We have one male Persian cat, who likes to go to our yard and we have seen there is one male urban cat which is fighting with our Persian cat at our yard. Here are the cats below:

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We are worked about their fight, and we try to not leave them alone and prevent the Persian cat to be alone at our yard.

I think the Persian cat is more powerful than the second cat, but my sister is worried about potential eyes injuries and some disease, like tetanus.

So I asked here about finding how much their fight could be dangerous for them and what action is proper to do when they are growling and getting ready to fight?


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    The risks are going to be the risks to any outdoor cat--injury, disease, death. The proper action would be to keep your cat indoors so it cannot engage with outdoor cats which may or may not be carrying serious diseases or capable of causing serious injuries.
    – Allison C
    Apr 22 at 18:30
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    Either that or as I said in my answer down below, Get a fenced in area for your cat so the other cat will stop harassing him. Apr 22 at 18:54
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    What do cats do to mark their teritory? Would it be possible to do so in an artificial way, like dropping fur regularly in the yard? Would this help to avoid urban visitors? Apr 22 at 20:17
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    @Allerleirauh probably not. Cats mark their core territory with urine (spraying) and scent glands in their paws (scratching posts etc.). However, this doesn’t deter a determined cat that wants to take over the area. There are quite a few cat owners that have witnessed a “spraying war”. Not nice.
    – Stephie
    Apr 22 at 20:26
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    @Allerleirauh To the best of my knowledge, only unneutered males spray. Neutered males just leave a huge dump unburied when they are contesting the territory. Once they win the territory, they go back to burying their dump to prevent attracting larger predators.
    – C.Koca
    Apr 23 at 17:40

Cats are extremely territorial animals. Most of the fights break out when territory is contested. Once territory is established, they no longer fight. Cats doing small excursions to other's territory leave quickly if enemy is sighted. For example, my cat has territorial dispute with one other cat over next garden. Our garden is obviously my cat's so a fight never breaks out in our garden, i.e., challenger leaves our garden if he sees my cat. However, next garden is still contested and I wake up to screams now and then.

Cat fights, as long as medical treatment is promptly given, are not that dangerous. Domesticated cats are better fed and generally stronger than stray cats. Therefore, there is some chance the stray cat will never pick a fight and just growl.

  • Angled fences are great ways to prevent cats from getting into your garden. Make sure that spacing is narrow enough to prevent the cat from strangling himself by getting caught to the fence.
  • Cats hate smell of citrus. You can use it on the stray cat's point of approach.
  • Do you let your cat to defecate in the garden? One way for a cat to show dominance is to defecate without burying his excrement. Smell from fresh excrement deters other cats. Note that cats try to pick fights that they can win, and unburied feces scream confidence :)
  • Do you trim your cat's nails? Cats feel unsafe when their nails are trimmed. It is generally not a good idea to trim the nails unless he is solely an indoors cat.

Specific to your concerns, cats have low susceptibility to tetanus, meaning while they can get tetanus, it happens rarely, so I wouldn't worry that much about tetanus. Cats might also lose an eye in a fight but prompt medical care reduces this chance.

If I were you, I would not worry much about this. If you can't erect a fence or can't prevent the other cat by citric smells, have a few boxes with small openings around the garden. They would help either the hostile cat or your cat to retreat to if the fight goes real and you'll be alerted by their screams. Once there is a barrier between them, fights become more paw to paw action, which is generally safer for them as their fur protects them from easy cuts and scrapes that would be nasty to a human.

One final comment, most cats start chasing if the other cat retreats in a hurry. So, when they are close and scream at each other, if you come hurried and scare the hostile cat, your cat will start to chase it. In that case, the fight might occur in an area where you can't reach easily for medical treatment or where the hostile cat feels more at home and therefore becomes more aggressive. If they are screaming at each other, wait a little until they resolve the dispute cat to cat.

  • 3
    Nice to see you back on our site after the hiatus of no answers, I was genuinely worrying! ^.^
    – lila
    Apr 23 at 2:23
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    Thanks! I was checking from time to time, but there were very few questions that I could contribute :)
    – C.Koca
    Apr 23 at 2:30
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    "Domestic cats are stronger..." However domestic cats are often unfamiliar with fighting. In Greece, I've seen a pet cat on a boat being faced down by a street cat coming up the gangplank. The pet cat was much larger, but it was clearly terrified as the street cat walked slowly up the gangplank, hissing and snarling. The pet cat retreated slowly up the gangplank until it stepped back onto the boat, at which point it simply turned and ran. The boat owner then came out, at which point the street cat ran.
    – Graham
    Apr 23 at 13:16
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    @Graham You are indeed correct that stray cats have a better understanding of fights. This understanding comes both ways. They have "combat efficiency", meaning they can take down a larger opponent. Also, they are good judge of the result, so they usually try to pick up fights that they can win. House cats, however, are poor judge of the outcome. There is good chance if the boat cat stayed its ground, the stray cat would just come and growl.
    – C.Koca
    Apr 23 at 13:57
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    @Graham As a counterpoint we have a 100% indoor cat and have now adopted a neighborhood stray who has moved in with us and lives almost entirely indoors. The two had a long time to get used to each other before sharing a living space, but of the two our indoor cat was more aggressive and more prone to fighting than the former stray. If it came down to an all out cat fight maybe the former stray would have an advantage from her outdoor experience, but I'm not certain
    – Kevin
    Apr 23 at 18:24

I would mostly worry about the diseases and death of your cat. If you feel that it is necessary, then call animal control to pick up the other cat (if it isn't yours). If you know the owner of the other cat, then explain to them that their cat is attacking yours and ask them to restrain it. If you don't know the owner of the other cat, then just go ahead and call animal control.

Another idea would be to get a fence to put around your yard/land to keep the urban cat out.

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    Animal control is tricky and depends on locale. Some will do a catch-neuter-release, especially with clearly feral cats, others bring runaways to shelters and sometimes it will mean euthanasia if they don’t find a home fast enough. And not all countries have animal control or charities that step in in such a situation.
    – Stephie
    Apr 22 at 20:28
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    "their cat is attacking yours and ask them to restrain it" that's ridiculous, how are they supposed to do that?
    – Nobody
    Apr 24 at 14:37
  • @Nobody If you know the owner of the cat, then you would ask them to either put their cat on a tether, keep the cat inside, or get a fence, hence "restrain" them. Apr 26 at 12:06
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    @JosephCasey Yes, and that's what I meant by ridiculous. You can't keep cats on tethers, it's very difficult to get a fence that can contain them even if you have a suitable property and you can't keep an outdoors cat indoor.
    – Nobody
    Apr 26 at 12:38
  • You can get a fence with a lip. Apr 26 at 12:43

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