Cat is bullying neighbour...

[NevillesMum]

I've recently learnt that my 7yo, neutered male cat is sneaking into my neighbour's house (70yo, 2 doors down), is stealing their cats' food, attacking their cats and peeing in their kitchen.

What can I do?? Why is he doing this?

My neighbour is really chill about it but I feel absolutely terrible. Whilst I know he's a bit of a food-stealer, I've never seen him be violent to anything so the fact that he's attacking these cats in their own home and peeing there sounds really out of character. I can't keep him inside either because he hates it... the neighbour doesn't have a chip-reading cat flap and asking them to get one feels like taking the mick.

Does anyone have any idea why he could be doing this? Other than the standard "cats are territorial"... the neighbour's house was never his territory :')

[lilynmitz]

He's doing it because he can. I'm afraid some cats are just bolder than others. Has he been neutered? That might be part of the problem, but having said that I have had several neutered cats that were just as bad.

Otherwise, depending on how bad you feel about it and what relationship you have with your neighbour, you could offer to have a microchip cat flap fitted in her house. (Obviously this only works if your neighbour's cats are chipped, which they ought to be anyway). A friend was having a similar problem with visiting cats, and fitting the microchip catflap resolved it. It will certainly be much easier than convincing your cat of the error of his ways.

[Mollycat]

There was a post from my vets on social media today about chipping cats becoming compulsory quite likely this year.

[Ruth B]

I'm on the receiving end on this at the moment, we have two possibly 3 cats that keep trying to get in.
When it was one just coming in for the left over food and a bit of a warm up and wasn't upsetting mine I was happy enough to leave well alone, better the food went in a hungry semi stray than in the bin. However when we realised that someone had started peeing behind the TV and my own golden oldie was starting to also mark the area as well, which happened to be right next to a trailing electrical socket, we realised it had to stop. First we tried preventing them going in the lounge at night, but my three were getting more and more wound up, and we were getting the call to arms at 3.00am, which didn't help out sleep patterns, so we opted for the next step, the cat flap now gets blocked at night. I made a contraption out of foam card, to fit in the catflap hole, which can then have a board put in front of it, with a heavy tool box to hold it in place, no cat is getting through that.
I'm surprised at how well mine have adapted to being kept in at night, maybe in if it was Summer, and the weather better there would be more objection, but they seem to appreciate the security. I've seen all three invaders during the day and chased them off a few times. One I'm sure is a semi stray, having talked to neighbours, the opinion is someone moved out and left him and a neighbour feeds him but won't let him in, and another neighbour lets him in some of the time, but won't feed him while he is in. They have had the arrangement for a while so its hard for me to intervene now. The other two look well looked after and i've not seen them before so I have a feeling they are new to the area and are just a bit opportunistic, (I can't say much, I have a feeling that Saturn has a second breakfast somewhere).
I've considered a microchip catflap, but our cat flap gets full sun all day when it is out and we have had to replace a few due to the plastic perishing and going brittle, the microchip ones are a bit expensive to replace every few years. The foam card block works and was cheap, just a bit of time and glue in addition to the foam card, and I hope come the Spring they will have realised they can't get in and moved on and it won't be needed any more.
In the end I don't mind them pinching food, or staying in for a warm, i do draw the line at them upsetting my cats and certainly at peeing near live electrics, I don't want to come down and find a dead cat, neither mine nor someone elses.

[susand]

You could offer to pay for a microchip catflap, since it is your cat that means that they need one. I offered buy one for our neighbours at the back after my cat went into their house, probably to pinch their cat’s food, and accidentally got himself shut in to their spare bedroom for two days! It’s a large house, the husband was there on his own for the weekend and hadn’t noticed Harvey, who was eventually found by chance, hiding under a bed.

They did get one but didn’t take me up on the offer to pay for it (well, they are loaded, much more so than me!). I would have gladly forked out though because if Harvey got in unnoticed again, just before they all went off on holiday for a fortnight, it could have been a disaster.