cat fight

cruais

Im in need of some advice please. Im quite upset over an incident which happened today.

We have a beautiful 1 year old cat who doesnt stray at all. She either chills out in our back garden or sits on our front windowsill looking down the driveway. We always take her in at night and when we are in the house during the day, unless she wants to go out herself.

The other day I came home from work to find our cat sitting on the windowsill as usual, but in our driveway was the house two doors down cat, staring at our cat. It ran off when I pulled into the driveway. All was fine.

Today however was a completely different story.

I was watching tv in the front room when I heard really bad cat screeches. I looked out my window and discovered my cat and that other cat fighting.

I ran outside, where it was evident the other cat had the upper hand over our cat. I let a roar but nothing stopped them. The other cat had my cats head in its mouth, like a rag doll.

I let a roar again while running to grab the sweeping brush, and when I got back, the cat was now biting my cats neck. At this stage my cats fur was all over the driveway.

I ran over and the cat hissed at me swiping its paw and walked off. I followed it down making sure it fecked off. By this stage, my cat had legged it.

I was quite worried as her fur was in clumps all over my driveway, and patches of blood on the ground.

Eventually my cat came back to the windowsill so I took her straight in, her head was wet with blood, and her neck area also had patches of blood. I managed to clean her up a little and im going to bring her to the vet tomorrow.

Im just off the phone to my mum who was shocked to hear the news and she reckons I should knock in to the owners of the cat and nicely explain what happened today and that they should pay the cost of the vets bills that we are going to incure.

Any advice? Thanks x

Mo60

I would not go involving neighbours because of a cat fight. Unfortunately cats sometimes fight and upsetting neighbours is not the best way to go - life is too short.

Whenever you see the other cat in your garden try to frighten it away without causing any harm, as you did previously. Hopefully, you will eventually frighten it away permanently.

angelfire9

OP is your cat an unneutered male by any chance?

miezekatze

Would your cat be happier as an indoor cat maybe?

I wouldn't involve the neighbours either, cat fights happen and it's not your neighbours responsibility. If your cat had won the fight, would you go over there and offer to pay their vet fees?

Teyla Emmagan

These things happen. You could have as easily owned the aggressor in this situation. Cats fight and yours has not been badly hurt. Just run the other cat when you see him in future.

Pumpkinseeds

It's just one of those things and other than you or your neighbour keeping the cats indoors, nothing will stop it, but neutering will reduce the aggression. My cats are indoor/outdoor cats and 1 of them brawls with any strange cat that intrudes on the territory. Abcesses are part and parcel of that unfortunately.

lolo62

unfortunately this is the down side to owning a cat...

something I have learned is that if there is brawling then there are territory issues going on, hopefully they will work it out amongst themselves (this might just mean your cat being terrified and avoiding the other but that's how it goes in cat land!)

a way to help with this is to allow your cat to come and go as she pleases...I used to only let my cat out at the same time and get her to come in at the same time but found that this was contributing to the problem as she was constantly clashing with the little psycho down the road

if you watch the documentary 'the secret lives of cats' it shows that one way cats find a way to share territory is to patrol it at different times so as to avoid eachother, so allowing your cat to determine when she goes out and comes in might help with this, it has for mine anyway.
getting up at 4 in the morning to let her out is a lot less painful than 50 quid every couple of weeks for anti inflammitories and anti biotics

also keep a water pistol on standby and squirt the other cat any time it comes into your garden, it doesn't hurt they just don't like it...this will help establish the boundary of your garden at least

Pumpkinseeds

Another practical way of controlling the cats timesharing the territory is with a microchip catflap. They're more solid than a standard flap, only a cat whose microchip is programmed into it can enter through the flap and it can be set only to open at certain times. That would mean you can decide when your cat goes out without having to get up and let them out in the early hours, plus they can come and go as they please.

The microchip one is the best that we've found, otherwise it can be like a door for every cat in the neighbourhood.

lolo62

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Another practical way of controlling the cats timesharing the territory is with a microchip catflap. They're more solid than a standard flap, only a cat whose microchip is programmed into it can enter through the flap and it can be set only to open at certain times. That would mean you can decide when your cat goes out without having to get up and let them out in the early hours, plus they can come and go as they please.

The microchip one is the best that we've found, otherwise it can be like a door for every cat in the neighbourhood.

this is my dream!! (or at least the recurring one I tend to have at 4 in the morning!) I rent so it would be out of the question, but if its possible then definitely the best solution, they're a great invention

Pumpkinseeds

lolo62 wrote: »

this is my dream!! (or at least the recurring one I tend to have at 4 in the morning!) I rent so it would be out of the question, but if its possible then definitely the best solution, they're a great invention

It's a marvelous invention, especially the vet mode. Although one of my cats likes to wake me at about 4am when he's come home looking for breakfast, especially if he's wet. Nothing like a wet cat standing on your head to wake you up fast.

cruais

Thanks all for the replies.

Yes she is spayed for the past 3 months. Very friendly cat, scared of strangers and she is also a mix of an indoor and outdoor cat.

Hopefully they will learn to live with eachother and the psycho cat stays away

LOL at calling to the neighbours to get them to pay your vet bills!

Seriously though, why not keep your cat indoors? Far safer...

Evan DietrichSmith

All the replies have one theme, the correct one.

Unfortunately that's cats !

You will just have to suck it up and hopefully your animal will be fine.

I certainly wouldn't approach the neighbours.

Cats are very territorial and will go bananas if another invades what they perceive is their territory.

Usually it's a Mexican stand off.. Lots of staring ,can last for an hour,bit of hissing, back arching, spitting, and throwing shapes.

Your experience,I would say is not that common.

Cats will be cats!!

cruais

[Deleted User] wrote: »

LOL at calling to the neighbours to get them to pay your vet bills!

Seriously though, why not keep your cat indoors? Far safer...

She prefers to be outside.

cruais

cruais wrote: »

She prefers to be outside.

And I prefer holidays in the sun to standing in the rain...?

You're the boss, you own your cat, you should keep her indoors permanently and that way she'll never ever get killed by a car or potentially another psychotic cat. Lots of people do it too. Protects the animal more than anything else.