First post here–hope it is in the right area and sorry if it’s kinda long.
I moved a few months ago from an oceanside location in Baja (Mexico) to a tiny ranchito out in the country. It became clear right away that the house, which had been unoccupied for a while due to storm damage, had a problem with outside roof rats. Since my landlady had previously had cats to manage the rodents, I adopted a spayed mother and daughter pair when their owner died. They were used to living outside, so they took to my semi-open stall out back (presently unoccupied) right away and were immediately great mousers at night, returning to a floor-to-ceiling cabinet in the stall every night (safe place from coyotes and shelter from weather).
A few nights ago, I started hearing the sound of cats fighting and what sounded like a large animal on the roof. While my biggest cat concern had been for coyotes in the area, I suddenly became alarmed at the possibility of a bobcat on my property (there have been three filmed just a few miles from here, not a surprise in our scrubby desert terrain). Last night, like clockwork, the caterwauling started up again, but there was clearly something giving chase to my girls across my attached deck and around the stall. I grabbed a flashlight and a can of pepper spray and ran out in time to see a large cat (tom or bobcat?) fleeing the edge of my property, outside the fence (keeps dogs contained by cats can jump it). This morning the younger cat was not in the stall, nor was she visible anywhere on the property. I’m not sure if she is hiding, scared, dead, wounded, or some combination of those. It’s possible she was flushed by the intruding cat into a pack of coyotes or up onto the road or ate a rodent poisoned by a neighbor. The only owls I’ve seen are relatively small barn owls.
My instinct is to start bringing the mama cat inside for a while at night for her sake (she will come inside if I invite her), but then I lose my mouser outdoors and have to introduce her to my four crazy dogs, who are going insane already from the cat fighting noise at night. Also, if the daughter comes back, I don’t want her to think her mama abandoned her and leave again. The dogs can’t be left outside at night because a) one is a jumper/bolter, b) one is too small, c) one is too elderly, and d) one will harass the cats–and they are trained to sleep indoors anyway. We also have a mountain lion in the neighborhood, for which even my Rottie would be no match. I don’t think that’s what’s bothering my barn cats, but let’s not tempt fate.
Thoughts? Bring mama cat in and hope daughter returns? Leave mama out and let her sort it out? Sit outside for a few nights and deter the other cat (not crazy about this if it’s a bobcat)? Write off having cats entirely or keep adopting them knowing they’re at risk? Get two big males or whopper females if my other female disappears? (I was always under the impression females made better mousers.) The daughter cat was quite aloof, but the mama is very sweet and friendly, and I feel bad leaving her to defend herself. Yet, she clearly loves hunting at night. I have no idea how she would do with another, bigger cat in the yard in the hopes it would eventually keep her company and protect the territory better. Enclosing the stall and locking her in there defeats the purpose of keeping her outdoors–it’s not like she’s protecting my feed in a big barn.
ETA: anyone tried a microchip keyed cat door/flap? It would keep a bobcat/stray out of the stall at least (I could enclose it permanently or with chicken wire), assuming she/they could get there.
I’m peeved because if this tom/stray/bobcat had been around before and doing its job, I wouldn’t have rats in the first place and wouldn’t have needed barn cats! I’m literally dizzy from lack of sleep the last half week.
Thanks for your input!
I guess I will probably hear more noise if she reappears.