Expert: Tina - 3/14/2007

Question
hello i was ondering if you could help me and my neighbour,we both have 2yr old sterilised male cats and they keep fighting, mine nearly killed hers today as he is a big cat. Is there any deterent e can put around our fence lines and trees to stop them going into each others yard. We have put our heads together and thought may be we can take it week about with putting them inside at night, mine was an inside cat befores i moved house he used to sleep inside at night all the time, now he has taken to the outside, her cat is half feral,it's mother is a domestic cat and its father is a feral from the bush. My cat i am not sure as i got him from the pet shop, he is quiet a large muscular cat, he is a milky ginger colour, with yellow eyes like a leopard, his fur on top is quiet course and underneath is quiet soft, he is usally a very placid cat and i dont no where he is getting agro business from please can you give us some advise, Thank you

Answer
Hi Yvonne,

This fighting is only one of the many reasons I recommend keeping cats indoors or providing a fully enclosed outside area for them. What happens when your cat goes out of your yard and finds a vicious dog, a car driving along the road, or a neighbor who put out rat poison? There are far too many dangers for roaming outdoor cats. Your cat is only doing what comes naturally to him - fighting with another male cat for domination of a small territory.

The good news is there are many ways you can keep your cat at home, and I have written some articles on the subject. The simplest is to simply stop letting him outdoors at all. He will whine at first but after a few months almost every cat adapts. Another solution is to cat-proof your yard or build an enclosure using one of the ideas in the following article... the suggestions range from plans for building a kennel-like enclosure to products you add to an existing fence to prevent cats from climbing over:

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/enclosures.html

Good luck!