Hi, we have two adopted (formerly stray) cats, a male and female. The male is young and quite territorial - a scrapper, but very sweet with us. We just recently (March) moved to a new rental house here in Fortuna, CA. Over the last few months I've noticed a large long haired black cat in the neighborhood, who seems very aggressive and wants to fight with all the other cats. He's had a couple of tussles with William, our cat. Tonight was the worst, on our roof. I fear that this cat is much larger and more aggressive than William, and I also fear that with all the fighting this other cat does, he (I assume it's a he) might have some disease like FIV, which he could give William through a bite or scratch.
Here's the kicker: Before today, I thought this cat was just "around the neighborhood", perhaps owned by someone. But I noticed that when I chase him, he has often seemed to disappear mysteriously in a passageway along one side of our house. Today I discovered that there is a way under our house in just that location - I think he's living under there. That would explain why he's around here so much, and also why he's fighting William - they have the same territory! Bad situation.
Now I don't want to hurt this other cat. I fear if we trap him (even if we could - hard to get near him) and take him to the shelter, he might be seen as "too feral", unadoptable, and they might put him down. I don't want that. But we can't leave him living under our house, after this fight today with William that seems obvious. They were really going at it on our flat roof. I can't keep our cats inside, they were adopted as adult outside cats (we adopted them from the street in two separate previous places where we were living) and they will go crazy if they don't have access to outdoors.
The only thing I can think of is to wait until I know that the black cat is outside, and then block off the hole under our house. So that raises the question: Would this be cruel to the black cat? I don't know how long he's been living under there. I don't know where he'd go if he couldn't find his way back in. Winter is not that cold around here (we are an hour south of the Oregon border, on the coast) but it can get pretty miserable. What I would like is for him to go somewhere else and set up a new territory there, but I don't want to put him at great risk. Can anyone who has experience of feral cats lend some advice here? What should we do about this situation?
Thanks!
Neil
Here's the kicker: Before today, I thought this cat was just "around the neighborhood", perhaps owned by someone. But I noticed that when I chase him, he has often seemed to disappear mysteriously in a passageway along one side of our house. Today I discovered that there is a way under our house in just that location - I think he's living under there. That would explain why he's around here so much, and also why he's fighting William - they have the same territory! Bad situation.
Now I don't want to hurt this other cat. I fear if we trap him (even if we could - hard to get near him) and take him to the shelter, he might be seen as "too feral", unadoptable, and they might put him down. I don't want that. But we can't leave him living under our house, after this fight today with William that seems obvious. They were really going at it on our flat roof. I can't keep our cats inside, they were adopted as adult outside cats (we adopted them from the street in two separate previous places where we were living) and they will go crazy if they don't have access to outdoors.
The only thing I can think of is to wait until I know that the black cat is outside, and then block off the hole under our house. So that raises the question: Would this be cruel to the black cat? I don't know how long he's been living under there. I don't know where he'd go if he couldn't find his way back in. Winter is not that cold around here (we are an hour south of the Oregon border, on the coast) but it can get pretty miserable. What I would like is for him to go somewhere else and set up a new territory there, but I don't want to put him at great risk. Can anyone who has experience of feral cats lend some advice here? What should we do about this situation?
Thanks!
Neil