Problem with two cats fighting over territory

by Tom
(Occ, Ca, USA)

At the first of the year I moved into a new home. The house is on 10 acres and within 100 yards of the property owners house. I have a large male Abyssinian, and my landlord has a small female gray tabby.

They are both indoor/outdoor cats.

the Abyssinian is 2 years old. The tabby is about 6 years old.
When I first moved here over 4 months ago, my cat, "Special Agent Tigers", settled in just fine and I had high hopes he would become fast friends with "Frankie", my landlords cat, as he had lived with a shy female calico at his old home and they were good friends.

Frankie keep a very low profile in the beginning, I'm sure due to the fact that I also have a dog (mellow Weimeraner).
I don't think either of the cats new the other existed; at least Tigers didn't know, I'm sure.

Now, in the last few weeks, they have met and it has not been good.
They have tussled a few times, and Tigers is the aggressor.
Frankie will now not go outside and she is taking a beating and not at all happy with the developments.

My feeling is Tigers assumes this is his territory and is defending it. I was hoping it would work itself out and they would come to an understanding, but Tigers is not letting up. Can you change a cats sense of territory? How do you go about modifying their behavior?

Any suggestions on how to stop the aggression would be greatly appreciated. This is creating problems for myself and my landlord.

Thanks in advance!

Reply
Hi
Sadly this is a common problem. cats do not necessarily get alone with each other and there will always be territorial issues which cats sort out via fighting etc. You cannot dictate a cats territory i'm afraid unless you restrict it using enclosures etc.

usually if someone has two cats who don't get along you can try a period of introduction but this only applies if the cats are both yours.

So unfortunately there is not a lot you can do if both cats live close together and share a area. What will normally happen is that over time the two cats will sort out their differences and come to some sort of arrangement. which may simply be that they avoid each other.

I assume both cats are spayed /neutered as if not then this will cause extra tensions.

Hope things work out for your all soon

best wishes kate

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