Neighbour's Cat.

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P - 29 Jun 2006 09:35 GMT

Hi All,

This is my first post to the group, so I hope this is the right place to
come for advice.

I live with my wife in a small 3bed room house, we have 1 female cat
(Rhubarb). We took Rhubarb from a rescue about 7 months ago, she is a
lovely little cat, 3 years old. No problems with her at all.

However, now we have a cat flap and a black cat (I assume a male) is
coming in through the cat flap during the day when we are not there and
causing havoc. He pees in the house and generally terrorises Rhubarb.
We have come home on a number of occasions to a nasty smell and a pool
of pee with fur all over the kitchen.

I don't know what to do to solve this problem. Rhubarb is too much of a
wimp to see him off! I don't want to lock the cat flap all day (leaving
Rhubarb either inside with a litter tray or outside in bad weather).
But I can't see how else I can stop this cat coming into our house.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Paul.

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Outsider - 29 Jun 2006 11:31 GMT

P <zen13325@zen.co.uk> wrote in news:44a390ed$0$1229$db0fefd9
@news.zen.co.uk:

> Hi All,
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
> Paul.

If your cat will wear a collar you can get a magnetic cat flap. It wont
open unless the collar is there.

Andy

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P - 29 Jun 2006 11:53 GMT

> P <zen13325@zen.co.uk> wrote in news:44a390ed$0$1229$db0fefd9
> @news.zen.co.uk:
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>
> Andy

Thanks Andy,

I had thought about that - does anyone here have any experience of these
cat flaps? I wonder how strong the magnetic bond is? The reason I
mention this is that I've known cats push a standard, locked cat flap so
hard that it bends and busts through the locks. It seems to me that a
magnetically locking catflap may be even weaker. They are quite
expensive too, so it would be good to hear if someone else has had
success with one of these before I invest the cash.

Cheers,

Paul.

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Outsider - 30 Jun 2006 01:44 GMT

>> P <zen13325@zen.co.uk> wrote in news:44a390ed$0$1229$db0fefd9
>> @news.zen.co.uk:
[quoted text clipped - 51 lines]
>
> Paul.

I once looked a a few of these flaps. The quality varied but I agree
they were not cheap. I would also agree the lock may be more flimsy than
standard locking flaps. If it was me I would take a good look at the
magnetic flaps available and judge yourself if they look up to the task.
I ended up not needing one as my cat at the time just learned how to ask
to be let out and in so all she needed was we slaves in the house but at
the time we had a good number of available slaves in the house.

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P - 30 Jun 2006 09:12 GMT

>>>P <zen13325@zen.co.uk> wrote in news:44a390ed$0$1229$db0fefd9
>>>@news.zen.co.uk:
[quoted text clipped - 59 lines]
> to be let out and in so all she needed was we slaves in the house but at
> the time we had a good number of available slaves in the house.

lol! Yes, cats do like us slaves to tend to their every whim. I think
I'll look into a magnetic cat flap and perhaps I'll get one soon. In
the meantime it's fortunate that I am able to be around during the day
much more at the moment to dissuade the other cat from entering the
house. So, in summary I'll see how things go; my job won't permit me to
work from home permanently though, so eventually it'll have to be solved
with a magnetic flap... (perhaps I'll have to make my own, more robust
magnetic cat flap - might even be a market for one!).

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

Paul.

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Sean Black - 30 Jun 2006 08:56 GMT

>> P <zen13325@zen.co.uk> wrote in news:44a390ed$0$1229$db0fefd9
>> @news.zen.co.uk:
>>
>>>Hi All,
>>>
>>>This is my first post to the group, so I hope this is the right place

>> to
>>>come for advice.
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
>expensive too, so it would be good to hear if someone else has had
>success with one of these before I invest the cash.

We've had one (Staywell, I think) for four or five years now. Never had
any problems with it, the lock seems pretty strong. There's a little
plastic bar type of thing on the indoor side of the flap, which stays in
place unless the magnet on the collar is in close proximity to the flap,
when it is you can hear a click as an internal catch is released
allowing the bar to be pushed back by the flap as the cat opens it. It
does seem quite strong, I've tried pushing the flap from the outside in
the past, just to see how strong it was. I exerted considerable pressure
on it and neither broke nor opened.

The only problem we have had, is that one of our cats has lost his
collar a couple of times, so obviously he couldn't get back in until we
got a new magnet and collar.

Signature

Sean Black

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Kiran - 29 Jun 2006 16:29 GMT

<zen13325@zen.co.uk> wrote:

: I live with my wife in a small 3bed room house, we have 1 female cat
: (Rhubarb). We took Rhubarb from a rescue about 7 months ago, she is a
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
:
: Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

We had a similar problem in our neighborhood. BTW all neighbors are
friends and we have arranged to cut openings in our inter-yard fences
so that cats would have space to roam around without going to the
street or the alley. Problem was, some of them proved too aggressive
and one was particularly bad. Similar situation as yours.

So we held a meeting. It was decided that we still liked the idea of
all cats being able to roam through all yards, BUT each cat must still
have a home that was secure from unwelcome intrusion and it would be
alright to squirt bullies with water.

After some thought (and discussion) I adopted this policy of being very
friendly to the bully in our yard, even leaving a few morsels of dry
food out, but squirting him if he tried to enter our house. He must
have been confused (although it is no different from training your own
cat not to go to certain places), but soon he got the idea: he was
welcome to play in our yard and wander through it but not to enter the
house itself.

I do realize that this solution requires some patience and also at
least one person to be present in the house most of the time. Otherwise
magnetic doors are all I can think of.

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P - 30 Jun 2006 09:15 GMT

> <zen13325@zen.co.uk> wrote:
>
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
> least one person to be present in the house most of the time. Otherwise
> magnetic doors are all I can think of.

Thanks Kiran for the reply, good suggestion. I am around at home a
little more these days due to a project change at work, however I
probably won't need to squirt water at this rogue cat, he seems very
scared of us already (perhaps he knows he is being bad!). He will run
away if he even hears our voices. It's only when we are out that there
is a problem...

Rgds,

Paul.

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Cats Meow - 12 Jul 2006 02:34 GMT

>Hi All,
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
>Paul.

Get a dog

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