# Territorial disputes have changed my cat's personality



## sopranolady (May 22, 2012)

Hi, wondering if anyone has any advice... I have two kitties, brother and sister. The male has always been a lovely, outgoing, confident character who loves cuddles and interacting with people. The female is much more shy but no less friendly. We live in a terrace house next door to a household with 3 cats. Up until now there has been a truce between the two territories, and our cats have always a routine of coming in for dinner (they have been trained to come to a whistle) and being locked in at night to avoid scraps. Though sometimes our male kitty goes off on an explore for a night or two, he always comes back delighted to be home.

UNTIL... one of next door's cats had two kittens, on account of not being neutered soon enough, meaning there are now 5 cats next door! The owners let all their cats out all the time, and from a very early age, so these two kittens have been exploring with their mum in our garden, and she is viciously protective of them. Our female cat has taken to never going outside unless we are there. 

Our male cat has simply become a different creature. He is away for days at a time (no idea where), when he does come in he is interested only in his food bowl and doesn't want to interact with us. He no longer purrs (which he used to do even if we just spoke to him). If he is ever around to be locked in at night, he displays signs of distress at being shut in what used to be his safe haven. He growls and whines when we try to pick him up, and takes out his deferred agression on his sister, who is now afraid of him. When home he sleeps all the time in a tight cold ball and doesn't respond to stroking. We took him to the vet who checked him over, there is nothing physically wrong. 

He is clearly an unhappy kitty due to the territory disputes with next door, but short of moving house or re-homing I can't see what we can do! Is there anything we casn do to make his home more of a secure territory for him? Should we chase away the other cats when they come creeping round?


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## katerina10 (May 14, 2012)

This seems strange for me. I mean a whole change of attitude. It reminds of that cartood with the dogs eating spaghettti and ending up kissing each other..eheheh! But, i must ask.. is your cats neutred? Especially the male one! And have you seen the reaction of your neighbour's cat towards your cats?


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## sopranolady (May 22, 2012)

Hi,thanks for your reply,yes they are both neutered/spayed.The neighbour's cat is very persistent in trying to get into our garden with/without her kittens,if our cats are not around she will happily sit/lie in their favourite sleeping spots until shooed away.She hisses at humans as well as cats.When she sees our cats she acts aggressively (not defensively) to chase them away,growling and hissing with tail fluffed up.if there is a standoff she tends to win.We often hear fighting and recently had to get antibiotics for ours when he came in with a scratched eye.As I write,our guy has just showed up for the first time in 3 days,checked his food bowl and gone away again,no sign of recognition and ran away when we called him (he used to run over to us for cuddles).I'm convinced he's given up and found himself another family!Any ideas??


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## Kyria (Oct 29, 2011)

Aww that is so sad. You must be really worried. Im sorry I cant really give you any advice as to what to do but it sounds like he has been bullied away by your neighbours cat. When he pops in at home again why dont you keep him indoors for a few days and see what happens.. Hopefully someone will come on with more suggestions. Good luck.


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## Treaclesmum (Sep 26, 2011)

How long has he been like this?? If it's not very long, he may just take a while to adjust - kittens can be scary for older cats I think, because they don't respond to social cues in the same way, they pounce and grab tails and get too playful and the older cats can think they're serious when really they're just playing! Once the kittens are older it may calm him down?


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## Cookieandme (Dec 29, 2011)

It concerns me when people write about rehoming their pets just because there is currently a difficult situation. 

How are next doors cats accessing your garden ? If it was me I would try and stop this first. Just because you think your cat "has given up" - you shouldn't.


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## sopranolady (May 22, 2012)

I would never dream of rehoming our kitty and splitting up the brother-sister team, we adopted them from a rescue centre ourselves. I was just showing how few solutions there seem to be! 

We have lined up some bricks to block a gap where next doors' were ambushing ours, and this has led to fewer confrontations, but the gardens are all open and they just jump over the fence or come around the back! We work during the day so cannot always be on patrol - though at weekends we are pretty effective at chasing them out. Female cat has been growing confident again and venturing out a bit.

I agree that the kittens have had an effect as they don't understand play/aggression boundaries, though it is the mother that really scares our two. The kittens are getting big now though and are learning. 

I guess time could tell, but it has been like this about 7 weeks now and no sign of even slight improvement! In fact our male cat's aggression has been getting worse towards us, just last night he scratched my husband when he moved him off the bed to go downstairs for the night (part of the usual routine). He now will not tolerate any touching without a warning growl. 

He's not in pain, and eating very well, I'm sure it's behavioural, and he has just stopped seeing us as 'his' family group, or however cats view their owners. He seems scared of all people whereas before he loved sucking up to everyone. Maybe I'm on the wrong track and a person has done something to hurt or frighten him? Or could he have had a knock from a car??

Will try keeping him in for a bit and see if that helps, many thanks for your suggestions...


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## Rakys666 (Jun 1, 2012)

Can you build anything between gardens? The reason why I'm saying it is because there is this tv program called "My cat from Hell" in animal planet that is about a cat behaviorist. He goes around states helping people and stuff when their cats are difficult. Anyhow, there was a case where this couple's cat would go around terrorizing the neighborhood and it got pretty bad. His advice was to create a wall made of net(I think I don't remember) in a 45 degree angle. Apparently a cat won't climb a 45 degree angle or something like that and it really worked!

Please try to research on the program the guy's name is Jason Galaxy. Sorry I don't remember the specifics and best of luck!


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