Saturday, August 29, 2009

Yikes

Today, I'm sleeping, and all the sudden I hear this tremendous crashing around in the hallway. Nothing else. I woke up and thought someone had broken in, despite it being about 9 AM on Saturday.

I fly out of the room just as B.B. Av is also flying out, and we see Nems in a full-on, knock-down, tumbling fight with another cat. No howling or hissing or little swats; they are rolling head over heels on each other.

A little background: my asshole neighbors (who are assholes for many reasons, not just this one; their kid was the one throwing rocks at the chicken) let their cat have kittens, but don't feed them or take care of them. There were five, now, a few months old, there are two. They also didn't socialize them at all, so they are feral, and now probably not ever adoptable.

One of them, an aggressive little tuxedo male (who we have been calling "the tuxedo cat") tore a hole in the screen of one of my windows and constantly tries to sneak in and eat Nems's food, or, failing that, knocks over the garbage. He also is unfixed, so he's sprayed the outside of the house, fortunately not in. He's also a mean little cat, not just feral.

Well, I chase him out whenever I catch him, but he's so quick, I haven't been able to really catch him or wet him down or do anything that is a good deterrent. Nems chases him out when he notices, but most of the time he sleeps through the invasions. He has gotten a few scratches on the face from him, which pisses me off because really bad cat diseases spread like that. I've moved the food around the house trying to confuse him, but he always finds it. Last night I put Nems's food in the linen cabinet so it wouldn't be available.

This morning, the cabinet was open and the dish was empty. I think for Nems to finally have caught this guy, he must have come in down the hallway and caught him and blocked the hallway. And they got into it when the little one couldn't just run away.

Nems did pretty good. By the end he chased the little guy out, and even kept going after him outside a little. He got a scratch on the nose, though.

I'm worried though, that this little cat is going to grow up and then really be violent toward neutered Namerovsky. And I can't find a way to keep him out. Maybe this episode will deter him.

Anyway, that was the excitement for the morning. Massive cat fight in the Mishkan. We cleaned up the fur and went back to bed. Nems came back and ate breakfast and got into bed curled up one me.

Any ideas? I can't find a solution here - the cat-away spray works for a day, sometimes. I was thinking he really should go to animal control (they do trap-neuter-return, they won't kill him) but it is sort of a neighbor's cat. And I have no idea how one would catch him.

5 comments:

Bardiac said...

If local custom is that cats go free, then they pretty much have to work their territorial stuff out themselves. Maybe repair the screen with something tougher? But he'll probably come in anyway.

And if he's getting in, it won't help that much to keep Namerovsky inside, though that would prevent outside fights.

When I lived in SA, we had a cat that would bring its fights back to the house (and the dog), and they'd tag team the opposing cat.

Midwife with a Knife said...

They actually do sell traps for this purpose. And I would say that if your neighbors aren't taking care of the cat, it's not really their cat.... I vote you trap the kitty and get it neutered. May or may not help the problem, but it's probably the right thing to do.

Sara said...

I thought about doing that...but keep imagining some weird scene, "Did you neuter our cat?"

Bardiac said...

I'm guessing they aren't looking that closely at the cat's genitals...

Dragonfly said...

Get a canine friend for Nems? :-)