[LuckyCharm83]

How best to deal with an outdoor kitty that keeps coming on my property and freaking out my delicate little indoor-only wuss-cats?

I've got 2 indoor-only cats -- spayed neutered. Lately, an outdoor cat has been spending a lot of time on my front & back porches, howling at the doors and urine-marking. (What a charmer.)

This outdoor cat doesn't have a collar, but is a healthy weight and doesn't look too beat up, so it could be someone's outdoor/escaped pet or it could be a feral. No idea.

My indoor cats are not big fans of this visitor. My male cat in particular responds by urine-marking indoors. A lovely literal pissing contest ensues whenever the visitor stops by. (I want to stress that a lot of effort has been put into ensuring that his marking is behavioral, not health-related.)

Does anyone have any suggestions for humanely discouraging this visitor from visiting? Do I treat it like a feral and get involved with the local TNR folks? Are there things I can treat my yard/porch with to keep it away?

[wireweiners]

I saw an episode of My Cat from Hell where they dealt with this problem by installing a motion sensitive sprinkling system. When outdoor kitty showed up, the sprinkler started up and gave him a shower, so outdoor kitty stopped coming around. You might also try some of the animal deterrent products they use to keep animals out of flower beds and gardens.

[cowboymom]

Hey if you go that route, look into the Scarecrow motion detector sprinkler! I can guarantee it works, we use it on deer but maybe you can use it to deter the cat.

that's a good idea, WW, I didn't think of that!

[Nicker]

Trap it in a humane trap then either take it to your local shelter or have animal control pick it up.

[mvp]

That's a toughie.

If the intruder cat is exceptionally stupid, a well-timed CTJ meeting could work. Shock and awe is what you are looking for, including a long chase.

But the cat must be stupid because this species is adept at knowing when the enforcer is around and when she is not. I pray that the cat is stupid. If he is not, you must supplement with increased terror during those few chases you have.

[oliverreed]

I had this happen IN. SPADES. at my old house. Cat belonged to next door neighbor. At that time, I did let one of my cats out - she had been there long before neighbor adopted cat from he**. He would attack her and really badly and viciously (sp?)- he was easily twice her size. So we made a deal that we'd check with each other before letting cat out. That worked somewhat. But then he started coming around and trying to get at my cats through the screened windows in warm weather. Seriously tore up my screens. And he was not afraid of me AT. ALL. He literally would not back down from me even with a shovel in my hand. They ended up having him euthanized.

[Rubyfree]

I have one of these as well- however, my indoor only cats are not by any stretch of the imagination wussies, which unfortunately means there have been some very serious efforts to kill each other through the screens.

Last warm weather season, I had some success going after the outdoor intruder like a maniacal banshee bearing a hose; that kept him away for a few weeks. When he came back again, I calmly took the dog outside (extremely well controlled- we're going for scare the crap out of him, not kill) and let him do his territory guarding dog posturing thing. I saw him a couple more times, but he very carefully kept to the back of the yard and made his way through with great speed.

If he comes around this spring, I'm going the sprinkler route.