Has anyone else got a problem with what appears to be a stray, mainly white (with small patches of black) unneutered cat? He's been a complete pain for the last couple of years, terrorising our cat, breaking a cat flap, spraying, etc. We've had to take our cat to the vet on 2 occasions with bad bites which have become infected. We thought we'd solved the problem by installing a cat flap with a magnetic collar so only our cat could get in but just recently he seems to be piggybacking on our cat as he comes through the flap and we're back to square one. We believe he's a stray because he cleans out any food our cat has left and leaves the plates completely clean! Does anyone know if he does belong to anyone? i've seen him in Grierson road (where we live), Tatnell and Riseldine so he travels far. Anyone any ideas what i can do about it? We're at the end of our tether and thinking about getting our lovely cat rehomed if we can't find a solution.

This post was last modified: 09-01-2013 09:29 AM by dianaruthven.

Perhaps a microchip recognising catflap may be more quickly to lock? We have 3 or 4 cats that like to try to hassle our two, but they have yet to end up in the house, but have often been seen headbutting the flap in frustration, (maybe our cats are just too quick).

I know the cat you mean, we live in Grierson too. He caused a fight between our two cats in June last year and we had to rehome one of ours as they never forgave one another and kept fighting, despite all our efforts including a consultation with a cat behaviourist. If he really is a stray and we didn't think he was because he looks so well, clearly from robbing yours and other poor cats food, you could contact the cats protection league and ask them to put down humane traps to catch him.

Hi - thanks for your reply. Good to know we are not the only ones! I did contact the Cats protection league and they offered me a voucher to pick up a trap at a local vets so it could be taken in and speyed, but to be honest i don't have the time to do this and even if it was speyed it wouldn't stop it being hungry, which it clearly is. I will talk to Celia Hammond though to see if i can trap it and take it into them, but i'm slightly worried that it might actually be someone's cat - though i'm nearly past caring about whether this is the case. I do feel sorry for the poor thing - particularly in this freezing weather. it might be better off at Celia Hammonds.

Of course if you could catch him, he may have a microchip which will identify his owner. I will keep a close eye out for him too and see if he will let me approach him because another trick you can do, if the cat is agreeable, is to put a paper collar round his neck with your telephone number written on it and a message saying call me or I will trap him and have him rehomed, that may get a reaction. He doesn't seem to come into our garden anymore, but like you I have seen him out in freezing cold weather on my way to work very early in the morning. He is either a tough boy and likes his freedom or nobody cares for him.