Aggressive Cat attacking my cat and tortoise - what to do?

[susyp]

We've lived in our house now for about 5 years - we have quite an old cat and as soon as we moved in it became apparent that a cat from 2 doors down was very aggressive and attacked her a few times. I keep her in at night now and that seems to have solved the problem mainly. It means we have to keep her in when we go on holiday as well.

However,

their cat is unneutered and for the last 5 years it has been spraying our front and back doors. It fights with other cats in our garden.

And we have just discovered that it has attacked our tortoise very badly. We saw it near the tortoise the other night and chased it off - we had heard a large bang and a miaow. Now we have noticed that the tortoise has had half its eye gouged - and scratched all its shell and tail area. Terrible smell so it's clearly infected.

I'm going to go and see the neighbours later on to ask them to keep it in at night now but I very much doubt they will - after all they haven't even had it neutered.

what else can i do?

susypx

[aquarius moon]

Hope your tortoise recovers ok.

All I can suggest is that you make him a small enclosure with secure lid & a lttle house, or buy a ready-made one.

Then he will still have access to grass etc, but the cat won't be able to get near him.

[woodrot]

drown the cat.

[fl0wer]

Get the tortoise to the vet PDQ as cat scratches nearly always get infected from dirt beneath their long claws.

Tell your neighbour you are going to have to do this as I think someone reasonable would offer to help pay the veterinary bill.

Also, about getting their pet 'done' be warned, neutering doesn't invariably stop them spray-marking territory or being aggressive with other animals nearby, so it might have already been tried.

[susyp]

I haven't been to the neighbours as our neighbour in between us apparently went to ask them to clear their gutter as it was causing a backlog of water dripping over their property and was told to mind his own business. Not sure I can be bothered to get as wound up as I would be with that response.

So I have ordered two supersoakers which I plan to fill up with water coloured with food dye - so not only will the cat get soaked hopefully their soft furnishings will equally have interesting consequences.

Cat is definitely not neutered- otherwise i would be a bit more tolerant as i have always had cats and i used to have one I could never have kept in at night - but there is no excuse for not neutering a tom cat.

susypx

[charliebubs]

If it's a male cat & un-neutered you would be able to clearly see his "bits". Can you?

Being not neutered doesn't always go hand in hand with spraying etc. they can be separate behavioural issues.

What you could do, and I know not everyone will agree with this, is catch the tom cat yourself and take him to be neutered. You can do this either at your own cost, or call the Cats Protection and see if they will fund it. If you tell them there's an entire male causing fights & no doubt adding to the unwanted cat population they will often give you a code to tell the vets & they'll tell you which vets to go to, and will cover the cost.

You just have to catch him, take him to the vets & then bring him back.

Please don't spray the cat with dye. It's not his fault that he's behaving this way. It's his natural instinct.

[susyp]

Yes I've been close enough on numerous occasions to see he is not neutered ! I don't think I could catch him myself he scares the life out of me he is absolutely huge! - a water pistol from several metres away is the best i can do - but i take your point about the dye - will see if water itself does the trick. It's worked for me in previous properties with unwanted cats but not sure about this monster cat!

susypx

[charliebubs]

Good luck Susy!

[pebblebeach]

Soak it Susy and use blue colouring like they did in Private Benjamin. (Although they will know it was you, what with the blue grass and everything!) How is this going to harm the cat?

[aquarius moon]

As written in my previous post, wouldn't it be better to just secure the tortoise.......?

[JulieP]

Poor you susyp. When we first moved here we had a similar experience. In fact the cat used to come in the catflap fight with my cat and spray in the house - at which point I got a magnetic catflap to stop it. However, I hated the fact that the garden always stunk of P**s.

It is no longer around now. I don't know if it is because:

1. We had a period without a cat, then got a very male (although neutered) cat from the rescue centre.

2. Next door's female cat was neutered which meant the cat was no longer attracted to our garden.

3. It came to a sticky end as I expect cats like this are probably more likely to do.

Don't know if that's any comfort.

All I could do while it was here was to shoot it with the water pistol and hiss loudly at it.

Interestingly when the Celia Hammond came here to assess our house they told me if the cat came back to call them and they would trap it, neuter it and return it. I asked if this was OK to do even if the cats have owners and they didn't seem to have a problem. Might be worth giving them a call - although as Charliebubs says, it might be ingrained behaviour now.

[pebblebeach]

aquarius moon Wrote:

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> As written in my previous post, wouldn't it be

> better to just secure the tortoise.......?

I'm sure Susy will do everything to make sure her tortoise is safe, but why really should she have to go to additional expense because her neighbours think its all right to flip off anybody who makes them aware of a problem they're creating? I don't see it as an either/or situation. The owners are unapproachable and irresponsible it seems, so maybe it's time for them to sit up and take note.

The supersoakers have been ordered and Susy, I'm happy to provide the dye in exchange for photos of the blue cat.

[susyp]

Also just to note - tortoises are not happy in a small pen - he would go nuts. He is aout 60 years old and in all that time he has been trundling around various gardens completely happily. He has a favourite bush he sleeps under which he was dug out of and attacked. We've just brought him inside for the night and he was burrowed in a completely different part of the garden to usual so is obviously traumaised.

supersoakers apparenlty have a range of 10 metres so I can position one by back door and one by back bedroom window.

susypx

[charliebubs]

pebblebeach Wrote:

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> How is this going to harm the cat?

Because cats lick themselves, this will be ingested & may be toxic. Simples.

Plus, the dye is really unnecessary when water will do the trick.

There's no need for cruelty.

[pebblebeach]

Charlie and others, I am very sorry if anything I've written in this thread offends. I absolutely have nothing against cats, we grew up with them. I did not grow up with a tortoise however, but the idea of this lovely creature having its eye gouged by this cat turns my stomach.

Susy, if you decide to go with the dye, I will be sure to check with the manufacturer whether or not any of its ingredients would be of danger to cats, feral or otherwise.

[woodrot]

My first post in this thread may have been a half heatred attempted at dark humour, my second is to quote John 11:35, raise my fist to the sky and weep tears of sadness for all of humanity for what I have read on this thread of utter , astounding, gobsmacking stupidity.

[unlurked]

1. Get tortoise to specialist vet before flies lay eggs in wound.

2. Are you sure it was the cat that did the tortoise and not a fox?

3. If cat then you need to scare it enough to stay away from your garden, whatever that may take

4. Build a "run" for tortoise incorporating bushes etc,and whatever size is needed.

5. F#?k the cat owning neighbours.

[susyp]

Yes have sourced specialist vet to see tomorrow. And given that I did not catch said cat in act precisely, and that foxes I have since read do attack tortoises- the cat will just get a pure water soaking at the least for its terrorising of my cat abd constant spraying of our doors and bin - and Toby is coming in at night from now on.

[Saffron]

Blue food dye is not toxic. But if your neighbours are already known to be unfriendly, then maybe you don't want them to figure out it was you. Diluted vinegar and water would be a more effective deterrent and wouldn't leave a trail of blue over the fence. It's non toxic, and won't harm the cat but they hate licking it off. More effective than plain water.

It's unlikely a cat would attack a healthy tortoise. (I've owned both for many years. ) Particularly if the shell looks chewed, this was likely a fox. But a cat might have been more likely to investigate the injured tortoise. All of my tortoises have had long runs to protect and corral them. Except for one who kept trying to escape, so we let him go. But he decided to come back! Tortoises can be happy in a large enough pen.

If you or anyone else takes the errant tomcat to the vet, they will scan him for a chip. It seems unlikely he will have one since his owners haven't neutered him. But if he does have a chip, the vet cannot neuter without the owner's permission. Xx