered and outside like that, it's also likely the cat isn't vaccinated and you don't want Rascal to catch anything.

I know some of our members have had different solutions for keeping neighboring cats out of their yards and I'm sure one of them will be along soon with some ideas.

 

[tonyb500]

I literally just saw something that disturbed me...a trail of blood and bits of Rascal's fur leading up to the house and more cuts on his face. And there's bits of the neighbor's cats fur, but it's almost all Rascal's fur. When I saw that...I literally broke down, not gonna lie.

I can't see him go through this anymore. Mom talked to the neighbors and they apparently are not going to do anything about their cat attacking Rascal. And every time i try to leave Rascal in, he goes berserk. As for the idea of a screened in porch, I may have to consider that. Although we get a lot of snow and ice in the winter, and outside there is almost nothing but a ton of snow and ice right now.

Also, found out that Rascal likes going on the roof of the house moreso than wandering around outside.

These are just the updates I have on the issue.