Before we got the cats, we always knew there were about two or three cats that hung around in our garden. The homechecker asserted that our two would see off any intruders.
Turns out, it ain't as simple as that...
Bullycat #1
This is a grey and white thing and it is BIG. Really big. This morning, I saw it wandering around the garden, closely watched by Natalie, who then followed it into a bush! I hope she didn't get beaten up. Later on this morning, I saw Nathan on the picnic bench watching something intently. It was this bullycat, wandering along the edge of the grass, casually spraying a plant and then sauntering on. It drives me up the wall, but it's so big, neither of the cats would stand a chance in getting rid of it and sadly, the domestic feline doesn't do team work. They'd be a great team though!
We have the perception that the garden "belongs" to our cats, because they live in the house that the garden is attached to. Of course, cat territory doesn't work like this - the cats that come into the garden could be coming from really quite far away. But they are big, they spray and that's how it seems to be going. The cats do enjoy the garden, and I think this particular cat only does a daily patrol and they keep their distance. We try to chase it off when we see it but we obviously can't protect our kitties all day long.
Bullycat #2
This is a black and white splodgey cat. It could be Natalie's mum, the way it looks and it's also quite a lot larger than both of them. No way near as gorgeous as her, of course! This is the one that keeps coming into our garage and pounds on the catflap at night. I am wondering if it's stray, but this isn't really the kind of area that has stray cats. It might teach the owners to keep the cat in at night if we did treat it like a stray though, eh? That's just my mean side talking.
I haven't seen it spraying, and it's usually slinking along the bottom of the garden, rather than anywhere near the house but obviously it does come up right into the house. The cheek of it! I think this one is a bit worse than #1, as I can imagine it's a bit more intimidating for the cats having a bloody strange fatty cat intruding in their small amount of space. GRRR.
Had I been writing this post last night, it would end here. However...
Bullycat #3
Some bloody great ginger tom has literally turned up in the last HOUR! We got our cats in, and then we noticed him lolling on the floor outside their room. Just lolling, hanging out, in #1 and #2's territory. Right under our cats' noses. Ginger bastard.
So, I think, on the whole, our cats are reasonably well-adjusted, considering the amount of pressure they are under. Good kitties.
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