Stray cat at my house...

[Sara luvs her Tinky]

I know some of you have read about the gray stray cat that has been coming around at my house... and things are getting bad with him...
He doesn't come around as often as he used to he comes around about every 7 - 10 days and Tinky sits at the door and practly screams... she is growling so loud and makes this terrible screaming noise.. Well the other morning I woke up from her carrying on and I looked throught the blinds on the door and I caught him lunging at her.. like he wanted to attack her.. Is that normal? This morning he was back and I managed to get a good look at him before he ran away and he looked so mad and he keeps lunging at the door... It is so terrible!! It makes me so sad for him.. I pray that God will find him a happy home cause I don't think I will ever be able to catch him. It makes me so sad. Why is he so mad? Is it because Tinky acts so crazy when he comes around or is he sick maybe?!?! I feel so bad for him!!! HE IS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL CAT! I used to think he might me tame but I am starting to believe he might be a feral cat!! I wish I could help him! I hope the poor kitty is not sick. Does anyone have any idea why he might be lunging at the door or is so angry?:( :(

[yorkster]

I'm not sure why he/she would do that, but I think it might be pretty normal. Even cat's that are tame will get kinda wild when they are out and about.
I'm sure Tinky is spade, but if not maybe that set him off...............

Too bad you can't catch him and then you could have 3 cats! He-he-he.

You could probably get a trap from an animal rescue place- I think they will loan them out to people.

[sasvermont]

You may want to squirt some cold water on him the next time he comes around to your door. It won't hurt him but it might discourage his closeness to your cats and door. If he is a stray, he could be ill and you certainly don't want your kitties to tangle with him through a screened door or window. They can still get claws to each other through the screens. Have you thought about having animal control trap him and take him away? It may end his life, and yet if he is sick, you don't want him to be spreading any disease that is contageous. I don't want to frighten you though. He could be the neighbor's cat!

Keep us posted!:eek:

[Ann]

I personally think it's pretty normal... I mean, if someone was sitting and hissing at me behind a door I'd be pretty mad myself...

Sorry that you're having such troubles, I too hope that he will find a good home

[Heather Wallace]

I am not sure what you can do about your stray freind, we also have a cat that come tothe house but her is quite friendly.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

This is exactly the same thing that happens around our house with "the nasty neighbor cat." He was coming around regularly for awhile and it was bad. We have the big windows that go down to the floor and they are actually doors so on the outside there is a step. The nasty cat would come and sit right on the step right on the other side of the door. Tubby would immediately be on it and sit at direct attention on his side of the door, Peanut would sit a little further back (she's a bit more timid and not as territorial). I really don't know the details of what would happen because we were either upstairs when this happened or asleep, but eventually the outside cat would get Tubby so wound up that he would attack Peanut because he could get to her and he couldn't get to the outside cat. So there were many, many nights when we were awakened by screaming/hissing cats - right in our own living room. I would bolt out of bed and yell at Tubby to stop it. He would let Peanut go but there would be tufts of hair everywhere from the fight. I would have to get Peanut out from under the chair where she ran to hide and bring her to bed with me to calm her down. Anyway it wasn't pretty, I wasn't at all happy, and Peanut was stressed to the point where she licked the back side of her legs clean. I called the humane society and they offered no help. There is no animal control where we are so the humane society suggested a trap, but this was long before I joined Pet Talk and I had no idea where to get a trap, how to go about it and what to do with the cat once I trapped it, and I found out it was the neighbors cat so I didn't want to trap it either. One night it was a beautiful evening so I had the back door open with the screen door shut. Terry was out of town and I was upstairs watching TV. Don't know what prompted me, but I ran downstairs and sure enough this nasty cat was right on the other side of the screen door in a face off with Tubby! He ran as soon as he saw me and I was so mad I marched right over to the neighbor's house and told them off. I told them if they didn't keep their cat under control I would trap it and take it to the humane society so they had better keep it indoors if they cared about it at all. Now you guys know I love cats and would never do anything to harm one, but I was so mad that this one was causing Tubby to attack Peanut like that, and I had had enough of it.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this because it still upsets me, but eventually what I did was put paper over the windows where the step is right outside. This still leaves windows for them to look out of, but no other critter can sit nose to nose with them anymore. Doesn't look that good in the living room, but who cares? And for the one step that goes off the kitchen to the patio, which I couldn't bear to cover up because it is one of Tubby's favorite spots, I got one of those things that makes a certain noise that the cats don't like. You set it to different pitches for different critters from cats & dogs all the way up to raccoons, opposums and deer and such. It cost about $50.00 or so, and I was skeptical if it would really work or not, but it must because we haven't had a problem since I got it. It is battery powered and works on motion sensor so the batteries don't wear out too fast. I still see the cat around in various other places, but never see him in the immediate backyard anymore.

I got this thing from a catalog, and this same catalog has similar devices that work on motion sensors but shoot out a strong spray of water instead of making a noise. I don't remember the name of the catalog, but we still get them so if you're interested I will post the name of it next time we get one, unless I find one laying around the house somewhere.

As for trapping it, or otherwise trying to help it besides just keeping it away, maybe if you try feeding it, and putting the food someplace away from the door so maybe it will come and eat then go away without bothering poor Tinky. And I don't know, maybe this sounds mean-hearted, but I think your first priority should be to protect Tinky and Jupiter, then, if you can, do what you can to help him, but like SAS says, you don't want Tinky or Jupiter catching some kind of disease from it because one little wimpy screen really isn't going to stop two extremely irate cats.

Oh, and something else I did was every now and then I'll take the litter boxes out and completely clean them with soap and water and let them sit in the sun and santize and bleach out to keep them clean and fresh smelling. When I do this I dump all the litter in the garbage, then fill them with soap and water. After the washing I dump the water all around in the backyard thinking whatever smell of Tubby and Peanut that is left will be spread around. Each litter box is on a throw rug and when I clean them like this, I take the throw rugs out and shake the litter that gets caught in them all around the backyard too. Anything I can do to get Tubby and Peanut's scent out there to mark the territory for them since they don't get much opportunity to do it for themselves.

Sorry this is so long, but I really hope it helps because I know what you're going through is stressful, not only for you but for Tinky and Jupiter too. Keep us updated on what happens, and I'll try and find the name of that catalog.

[Sara luvs her Tinky]

Thanks everyone for your advice...
Tinky is definatelly the territorial one.. she battles throught the door while Jupiter sits safely in the hallway.. I don't know if she accidentally attacked him because of all of this but he definatelly knows NOT to get around Tinky. I was feeding the poor guy but I stopped because he wasn't coming around as often and the food was attracting too many ants. He is such a pretty cat I wish you guys could see him. I don't know if I want to do anything to scare him away because I want to trap him and get him to the vet. I like your idea of spreading the litter and wash water out in the yard though Debbie. I am going to sart doing that.