My cat has just been attacked by another in our own conservatory

Um…I’m not a townie. I live in rural Scotland.

I have had house cats for ten years now. They live happily indoors. My son in the US also has a house cat. They have foxes, raccoons and coyotes to contend with in his area which is why almost all cats are indoor pets.

As for things to try, keep your cat in. Build it a run outside. Call an animal protection agency to come and collect the feral cat. Trap the feral cat and rehome.

Btw, I didn’t call you evil. I said shooting a living being was evil.

Suedonim, so typical of a townie. We live in deepest rural France, we live on a farm, and obviously protect all our animals, but I would never keep a cat inside just so it is so called 'protected'. How about you give me some suggestions as to how to keep my cat safe seeing as you know so much about the situation. And don't call me evil, that is unacceptable. The terror and hurt this feral cat instils on ours is equally unacceptable.

SueDonim- ?

Cats have no capacity to be evil, Annifrance. You’re imposing human emotions onto a non-human creature. To shoot a sentient being for something it can’t help is pretty evil. Why not do more to protect your own cat.

Suedonim, yes a real gun with bullets. I will not have my beloved elderly Tigger terrorised and badly hurt by this truly evi l cat.

My beautiful, gentle, timid Ebony has a large mesh Catio leading from my patio doors. She can go out and nibble grass, roll in the catnip or just sunbathe safely. Sometimes she even allows me to have my deckchair in there to keep her company. We laze and watch the world and other cats go by in safety. Not everyone's cup of milk, but it suits us.
We both hope Molly hasn't come to any harm and recovers her confidence soon.

I was staying at the house of a friend of my son's (years ago) and was woken in the night by a horrendous noise in the passage. In the morning it turned out that a local cat had come through the cat flap and attacked the resident cat!

Poor Molly!

This is sounding like the plot to a snuff film

I too wish to hear more about the gun

You can buy an air blaster to leave where the cat comes into your garden. They are motion activated and cats absolutely hate them, once blasted will avoid your garden. They dont hurt the cat but scare them.

annifrance

Our lovely woosey pussy is terrorised regularly by an uber vicious feral cat. Expensive trips to the vet and he's nervous about going out after each attack. Fortunately the dogs protect him where they can. Never been able to trap it and now OH is after it with the gun. We won't have our lovely day put through this so it's curtains.

A gun???

I'm not sure if my cat was a thug, or bravely stood his ground in the face of an aggressive cat. He often developed an abcess about his face and head, showing that he faced his attacker head on.

But the amazing thing was that he developed a cry that I learned to recognise which signalled that he wanted me to deal with a developing abcess. He would stand perfectly still whilst I felt for the site of the abcess, and then let me burst it and clean it out without a murmur. He died aged 23 - I do miss him.

Flipping predictive text....

My final paragraph SHOULD have read....

I would suggest visiting the owner of the bully cat and telling them what happened 'inside your home' and that if your cat develops an abcess or if there's a repeat performance, you'll be sending them the vet bill!

I've not read the whole thread so apologies if someone had already said this....

You can buy cat flaps that are operated by a cat's microchip which would allow your cat to go in and out of the house but would stop another cat following them in, thus preventing unwanted visitors and scraps inside the house.

Unfortunately, other than the water pistol (the force of water through a hose aimed at a cat constitutes cruelty) there's not a lot you can do to prevent other cats coming into your garden short of very expensive additions to your fencing which would keep your cat in your garden and others out.

I would suggest visiting the owner of the bully cat and telling them what happened 'inside your home and that if your cast develops an Abbess or if there's a repeat performance, you'll be sending them the vet bill!

Sorry to hear about your cat. Neighbour 2 doors down has got a rescue farm cat which has managed to see off every bird from our garden. While we were away it took up residence under the bird feeder and we haven't seen as much as a sparrow since we got home. I am investing in a large water pistol.

Our lovely woosey pussy is terrorised regularly by an uber vicious feral cat. Expensive trips to the vet and he's nervous about going out after each attack. Fortunately the dogs protect him where they can. Never been able to trap it and now OH is after it with the gun. We won't have our lovely day put through this so it's curtains.

Glad no one felt the need to put any cats down - just for behaving like cats. I know of people who have advocated dogs being put down for barking. What people like this need are soft toys or robots as pets. ?

We were fostering our daughters two British Blues one was very much a cat that liked to explore and could stand up for herself, the other was a scaredy cat and never went out. The next door cat used to come indoors and attack the indoor one, twice she was bitten and needed vet treatment. We even installed a special cat flap which was only supposedly going to allow the outside one in, but it didn't work. In the end we had to rehome them.

So sorry to hear about this. It used to happen to our cat Monty- terrorised by a battle scarred Rescue cat. Monty spent 3 days up a tree - scared stiff and he was a ginger Tom! He also had nasty bites and a torn ear - very expensive vet bills because the bites went septic. In the end I rang the owner - she was so upset and as Monty wasn’t the only cat to be attacked - she took hers to the vet who told her that once a cat was sort of primed to behave in this way, it became fixed and nothing would change the behaviour - not even a warm loving home and owner. She decided to have him put down - she was shortly going into hospital and then a home anyway - but I felt a bit bad. However, the local cats were all much happier!

My mum discouraged cats by filling clear plastic pop bottles with water and placing them with the knobbly end outwards around the garden. The light reflects on the bottle end and looks like multiple sets of cats’eyes. Worth a go. Hope Molly feels better soon.

Water pistol is a great deterrent,I would use without hesitation to keep my pet safe

One of my friends is having this problem. She has two cats of her own, one is about a year old and is getting beaten up by this bully cat all the time. This cat will come into her home, sit on top of wardrobes waiting to pounce. It will eat all the food and then be sick everywhere. She has attacked my friend and will hiss and spit at her. The water pistol works as a very temporary measure but this cat will keep coming back and guards the cat flap so her little one cannot get in or out. When a cushion is thrown at her she will attack it. My friend is now going to get a soft broom to push this cat out and possibly a Nerf gun (those that fire foam bullets) as her little one is really starting to suffer,

I've been looking at conservatory door gates so my dog can look out into the (communal) garden. If the cats wouldn't be inclined to jump over, you could get one. They're called Dog-G8s, but there are loads of similar things out there.

If your cat is mostly home-based, could you make your garden temporarily intruder proof, say with a wire netting screen or something destabilising on the existing fence?