# Outdoor cat harrassing indoor cats?



## QuinnCat (Jul 13, 2009)

Hi all. I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this question, as I don't know if my issue deals with an outdoor, stray, or feral cat, so please bear with me and move the topic if need be. 

We've got 2 indoor-only kitties, both spayed/neutered. Our yard and front & back porches are frequented on a regular basis by a couple of outdoor cats -- one in particular likes to urine-mark around our home, and will sit right by one of the doors to our house and yowl loudly. Charming. This outdoor cat is a healthy weight and doesn't look too beat up, but also doesn't have a collar, so I can't confirm just by looking at the cat whether it's someone's indoor/outdoor pet, a stray, or a feral. I'm not even sure of the cat's sex.

As you can imagine, this visitor does not go over well with our indoor cats. My male cat in particular has a history of urine-marking when he feels threatened by other cats (a huge amount of time and money has been devoted to ensuring that his behavior is not due to health issues). Our vet put him on a short course of fluoxetine, which has totally eradicated the behavior for now, but I'm worried about the long term when we wean him off the meds, especially if that outdoor cat is still hassling him from the other side of the door and spraying a "calling card" on our porch. I've gotten sick of this literal contest.

So now I'm looking for humane ways to resolve this issue. My instinct would be to get hooked up with the local feral TNR program and at least check whether the cat is already altered and/or microchipped. But I'm also wondering if there are ways to dissuade this cat from coming near our house in the future. Does anyone have any ideas or experiences with a similar situation? 

Thanks in advance!


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

I have very little patience for people that don't control their pets. There are products around that you can spray or sprinkle that keep animals away. There are hose end attachements that are motion detected but will go off if you walk by, too. No good in winter though.

I would buy a live trap and trap them then take them to animal control. They will hold him until claimed or put it up for adoption. If the owner has to constantly rescue his cat from animal control he might just get the lesson. I had a similiar issue with a distant neighbor's cat and asked the owner repeatedly and very politely to kindly keep his cat out of my yard. He refused so I took the cat to the pound next time he came around where he was held until the guy picked him up. Unfortunately the cat was killed by a car not long after that.


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## Zephyriddle (Mar 28, 2012)

Probably not much help for you, but when the irritating outside cats hang out on our porch and bother our cats I put the danes on leashes and open the front door super fast and let them outside. They can never actually get the cats, but 300lbs of barking, growling dogs keeps them away for a while or least keeps them away from the window and door. 


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

Maybe because indoor / outdoor cats are the norm here, there are often other people's cats in my garden. One is my semi-feral's best friend and he sometimes yowls outside when he wants her. He's a darling though and I also know his owners so I don't really mind too much.


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