Window Wars

Both our cats are indoor cats, but there are plenty of outdoor cats around the neighborhood, including one solid black cat that appears to have incorporated our back yard into his territory. We've been seeing him around all over the place. And, of course, because Laszlo is solid black, we always have this immediate panic reaction - Oh no! Laszlo got out! Ah! - for about three quarters of a second before the rational part of our brains kicks in and we realize it's the other cat.

We know Leela's spotted him while sitting on various windowsills checking out the outside. She makes those bizarre chirping noises cats come up with. And we think she makes the same mistake we do. What's Laszlo doing outside and how did he get there?

But a few days ago the two of them finally discovered each other.

Leela was on the windowsill that looks out on the back porch, doing her usual morning hang out. The other cat spends a fair amount of time on the back porch, particularly in the early morning. We've stumbled across him there many times.

This time they spotted each other, and the result was a thirty-second flurry of cat/glass impacts. Leela had a windowsill to perch on so she was chirping and complaining and smacking the window with her paws. The black cat outside didn't have a comparable perch, but jumped up from the porch and slammed into the window about five or six times. Eventually they realized this wasn't going anywhere and settled down to glare at each other for a while.

We're not sure what would happen if Leela actually got into a fight. God knows she's a scrapper with Laszlo, but he's really timid, and she's just playing. She's kind of a small cat, but she's a Bengal so she doesn't really seem to know that. And, to top it off, we keep her claws trimmed so she won't hurt Laszlo - or us when she leaps onto our backs. I suspect she wouldn't have come out of a real scrape with this guy unmarked.