My mom’s cats have been stalked off an on by a feral cat that’s taken up residence in their neighborhood, and at least once one of her cats has ended up in the hospital as a result. Her most recent adventure follows, in her words, edited slightly by me:

Picture this: I’m minding my own business–taking a bath (okay, don’t
picture that) reading my latest escapist lit when I hear a crash in the
house. I am alone; the door is locked; the lights off in the living
room; only the cats are in attendance. I hear no strange cry out, meow
or anything. So I just wait then call out “everything okay out there
boys and girls?” and hear nothing for a bit. Then I think I hear
something, but it sounds like young girls talking. No TV, radio, etc.
is on. We have no phone machine that records out loud, we have no close
neighbors…so I get out, wrap a towel around me, and go check. I find
nothing wrong in the kitchen, but when I turn around, I see Black at
attention looking toward the living room. I head in that direction. As
I pass the staircase, I see the screen has fallen from the sky light
and is a bent mess midway up the stairs. All my cats are in these days
because of the recent injuries at the mouth of the local bully cat. I
can guess what’s going on at this point. The hissing and growling
confirm that said bully cat has just “dropped in.” What follows was
not fun. The living-room was dark, I’m still barefoot in a towel, so I
get a robe and sandals on and go in carefully to turn on the light. The
other cats are getting defensive so I lock Black in my room. Meuller is
crouched by the corner next to the couch, so I don’t worry about him so
much and Kitty Girl is somewhere out of the way. The feral cat is
throwing itself against the screen in the open window seat window. I go
over, turn on the lights and try to open the other window– that now
has a broken screen thanks to one of my boys– (discovered after Black
kept getting out one day last week). The cat hissed and growled at me
and made those little raised claw gestures to me, then ran out of the
living room. I went to open the front door and he ran back to the
window seat. I followed him and tried to calm him and coax him out and
he eventually figured out it was an opening and he bolted. Such
excitement.

How much do I hate that cat? The cat fell at least 10 feet! It couldn’t
have broken its neck and died? Every time I think it has gone to a new
territory I see it and have to start my “count” again. But this was too
much. Now I have to worry about it falling through in the guest room
which is closed off to keep the AC in the other room. It would tear the
room apart. No one would know it was in there if it happened during the
day. What a nightmare.

I was number 50 something for the have-a-heart trap at the pound two
weeks ago. They said it would be a few weeks.
That cat is damn scary I’ll tell you. It is truly a wild creature.
Beautiful, but wild.

Other than that, sure, I’m fine if you overlook my pulled back gained
when I reached and bent (bad combo) to pick up the lysol can to give a
little relief to the room because at least one of the cats is relieving
him or her self on the bathroom floor just outside the cat box–too
lazy to go in? I think not. They are pissed (literally) cause I won’t
let them out!!!!!!!!

[/end mom adventure]

It’s funny, I never thought of a feral cat as much of a nuisance. We used to see them behind the restaurants I worked at when I was a kid, but they were skittish and seemed harmless. How bold would you have to be to jump through a screen on the roof of a house? That screen she is describing is at least 8 feet off the ground too, it opens over a stairway. Hard to imagine a cat leaping through that hissing the kitty equivalent of ‘I kick all your asses now!’ My mom’s cats are, sadly, declawed, which is why they are getting their heads handed to them. If she manages to do away with the feral kitty from hell or gets it trapped and shipped off to kitty penitentiary I’ll post a followup.