I moved into my current home three months ago with my spayed/neutered
6 year old female cat. The previous owners had two tom cats.

In the past three months my cat has been attacked by a neighbouring
larger cat on a number of occasions. This aggressive cat has
apparently not been seen in the area before.

The injuries so far have not been too bad: scratches, bald spots, some
wounds around the neck and tail area. Looking on-line, the consensus
seems to be that cat fights are never too bad because the weaker cat
will always run away. The problem here is that the aggressive cat will
continue to chase my cat until she is cornered or I come out and chase
it away. The worst situation so far was when I followed the screaming
and found the larger cat on top of my cat, biting a hole in her neck.
The agressive cat was not particularly worried by my presence and was
not in the least bit afraid of me.

I do not know who owns the agressive cat and have no confidence that
the owners would/could do anything even if I could speak to them. What
I would like to know is whether my cat could actually be killed by
this other cat. I would like a researcher to provide guidance as to
the likelyhood of serious injury or death. If it is likely that the
situation will continue as it is then I will do nothing. If the
attacks continue and may possibly worsen (say I am not there when a
full blown biting incident occurs)then I will keep her indoors. As she
has spent the last six years in an outdoor environment happily hunting
mice I am loath to do this without checking to see if it is advisable.

Further to my question, does anyone have any advice on how I might
deal with this situation, other than keeping her indoors?

Thanks

Dear lovemycat-ga;

Thank you for bringing your question to us. 

Cats are indeed well equipped to kill. That?s how nature designed
them. Though we don?t often see such aggression in cats, they can, and
sometimes do kill other animals ? even larger ones occasionally -
including members of their own species.

I?m sure you are concerned about this bully killing your pet. That is
a real worry, but I think my initial reaction would be the diseases my
cat could get and possibly die from, or bring into my home, or
transmit to my family, etc. from being bitten by some nasty, feral,
alley cat.

Call animal control in your area (if you don?t have one call the local
dog pound or Humane Society). Many of them will come out and set a
live-trap and catch the mean critter and remove him so your
domesticated cat can enjoy his neighborhood in peace and relative
safety again.

If you simply have no place to turn to, order yourself a live-trap.
They are very easy to use and they are an ABSOLUTELY SAFE AND
ABSOLUTELY PAINLESS method of catching and removing unwanted vermin if
used correctly (I know, I own one just like this one, and I?ve used
successfully it several times. I had a problem with cats tipping my
trashcan over ? note that I used the past-tense when I talk about ?my?
problem).

PET VET SUPPLY
http://store1.yimg.com/I/allpetvetsupply_1865_26472317


When you catch the thing, call a veterinarian or an animal shelter and
find out what the options are. I don?t recommend you take the cat off
and dump him, but if you live in a rural area you might find a farmer,
a hay barn, a feed store, a junkyard, a warehouse, a fish market or a
livestock auction who wouldn?t mind having an aggressive cat on their
premises to control rats, opossums, raccoons, and other pests (or even
to repel other cats perhaps). You may even ask someone at the county
landfill if they could use a cat out there to control snakes and rats
and things like that.


Here are some links to quality live-traps:

FROOGLE
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=wf&q=feral+cat+trap
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=wf&q=cat+trap
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?hl=en&tab=wf&q=live+trap

You might have to go through some trial and error so be patient. Once
in a while you?ll go check the trap and there will be an opossum or
some other creature in it. Just keep trying until you catch what
you?re after.

Finally, believe it or not, you might try calling an exterminator.
Yeah, sometimes they can tell you what you can do as a self-help means
of correcting a pest problem. (Mine told me that moth balls in my yard
sometimes works pretty good to ward off problem cats, but I didn?t
have a cat of my own to consider though ? well, you get the idea)

In the meantime call animal control. If they don?t have a trap they
can bring out, buy one of your own. Then start calling the Humane
Society and maybe a few farmers just in case. Good luck.

I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


OTHER INFORMATION SOURCES

FROOGLE
http://froogle.google.com/



SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINES USED:

Google ://www.google.com




SEARCH TERMS USED:

Cats

Feral

Traps

Animal control

---

Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 07 Oct 2005 09:36 PDT

For our friends across the pond there's also FROOGLE UK:

CAT TRAP
http://froogle.google.co.uk/froogle?q=cat+trap

FERAL CAT TRAP
http://froogle.google.co.uk/froogle?q=feral+cat+trap

Good luck;
tutuzdad-ga

Thank you for your prompt answer and the comments from other users. I
think I shall try the live-trap option and keep my cat indoors for the
time being. Living in the UK, I am not used to the idea of an "indoor"
cat as such. No doubt this is due to the fact that we don't usually
have to worry about predators!

Cats certainly can and do kill other cats. There used to be an
aggressive, scary cat in my neighborhood who not only killed several
cats, but also killed at least two dogs. The humans who were the
"owners" of the cat didn't care, and taunted the families whose pets
were lost to this vicious animal. Finally the killer kitty was run
over by a car, and no one mourned (including the cat's "owners.")

Please consider keeping your pet inside. She is likely to live much
longer than if you let her roam.

My colleague, pinkfreud is absolutely 100% correct.  

Perhaps the following site will be of interest to you:
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/15262

If it were my cat, I would do whatever I had to do to protect her/him.
If I had that problem I'd go buy a sling-shot and give the other cat a
pop in the a$$. Trust me, you wont see that cat hanging around
anymore! :)

I wouldn't let my cat outside anymore.  There's other dangers too like cars, etc.

Be careful- here in WA there was recently a case of a woman being
brought up on animal cruelty charges for putting antifreeze-poisened
chicken in her yard to kill a couple cats (who died a horrible,
painful death).

Another comment: I used to live in a house where we took in a stray
cat who was declawed. With people, he was an absolute pussycat, very
affectionate. However, I called him the commando cat, because even
without his claws, he always fought and chased off all the neighboring
cats.

One day, he came inside, bleeding and limping. I think he got into a
fight with something bigger, like a racoon or dog. He slept for about
2 days straight, and then went back to his fighting ways with no fear
whatsoever.

I've since moved on, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's still in that
neighborhood, fighting everything that doesn't walk on 2 legs.

One can get some fairly effective high powered water rifles (not to be
confused with water pistols)

A good blast from one of those deters a marauding mog.

It is also rather amusing ambling into the local toy shop to
investigate their offerings. It really confuses the sales staff.

My 'tom repellant' proved so successful that I handed it on to an
elderly Irish lady who was trying to locate the owner of a similar
marauder.

I'm amused by the thought that she probably still stands guard with
the fluorescent orange and green water blaster that I pressed into her
hands.

An alternative would be a hose pipe rigged up to a tap that is on, and
a 'gun' style nozzle with a trigger at the business end.

Personally I prefer self contained devices, but if you already have an
outside tap and a hose, then it is worth investigating some of the
Hozelock accessories.

Ambush and deluge.