New cat in town! (male, feline, meowing, female)

[helpwithcats]

Hello so the neighbor's son just moved back home with a new cat.....
I have two cats myself, male and female(both are fixed). We both let our cats out, and at first they all seemed to get along great. Yet the past couple days, they keep meowing at each other. It is not the Load annoying meows, but just low soft meows(mostly the female cat). My male cat and the neighbors cat gets along fine, until My female cat shows up.

It is really weird, they will both do the soft meows for a while. Both seemingly uninterested in each other. Their cat actually is dozing off laying down while doing this, and my cat is just laying down cleaning herself. Yet it keeps going. Then after a while they inch closer to each other and the meows turn to hissing. Then 5seconds later they are fine. Then today I was watching them, after my female and their cat were meowing for a while... my female cat left. I was petting both my Male and the neighbors cat and everything was going fine. Then My female cat came into the yard and my male and neighbors starting hissing at each other. Yet I was in between them, and they were tense or anything. They were laying down hissing at each other. So I picked up my male, and he was limp, not tense, and not trying to get outta my grasp. Yet still hissing at the neighbors cat.. . I followed to bring him inside, as I was walking inside with him, my female cat goes up to the Neighbors cat. My cat just walks nonchalently up to the neighbors cat(the neighbors cat was turned around obv not feeling threatened) and my cat sniffed him for about two seconds, and they hissed and brawled for about another two seconds. My female cat preceded to just run inside, and the neighbors cat chased him to the deck and stopped.

My cats do get along with some cats but not all cats. It just really odd, how non threatened they are of each other, yet they obviously are ready to fight. They can be 10 feet away, doing this "meowing" to each other looking opposite ways... makes no sense to me! Please help with what this is, and if there is anything i can do!!!
Thanks,
Julie.

[=^..^=]

For the life of your cats... keep them indoors. I hope you're aware of the dangers of letting them outside to roam.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Completely agree with previous poster. You describe hissing/fighting that goes on (and of course more of it undoubtedly goes on when you don't see it), so I would THINK you would say to yourself, "Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't let my cats go out?" But you don't!!

[catsmom21]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I agree with the other posters that you should keep your cats inside, but I disagree with your assessment that they are

yet they obviously are ready to fight.

If they were going to fight, they would have. They are communicating is all. Cats meow and hiss and growl and make all sorts of sounds, when they communicate. Hissing and growling does not automatically mean fighting.

However, I would be very wary of allowing my cats constant contact with a strange cat. Not to mention all the other things that could happen to them outside, unless you are always out there with them?

[nancy thereader]

Yes, you don't know if the new cat as an outdoor cat has something like feline leukemia which is very easily transmitted. If there were a fight one of your cats could be traumatized (or even bitten and scratched) and might run off somewhere. You know how easily cats get spooked.