4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Cyber Chook]

We've had Molly for three months now, and she's settling in really well. But what can we do about the pair of Bengal cats, who live about six doors down from us, who come and terrify poor Molly to the point where she stays in almost all the time now?

 

They even come and sit right outside our back door, and peer at her through the glass, yowling and caterwauling at her. Last week one of them nearly came into the house, when they were chasing Molly, who came hurtling in and dashed past my daughter. She said they only stopped at the door when they spotted her standing there.

 

Whenever I see them I hiss and shout at them and they scarper, but ten minutes later they're back looking for Molly. I wonder if they think that all these gardens are their territory? Do you think it'll settle down eventually? It's quite sad, because Molly loves going out, and spent the past year living indoors in one room at the rescue centre. She goes out if I'm in the garden, and sometimes on her own for an hour, but otherwise she's quite nervous and jumpy outside.

 

Any suggestions?

 

CAroline

 

P.S. Does anyone know where I can find an ordinary water pistol, not the sort that you have to pump up to prime, but the small old-fashioned sort? I thought I might try that, and buckets of water if I'm close enough.

[Olly]

Well you've obviously got the right idea - I was going to say, get a water pistol!

 

Yes, they probably do include your garden as part of their territory, and they will do until they learn it's a hostile place. Water won't hurt them, but a couple of good soakings will make them less keen to come into your garden. I wouldn't be above turning the hose gently on them, if it is to hand (just on the spray setting, not to knock them over!)

 

Try your local newsagents, they often have stands with cheap children's toys on and that's where I got my last water pistol.

[Redwing]

When my dog steps out of line I use the hose on full jet and spray in about a foot in front of him so he doesnt get wet but gets a shock

 

I have seen jet spray nozzles that stick in the ground and detect movement and then spray they are intended for nuisance cats

[Lewis]

P.S. Does anyone know where I can find an ordinary water pistol, not the sort that you have to pump up to prime, but the small old-fashioned sort? I thought I might try that, and buckets of water if I'm close enough.

£ shop or a supermarket in with the paddling pools

[mostin]

I think you'll need to step it up a notch from normal water pistols.

 

I have always had cats, and I adore all puddys, but I have always told my neighbours that if my moggies are being a nuisance in their garden then they can feel free to get my cats as wet as they like.

 

It only hurts the cats pride, and all cat owners know, that that is the worst thing you can do to a cat .

 

Our local bully cat, nick-named "The Bear", a huge un-neutered tom cat used to regularly beat up my Oscar, to the point where he needed vet treatment each time . We kept a super-soaker primed and ready to go by each door. After a few weeks of constant vigilance and attack on our part he soon got the message . We never see him in our garden any more .

 

Good luck protecting your darling Molly.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

In the absence of a super-soaker, a large syringe full of water will squirt a long way and fit through the smallest gap in a window, allowing you the advantage of a stealth attack....

 

A washing-up bottle, washed out first of course, is a handy substitute.

 

 

 

My Dad was a bit obsessive about cats in the garden when I was young - cat-squirting was one of his favourite pastimes!

[mostin]

In the absence of a super-soaker, a large syringe full of water will squirt a long way and fit through the smallest gap in a window, allowing you the advantage of a stealth attack....

 

 

I had forgotten about the window attack method , highly effective. "The Bear" got really good at legging it as soon as the door opened so we left the window opened and got him quite a few times that way .

[Cyber Chook]

This is fantastic!! I can't wait for the cats to come into the garden now :lol: . Forget the little water pistol, I'll be priming the super soaker tomorrow morning.

 

Thanks guys - I can see many satisfying sessions ahead. Who needs to pay to go paintballing when you can have this much fun for free at home? (I am truly a great cat lover, but I do seem to be getting a bit too into this...).

 

And I'll dig out or buy a big syringe toot sweet. Mr Cyber Chook is really good at sneaky window attacks: he used to fire those red post office rubber bands catapult-style at the grey squirrels who came to the bird table, and is a great shot (reluctantly I wonder if that's a bit of a boy thing, being a bit pants myself).

 

Caroline

[mostin]

Have fun and let us all know how it goes . Your darling Molly deserves to be able to relax in her own garden .

[Alis girls]

Our ginger tom gets picked on a lot and had an abscess from one encounter. Our tabby gives a bit more verbal, its strange we have named our local yob cats "Panther" a hnadsome huge tabby but looks menacingly in at us, our neighbour says he gives her the creeps and "Fluffy Brown" - long haired brown cat. The kids enjoy rushing out and yelling abuse at the bullies who flee at top speed. I can hire them out to you for a small fee!!

[Cyber Chook]

Why thank you, Nochucksyet, I'll let you know

 

Sadly, the SuperSoaker is all primed and ready at the back door, and of course we haven't seen the bloomin' critturs all weekend

 

I can't wait heh heh heh

 

Caroline

[bellekatz]

Personally I have used the whole bucket of water approach in the past

[Aunty e]

Personally, I've used the lob a brick in their general direction (not at them of course) technique a few times. It makes me very very angry when the local yob cats beat up my helpless little Saffy. I haven't seen Skank the Feral Tom since a brick landed a foot away from his head.

[Ziggy]

I've been following this thread carefully for the last couple of days, and I hope no one will mind my adding a question to it...

I have 5 cats myself and I guess it goes without saying that I'm a cat lover, and like others have said here, I'd find it perfectly fine for other people, neighbours and so on, to take appropriate (not harmful or cruel) methods to chase my cats away. We have a huge house and garden, and each cat has taken a different area and room as territory, so they really don't need to invade the neighbours... Thankfully my cats seem reasonably gentle and the neighbours are very tolerant of them and very friendly to them...

My problem also comes from another tom cat, from across the road, who has in the past chased my cats in our garden, following them right into the house, and is a bit of a bully with everyone (my kids got scratched by him... he is the same colour as two of our cats and occasionally they don't realise it's him when stroking him... BIG mistake)...

 

We don't see him in the garden in the day time any longer, but now we have issues at night. I like to leave the cat flap on 'in only' at night, so I get a chance to see all the cats in the morning, know they are all around and healthy and safe, like daily count and check before they disappear in the garden and neighbourhood (two of them roam a lot, the others stick around). Problem is, bully cat comes in at night, eats here, and then gets stuck in! The clever thing then opens the door to the entrance hall (something my cats have never realised could be done, and never managed to do), and comes miauwing upstairs... I have to hush him downstairs and let him out the front door, being careful not to handle or touch him as he appears all cuddly-miawy, but when touched can lash out...

 

I have had to leave the cat flap open at night, which I don't like, as my cats now go in and out all night and I can't help worrying about them, but this way the bully cat doesn't get stuck in and/or come upstairs... I am not very keen on throwing buckets of water around the house, especially at night, or soaking the whole place with a gun...

 

We got a magnetic cat flap to try to remedy this, but the doors are metal and the battery inside the cat flap drains in 24 hours (tried two different ones and quite a long time on phone to their helpline, with end conclusion of 'give up'), so my cats then get stuck out!!

 

Has anyone here got some crafty suggestions which wouldnt involve me sitting by the catflap all night with a water gun at the ready?

[Cyber Chook]

 

We don't see him in the garden in the day time any longer, but now we have issues at night.

 

Hi Ziggy, what a shame. Well, no doubt someone with experience will come along soon with a sensible suggestion, but in the meantime, I wondered whether it would be an option to keep them in at night? I was thinking of the local wild bird life really, alongside the problem of the fighter cat.

 

I know the RSPB suggests that if we keep our cats in at night, it would help birds and frogs etc, because most of the hunting/carnage goes on at dusk and dawn. I keep Molly in at night partly for this reason, as I'm a great wildlife lover, and partly because then I know she's okay and safe from other cats, and the main road nearby.

 

If yours are used to being out, or it isn't practical with so many, I guess this might not be a good option for them?

 

Hope you find something helpful here

 

Caroline

[mostin]

That is a tricky one Ziggy, I'm thinking very hard and will get back to you if I have any bright ideas.

[Chucky Mama]

Ziggy, there is a cat flap now called the Pret A Porte, it is activated by a cat's ID chip rather than magnets. I dont know if these may be better than your magnetic cat flap.

[Olly]

I had a magnetic cat-flap at the old house that didn't have a battery - it was just a magnet on the cat's collar, which caused the opposing magnet in the flap to move and allowed it to open. There's a similar one here.

 

That does sound like a problem. I had a cat coming in like that once and eating my cat's food, I deliberately set the cat-flap to 'in only' and caught him in the kitchen and he was so scared that I don't think he came back again. This one sounds a bit of a tough, though!

 

No bright ideas, I'm afraid - the micro-chip catflap sounds brilliant.

[Aunty e]

We had terrible problems with feral cats breaking into our house, eating the food, raping our girlies and beating up our boys. I tried the magnetic approach, but I found the flap a bit fragile and one of our queens managed to smash her way out when she was in season. Also, with six or so cats, it got very very expensive to keep buying the bobs and I hate collaring my pusskies, so in the end, having decided the pet porte wasn't for us thanks to the need to keep it plugged in and THE COST, we went for the sureflap

 

http://www.fearing.co.uk/product.cns?pID=2107&cID=46

 

You might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere, we were desperate at this point. It's been a dream, I love it. We've had it installed for about six months and haven't had to change the battery yet with a lot of inning and outing from our mob. We've had one incident where another cat has tailed one of ours in, but I think they were chasing each other at the time. It's not happened again. The only additional cost is getting new kitties chipped quickly (not a big deal as it just means getting them done sooner rather than later), and when I added up all the money I spent on collar bobs for the magnetic catflap, I think it worked out the same.

 

Speaking of which, does anyone want a magnetic catflap and a whole bunch of collar bobs? It's not in perfect nick, but it does still work. Some of our bobs are big ones as we found that our large cats could activate it with the small bobs thanks to their BIG heads. sigh.

[Ziggy]

The microchip flap sounds fantastic...

 

Will have a word with OH about it... what I like about it best is that if the cats lost their collars they could still get in and out... but wonder if the metal doors could somehow drain the batteries like we had with the magnetic ones.

What happens if a cat that is not mine but is also microchipped tries to get in?

 

The non-battery operated magnetic flap could be the other way to go... I can't quite remember why our magnetic flap needed batteries, but it did, and when the battery was flat the flap wouldn't open...

 

Ummmm... thanks everybody

 

I would be happy to lock the cats in at night, but with all these flaps issues they have been used to roaming and I'd be up all night waiting for them to be all back in... also in really hot weather we have to leave some conservatory windows open at night if we don't want to literally roast at breakfast time (and I'm sure the cats would dislike how hot it would get too), and they manage to get out.... ummmm... maybe we should put mesh at the windows...

[Aunty e]

Metal doors are mentioned here

 

http://www.sureflap.co.uk/FAQ10.htm

 

You might want to read the manual to check what they mean. I do feel better knowing that pusskies can't get locked out, and also the noise that it makes locking is quite distinctive, so I can hear when they come in at night and during the day. Lovely Evie and now Saffy were always keen on sitting in our cat tunnel with their tails poking out on this inside, watching the world go by. Scanning the cats is quite good fun too