Establishing territorial boundaries
Watch this postWhen I first moved to a new neighbourhood with my cat, we found our garden was already claimed by a big black cat. He looked like he'd earned the neighbourhood bully title, strutting about showing off his battle scars. I called him Bullcat because he was very aggressive and thought he could treat us like we were his tenants. I knew we were going to have a battle on our hands because my cat, although not a bully, was determined to claim and defend our garden. I was worried for him being the smaller of the two. I tried to shoo Bullcat away in spite of his hissing and even at one point coming aggressively towards me. I found it interesting the commitment my cat Baxter had to establish his territory and defend it. He stood his ground and I was proud of him. I did interfere at times, but I may have set his progress back by doing that, and I should have just left well enough alone. There were some battles during the coming months, but Bullcat was finally put in his place. Our garden is now off limits to him. He won't dare set a paw within our fence line. Even if I step out the door and catch him in the driveway, he scampers off without a backward glance.
I don't know what the deciding factor was for Bullcat to back down and surrender the territory to his rival. Maybe he had bigger fish to fry further up the road.
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It's so hard for established cats when new ones arrive.
Cats do learn to 'time slice' and will divide up a common area by time of day, and so avoid conflict that way.
It can involve a lot of spraying alas!!!