How Can I Calm My Aggressive Outdoor Cat

Our three year old male cat is quite aggressive when he is outside, but when he's in our house he an absolute angel, cuddly and loving. We have many cats on our street and he will chase after them all the time. He does not get into screaming fights but he will do quick attacks that have left scratches on other neighbourhood cats.

He was a stray and was very much an outdoor cat from the get-go, so keeping him inside is pretty much impossible. Are there any alternative to calm him down and make him less aggressive with other cats in the neighbourhood? He is neutered, and has all his shots, by the way.

 

We took in a stray a couple of years ago, and she was very aggressive in the house as well. She wouldn't let anyone pet her, and would frequently bite people. She just wanted food from time to time and that was it. Unfortunately this behavior went on for over a year no matter what we did. Then we ended up taking in another cat about a year ago. Initially this other cat was very skinny and weak. But as soon as she got back to health, actually got a little too fat, she started bullying our first cat. The new cat is playful with everyone, but her and the first cat do not get along at all. As soon as this started happening, the first cat did a complete 180 with her personality and started to be much more docile and nice to us. She will now come up to us and let us pet her. Maybe if you are able to adopt another cat, it might help your original cat become more adjusted?

 

To be honest, cats tend to behave how they want to, especially if they've been a all guns blazing outdoorsy cat for some portion of their life. You can't really get them to change their ways once they've been that way, so it's best to just accept them for what they are, and deal with it. Cats don't always get along with one another, and can get very violent when defending their ground. It's actually pretty normal for cats to behave like you're describing there, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'd be more concerned if your cat was being all demure and passive with other cats outside.