On Fri, 27 May 2011 19:02:28 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

"Ian B"
Doesn't need to be a Tom. My cat Cassie is a girl, and she's as fierce at
seeing off other cats as can be. The only time I see another cat in the
garden, it's running at top speed to get through the "enemy territory".


In my experience a neutered Tom can get quite laid back as they age but a
neutered female is still feisty and single minded about such things to the
end. Especially a female pedigree cat that hates oiks!

Maybe the difference is that my tom wasn't neutered until he moved
in. For that matter, nor had he ever been innoculated for the usual
things, wormed or whatever. So he had a few years to impregnate any
females in the vicinity and to do whatever tom cats do. I notice him
occasionally trying to scent - tail held high and all that - but
nothing comes out!

Today he earned some extra treats - he rang his doorbell (that's
another story) and sat proudly as the door was opened and he displayed
the dead rat he'd brought home. A clean kill - he kills rats and moles
with a single bite wound across the back of the neck but carefully
carries the occasional mouse or shrew back for us to chase around the
house and they rarely have a wound! The quantity of tail-less slow
worms around her is another story, though!