when i say beating up, i really mean it. we've had one trip to the vets this week (ratehr bad bite on rear leg meant my cat couldn't use the leg), and judging by the state my other cat has just come in in, we may be back at the vets tomorrow - absolutely soaked (fighting in the rain, i guess, not wet enough to have fallen into something though) and his head and neck are absolutely covered in fairly bad cuts and bites. he's now retreated to a dark corner and has been having a very careful wash whilst purring to himself when i'm not there. we moved house so that the unmentionable man down the road wouldn't keep shooting my cats, now they're not being shot at but are probably even more stressed.

any ideas what i can do to help?

bc

Am afraid i cannot help but i am sure some wise person will be able to give advice. You have my sympathies though i imagine this must be very stressful for you and your cats. Good luck and i hope someone will be able to help x

sorry to hear about this- i can understand why you wanted to move, we used to live next to a nasty, cantankerous old man who hated cats and he often used a catapult on them, but pretended we were victimising him when we complained to the police...evil old git...one of our cats then got shot with an airgun and died, but we couldnt prove it was him - we had to move to get away from him and then the old git dropped dead anyway.

You might want to try to keep your 2 indoors for a few days with a litter tray, let their wounds heal- salt water is as good as anything to bathe open wounds, but watch out for abcesses.

It's very difficult to deal with this sort of thing when yours are the newcomers to the area and one of the existing top cats is exerting its authority..In theory, if yours have been neutered/ spayed, they should not stray far from home, but we all know that is not always the case... To ease their stress whilst indoors, you could try a FELIWAY diffuser, which is said to make cats more relaxed and less ill at ease. Cats are intelligent creatures and I think they will learn to avoid the neighbourhood brute very quickly, if they know they cannot beat it. Good luck xK

There are a few bullycats round our way too. Our cat stays in now, and once or twice a day has a sortie down the garden with me in attendance. He is 13 so doesnt mind, he is slowing down a bit. Im getting a bit sick of all the other cats coming and doing their business in our back garden though. I have put some of our cats poo from the litter tray near the entrance hoping the scent would put them off but it doesnt.

Keep him in for a while, then start to go out with him. It might build up his confidence.

PS what always worries me is that these bully cats might have some disease that they are passing on via the bites.