Hi,

I have recently taken ownership of a (roughly) nine year old neutered male
cat. The lady who I got him from said that she had taken him as a stray
about six years ago - the previous tenants of her flat had apparently
abandoned him and he kept coming back to their front door :( She assured us
the cat was friendly and indeed he is - towards humans although it seems not
towards other cats. We kept him in for a couple of days to get used to his
new home and then slowly allowed him outdoors (under supervision at first).

My next door neighbour also has a male cat (younger I think) and herein lies
the problem. At first next door's cat would bound over the fence and just
sit on our patio. Our cat didn't like this and would start meowing and
indicating in no uncertain terms that this cat was not welcome in his
territory. This led to a couple of fights and I think next door's cat learnt
his lesson. I thought this would be the end of it as both cats seemed to
have sorted out their problems but it just got worse.

My cat does not seem to be satisfied at asserting his dominance in his own
territory and has taken to terrorising the other cat in his own garden. This
led the other cat to stay indoors but then my cat decided to take the fight
into next door's house. Not only did he beat up the cat next door but also
decided to mark "his" territory by urinating inside their house. They had a
standard catflap and at my expense I fitted a magnetic catflap theoretically
only allowing their cat access to their house. This solved the problem for
about a month or so until my cat still managed to get inside despite not
having the magnetic collar required!!

I don't want to have to keep my cat indoors so I'm hoping there may be
another solution. If anybody could point me in the right direction, I would
be most appreciative.

TIA,

s/.