Not sure where this should go really, as it's about stopping strange cats coming into our home but it also covers the dog not doing a thing about it!

I put a lot of work into Buster as a youngster to teach him that he mustn't chase cats (he instinctively chased them as a pup, with a view to play with them).
He's a complete super-star when he's out walking, all the local cats know he's no threat and won't move out of our way if they're sat in the middle of a path, Buster will carefully step around them. You can see by his body language that he desperately want to greet the cat, his tail is swishing but he's got so much self-restraint I don't have to say a word, he'll force his gaze elsewhere untill he's passed the cat (then look at me for a 'good boy' biscuit!).

Any cat that enters our garden is completely ignored. Any cat that enters our house may get an inquisitive glance form Buster, or a welcoming tail wiggle while he puts on a very happy "hello there, welcome to my home, I want to be your friend" face.

Recently an entire tom cat has been hanging around (my female cat is spayed and does not like this tom, but she's increasingly ignoring him). The tom seems more interested in seeking human company and trying to make himself at home in our house. Hubby found him in our hallway yesterday, sitting 2 ft away from Buster (who was calmly sprawled out on the floor watching him). Later in the evening the tom strutted into our livingroom while we were in there, mewing his head of. I tried to 'gee-up' Buster to get up and go to see the cat (knowing he only has friendly intentions, but hoping the sight of a huge approaching dog would scare the cat out for good) - all Buster would do was look at it wagging his tail in a happy manner. I walked towards the cat and it just mewed at me, I wafted my hand and told it to go away and it wandered back out.

We shoo it away whenever we see it, but not in an aggressive manner - it'll go away when we tell it to.

I don't know what to do. We don't want this cat in our house, but it's getting braver - it's just wandered into my office upstairs!!!!!

We had the complete opposite problem with our last dog, who would chase cats with a veiw to 'terminating' them and it didn't take long before no cat would dare step foot in our garden, let alone our house (thankfully he never actually managed to catch one).

How on earth do you stop a cat entering your home?? Keeping all the doors and windows shut is obviously going to work, but it's not very practical now the weather is warming up, I like to leave my back door open (I also have a cat flap), I don't want to feel like a prisoner in my own home.

Is it too mean for me to get a water-pistol and squirt it? Or any other ideas please, this cat is doing my head in (he's even got my husband saying "ahhh, but that cat is cute - it's so cheeky" and hubby isn't a cat person!)

I was going to suggest squirting with water. :) Any cat allowed to wander everywhere WILL encounter unpleasant experiences, that's all there is to it. They also tend to hate "psssht" kind of noises and that's how I quickly move my cats. My cats all love to sleep on the big mat in front of the back door, which isn't so practical when you need to open the door to let the dogs in or out without the cats getting stepped on, so I go psssht pssht and wave my arms about and they have very quickly learnt that they need to shift out of the way then. In fact I have even trained two of my cats to leave the kitchen on command. I started by shouting "get out" and clapping my hands and chasing them -these two tend to get fed an extra meal in the kitchen away from the other cats and therefore spend a lot of time in the kitchen and again at times I need them out of the way. All it took was a few times of chasing them. It's not put them off coming in there, but now I can say in a normal but firm voice "get out" and they will leave. I'd have thought a cat that doesn't live with you, that isn't 100 % secure in the surroundings should get put off enough not to come back if you squirt water and shout as well. Sure he won't like it, but then if he's going to wander around outside he will need to learn to stay away from dangers.

He may be cute, but he 'belongs' to someone else, so it's best not to encourage him ;-)

It's not mean to use a water pistol, all it hurts is his dignity ;-)

Personally, I'd use a water pistol.    I'd also use a handful of dried peas/dried rice/small coins, and chuck them each time he came in.   The problem with both of these is that the cat knows its you and will simply sneak in and avoid you.   So try to remain hidden if you do this :-)

It's possible to set up a door trap which would tip water on the cat/dried peas/dried rice/coins  without you being there.  By just leaving the door ajar, the cat has to move it to come in, and gets showered with water/peas.  Should send him the message to stay out.

Re the windows, you could put insect excluding nets up and keep him out that way?

It's a pain though, especially since you have a dog and cat of your own and don't want to upset them   :-(

Do you have a small dog you could borrow for a day or two,  might give the cat the message ;-)

Water pistol was going to be my suggestion too :) It won't do him any harm but he won't like it

>Is it too mean for me to get a water-pistol and squirt it?

Even Cats Protection recommend the use of a water pistol to deter cats, so you've no need to worry on that score. :-)

Thanks everyone - water pistol it is then :)

I think I'll also keep some dried rice handy in the garden, so as soon as we see him trying to get over the fence it can be lobbed at him (loose rice, not a bag of it LOL), that should also make quite a racket against the wooden fences.

Dill, yep we are not encouraging him at all, despite his very endearing 'mew' and the cute little face he gives us :)

We had a similar problem last year with a very young cat/kitten, but he was much easier to frighten away and it only took a week of verbally shooing him away before he gave up. This tom is fully grown, rather brave and VERY persistent!

I think I'm in love with Buster ...

Yes, I agree about the water pistol method and Marianne's 'phsstt' noises.  Hope it works for you.

Have you considered a magnetic cat flap/cat collar so that the flap will only open for your own cat?  It wouldn't solve the problem of open doors and windows but it would help at times when you are out (or asleep at night!)  We resorted to one of these years ago when we had a very bold feline visitor who used to come in at night.  Our own cat was frightened of him.  He used to stroll around the house and one night I woke up to find him sitting on the bottom of our bed staring at me.  Eeek!

Good luck.  And a big hug for Buster from me!

Sympathise........... having a similar problem with a very persistent Tom too. :-(

I've even done the water pistol, the cat gets chased out by my girl and attacked by my Tom, (the other male let's him come in, always one :-) ) but the cat knows if he comes in he has a chance of being squirted, chased or beaten up by one cat, doesn't stop him........ the blooming thing even sprays on the cat flap, the most annoying thing for me, and not just a spray he almost empties himself on it.

I know where he lives he cuts across fields to get to us, no idea why he keeps coming back, I used to leave cat biscuits down for my two to chomp on during the night, but have even removed them over a year ago, but he still comes, I guess he lives in hope. ;-)

Darn nuisance......... and I like cats.........  :-(

Hopefully the water pistol will work on your 'intruder'...... this one must be really stupid. :-D

> Have you considered a magnetic cat flap/cat collar so that the flap will only open for your own cat?

It's a possibility, but I'd rather not put a collar on her if I can help it. I'll see how being 'hostile with projectiles' works out!

Buster says thanks for the hug and he can't see the problem if we have strange cats visiting!

Oh no Carrington, your intruder is persistant  and tom cat spray stinks :( :(

Our intruder has had a small plastic bottle cap chucked at him in the garden, it landed next to him so he happily investigated it then walked towards me 'mewing' - I then chucked a glove at him whilst hissing and stamping my feet (LOL, I have gone past caring what the neighbours must think of me!) and he did scuttle off.
I came inside, back up to the office only to hear him mewing at my office door to get attention I chased him out of my office and lobbed a rugby shirt at him (the first safe thing that came to hand). He ran to the bottom of the stairs then calmly strutted into the living room to 'mew' at my husband, so I chased him outside and made sure he left the garden. That was 30 mins ago and he's not been back, so fingers crossed he wont be toooooo difficult to deter, if I keep up the OTT shoo-ings off.

:-D :-D Working for now then? Keep it up.

Hope yours' get's the message, yep makes my cat flap stink, have had to change it twice, why he is territorialising it is beyond me, my home is nowhere near his....... I have no female cats, and certainly like you, not even a stroke or any sign of friendliness to entice him, would really love to just close it up on a night-time,  but both of my cats like to go out and come back in on a night, the stubborn side of me thinks why should my cats suffer because of this one and be made to stay in.

Also do not like collars on my cats, mine are up in trees, roaming countryside and in bushes so don't want them getting snagged on anything, tbh when I did use to use collars they only lasted a few weeks, always got pulled off anyway. :-)

Humph, I just have to live in hope, that he will give up coming some day.........

Fingers crossed for you. :-)

http://www.sureflap.co.uk/products/details/1-microchip-cat-flap what about a cat flap that only works off your animals microchip 😊

Justine, you're a star, love it.......... this will do us both ML, never knew such a thing existed, thank you. :-)

> a cat flap that only works off your animals microchip

Oh brill, what a neat gadget :-D Thanks for the link.

The chip flap is great and should work fine. Until then you could try completely washing the cat flap area, rubbing over with surgical spirit and when that's dry douse liberally with citronella oil ( don't let your boy sniff this). Most cats hate citronella oil- so keep wiping area with the oil for next few weeks.

Buster is a star, wish you could post a video of him doing his welcome to my house face. Also can't blame the cat, he sounds quite a confident character and don't you realise he has now annexed your house as part of his kingdom- he's got his sign up on your door. Buster's welcome must have done wonders for puss' ego!

Lol no probs! We board cats and alot of my customers have the same problem. Great idea! Not cheap but saves a load of hassle.

Bit of a breakthrough :-D

The tom does not appear to know how to use the cat flap, so simply keeping the door shut when we are not near it is working well!

Secondly, we're finally managing to get Buster to actually go and greet the cat - which is scaring the cat away. With a LOT of encouragement and 'geeing up' Bust will walk towards the cat most of the time, he'll give it a welcoming happy face, tail wag and then slam into a huge play-bow. The cat is now associating Buster with the 'terrifying' play bow, so Bust is actually turning into a cat-deterrant, without being a cat-hater. YAY :-D

Also we've found that by actually ignoring the cat when it's mewing at us in the garden (rather than shouting at it or chucking things - which he wasn't actually very bothered with), is working far better, he seems to get fed up when he gets NO attention from us, so will wander off.

Will Buster bark on command? I can get Nando to bark (usually he yips every time he sits anyway!!) but look at me at the same time. That way you're not encouraging him to bark at other cats. If he barks at you, I imagine the noise alone would scare most cats away??

Or we can swap.. he won't come back if he encounters Nando!