4a.m wake up call

lycopodium123

I've just moved into a new house and every morning at 4a.m, the neighbourhood cats start going crazy, growling, howling, whatever you call it. its driving me insane. i have 2 cats of my own and they seem just as pissed off as i am!
not sure who owns the cats, one has a collar on him but he's quite aggressive (and he seems to be the instigator) so cant get close enough to get a phone number, the other one doesn't have a collar but seems friendly enough so dont think it's a stray.
i know its a stupid question, but does anyone have ANY ideas as to what to do to get them to stop, or to even get them to do it somewhere else?! its really driving me mad. i love cats so i would never do anything cruel to them, although i have tried throwing a cup of water at them (and missed!) but they run off and then just come back and start all over again a few mins later....and the next morning, and the morning after that and the morning after that.......! little feks!

star-pants

Would it be a case of those neighbour hood cats being territorial towards yours?
Have yours been out much since you moved in?

Not much you can really do AFAIK, I mean you could try and get the contact number and mention it to their owners but unless they're going to keep them in, there's probably not a whole lot they can do either.

tk123

Maybe the old tennants might have been giving them their breakfast around this time?

Silver33

This sounds so familiar! I have two cats. One of which is a little "strange".. wild almost... she has recently started hanging out with two other cats whom I never seen before... they are like a pack of wolves! My little one
and these two butch cats.. well at night they have started howling outside. I've made sure my one is inside since then at night... So last night my cat is indoors and starts running around and climbing up on shelves waking the whole house!
She is neutered but has gotten more "vicious" of late.. hissing if she even passes by you... she bites and snarls like a dog!!! Its like she is reverting to a wild cat...
I'm now thinking neighbours will be thinking my two cats are the howlers but they are indoors... One quiet and trying to sleep - the other one causing mayhem.
Any advice on how to stop howlers outside and on what could be making my cat so agressive and bad tempered. Thanks!

lycopodium123

lol, thats so funny - its almost the exact same situation as i'm in! except my two are males - one a bit "strange" aswell, found the poor thing on the side of a road in spain when he was only 2 weeks old and yeah, i can totally relate to the odd/wild behaviour! maybe its "that time of the year" or something for them cos my other one has been acting a bit odd recently too, although, he seems to have calmed down a bit now.
whats worked for me so far is just "shoo-ing" the other cats away whenever they're around (a good solid loud clap usually does the trick) and they know now that their not welcome cos they scarper every time they see me (ok, a few glasses of water thrown in their general direction every time they started their howling may have helped a bit, but things are definitely starting to settle, thank god, cos i was exhausted wiht it all!)

Silver33

Lol. They could be related! My "strange" one was taken from her mother too early... one of the attributes I think to her being the way she is.
She is almost a year old and is not in any way settled.
I might try the water although its not ideal getting up at that early hour plus often the other howlers are across the road.. I'm just hoping they get
fed up at night waiting for my one to come out and they've give up.
My cat is also neutered so this behaviour must be to do with the tides or the moon or something lol!