Handsome, but unwelcome
November 5, 2013 8:39 AM   Subscribe

Help me get rid of an unwanted visitor cat and calm my freaked-out felines in the meantime.

We've got a small deck on the side of our house, accessed through a glass door, with a door-sized glass window next to it. So, floor-to-ceiling glass. Great views for the cats. We've been visited almost every day in the past couple of weeks by a handsome gray cat. Our cats aren't particularly happy about it. Apollo, the big guy, went bonkers, hissing, snarling, and throwing himself at the window until we shooed the visitor away.

But when HGC visited on Sunday, Reesie, the little calico, joined in, and started fighting with Apollo. The two of them are usually cordial, and even when Apollo gets amped up and hisses, she'll ignore him and walk away. But now she's taking the fight to him, and while he runs to hide, she chases and has been getting the best of him (to the tune of at least one minor, bloody scratch on the snout).

Of course, he's terrified, and the hissing and growling have gotten worse, and she's still sometimes unwilling to let it slide, going after him. They're separated, and she's getting a checkup from the vet just to be sure there's not something more than stress from the visitor happening, but:

1. How can we repel this visiting cat? Do those coyote urine pellets work? Orange oil? Something else?

2. If your friendly cats suddenly started fighting, what did you do? How long could it take to re-integrate these two? Am I going to be locking them up separately every day for a month? I've got some Feliway that I'm hoping will help, but so far no luck.

Thanks for helping restore peace to my household.
posted by uncleozzy to Pets & Animals (13 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Just to check: are both Reesie and Apollo neutered? I mean, is there any chance HGC is lookin' for love and he thinks Reesie is too, which might lead to Apollo getting his nose out of joint?
posted by easily confused at 8:57 AM on November 5, 2013


Response by poster: Oh yeah, they're both neutered.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:00 AM on November 5, 2013


Have you tried blocking off the glass doors? Just a sheet at maximum-cat-standing-on-rear-paws height might be enough to keep them from seeing and therefore reacting to HGC. It's not optimal, but if HGC doesn't have anyone to "play" with for a few days, he may stop coming around.
posted by Etrigan at 9:42 AM on November 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


Sounds like redirected aggression - since your cats can't attack the invader, they attack the thing closest to them instead. You will probably need to separate your cats and reintroduce them as gradually as you would introduce a new cat into your household. (and, I agree that you probably need to block off the cat-level view of the glass, and maybe put a good high cat-tree up to give your cats the power position over the interloper. You may also need to use some motion-activated air-blower pest deterent to keep the invader cat from hanging out on your deck.)

Check out the tv series "My Cat From Hell" if you can, they've had episodes with this exact situation, and resolved it successfully.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:54 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]


Motion activated sprinklers are available that simply attach to a water, hose. Grey cat will be gone in no time.
posted by mightshould at 9:59 AM on November 5, 2013


Response by poster: Thanks, folks. Unfortunately there's no hose anywhere near the deck (not to mention we're freezing at night lately), so I think the sprinkler is out of the question.

I've actually got the windows blocked off temporarily (with newspaper; thankfully, my neighbors can't see the crack-house aesthetic we're rocking right now). I was indeed hoping that HGC would stop coming around if he didn't have other animals to watch. I guess we'll see about that.

I've got a Ssscat someplace, but it's sort of a piece of junk. I don't know that there's anywhere I could place it to actually frighten away a cat outside, but I suppose it's worth a try.
posted by uncleozzy at 10:55 AM on November 5, 2013


Might be worthwhile to place some aluminum foil on the stairs/in front of window, wherever HGC makes his entrance. Also, if you have any bird or squirrel feeders, remove them to make your yard less cat interesting or maybe to the side of the house, out of sight for your kitties.

As for the inside strife...Feliway? Or maybe just douse the both of them in catnip until they're too mellow to quarrel?
posted by theweasel at 11:37 AM on November 5, 2013


Can you find the owner? Attach a collar with a note and ask them to contact you and find a way to keep him out of your lawn.

Another thought: could you put your cat's used litter outside? They need to scent mark their area and feel like they own their territory. Take them for a walk outside? Something that tells HGC back off, this area is taken.

He is a pretty handsome fellow though.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:31 PM on November 5, 2013


I had a similar problem with my cat getting anxious and riled up by people walking around outside my ground-floor apartment. My ultimate solution was to apply vinyl privacy film (like this) to the windows. You could probably apply it to the bottom couple of feet of your glass windows to block your cats' view, while still letting most of the light enter and leaving your view unobstructed.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:34 PM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]


This exact same thing, complete with gray cat, happened to us last week. We woke up to our a noise that sounded like a small child being stabbed / cat dying of its wounds. Nope! Just angry cat. Loud, angry cat. That noise was horrible, and at 5am it was even horribler.

We tried to show him that it wasn't the end of the world, but same thing happened the next night. We went to our local home improvement store and bought some privacy window film and applied to to the bottom 1-3 feet. Now he can still go to a window, but at least he can't be face to face with stranger kitty at the door.

A relative had this happen also, and said that feliway plugin helped with the redirected aggression.
posted by Phredward at 5:32 PM on November 5, 2013


Response by poster: Ah! So I have a confession to make. We have a window in the shower that had some of that film on it, before we moved in, which has since worn off in patches. I bought a roll of it about a year ago to re-cover the window, but never actually got around to it. Good job for lazy home improvement!

The bad news is that they're still fighting like crazy. Bad times over here. I think I'm just going to have to try to keep them separated a few more days, maybe rotate who's locked up and who's free. I've got a Feliway diffuser cranking, and a pheromone collar for Apollo, but he's still pretty growly, so I guess we'll see how the next couple of days go. They're not used to being locked up, though, so I'm a little concerned about how that'll go.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:46 PM on November 5, 2013


Response by poster: So ... not actually resolved. Apollo has gone to live with Grandma for a little while. We tried to re-introduce them again, but ... more growling, hissing, spitting, etc. We're moving in a few weeks, and we might try to see what the entirely unfamiliar environment does, but we're not hopeful. It's a pretty lousy situation.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:07 AM on December 16, 2013


A new environment could turn things around - if you can, move in first without either cat. Get Feliway diffusers going in every room right away, and try to eliminate as many potential ambush zones as you can, then do the slow introduction & site-swapping in the new space. Good luck!
posted by oh yeah! at 7:47 AM on December 16, 2013


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