Cat howling when alone…?

[gaogier]

So, my cats are generally happy and content on being “alone”. I am sat on the sofa now, about to put some music on the tv, where 1 cat, I don’t know where she is, but she is outside, I think she is about 7ft into the wooded area next to my house where mice and others live (it’s like a little town), the cats wait for hours just to catch something. The other cats who are in the house/garden know where I am, and as long as they sense me they go and sleep wherever.
Last Wednesday morning around 3am… I think (give or take a day and an hour) we (my mum and myself) heard a cat howling as if it was extremely hurt, (my cat dislocated his tail back in 2007) and it sounded just like that.

we get downstairs as fast as we can, found 2 of our cats now outside, and on guard, I looked on our cameras we have (both inside and out) and found a strange can come in via the cat flap, eat some leftover wet cat food, then the cat goes into my front room, where my 2 cats wake up, and chase/fight off this visiter cat, since then, whenever my cat wakes up, he howls, come back home, he howls, and so on… I don’t want him to feel like he has to fight this cat whenever he wakes up, etc, just want him to feel comfortable again.

is it something that time will solve? Can I do anything?

 

[ArtNJ]

If this new cat is not a fighter, its not such a big deal. I had two scaredy cats that would retreat to the house and howl. It was actually a good thing, because their lack of any desire to fight kept them out of fights. Although those 3 am wakeups are not fun!!

If you have the dollars, a cat proof fence or a catio (a smaller outside enclosure) is a good option. Otherwise, its really hard. I mean, you can ask around the neighborhood, but even if you find out whose cat it is, its not likely they will keep it in just because you ask. You could replace the cat door with a microchip door, but that would still allow outside interactions, and is also real dollars.

Other ideas people have are iffy. Trying to scare the cat off doesn't seem to ever work. There are some products you can buy that are much cheaper than a fence, like motion-activated sprinklers, but I haven't read many success stories.

 

[Hellenww]

Can you make sure all of your cats are inside before you go to bed and lock the cat flap overnight?