When domestic, stray or feral cats – usually males – fight over territory there is blind fury. The fighting can be horrendously aggressive and they often fight with complete abandonment of concern for personal injury to themselves which means they can fall off roofs for example. Fights can take place on flat roofs because cats like high places.
But the viciousness of the fighting can lead to serious injury to either or both cats, or even death. They risk all in blind abandonment of reason and common sense which dictates that survival is more important than retaining a claimed home range.
It is rather bizarre because you’d have thought there’d be some compromises to protect themselves from injury. Sometimes one cat submits before the full-on fighting commences which saves them both from serious injury. The sumo-style precursor to fighting is designed to protect against injury and resolve the dispute ‘by arbitration’ 😉😃. Well, not quite, more like who’s the biggest and strongest.
Here is a video of the sumo-style bit of cats fighting. One is walking away slowly to keep face:
The entire neighbourhood knows when two males fight full-on as there is an inordinate amount of high-volume screaming. It is quite disturbing to residents. It is a reminder how violent the domestic cat can be when they revert to their wild selves.
This abandonment of self-preservation can lead to very serious consequences and extremely rarely a human is the innocent, victim. Here is a very sad example.
Father of two killed by fighting cats
A father of two, 52, died after falling off his bike when two fighting cats ended up under his wheels; he fell off, hitting his head on the road resulting in a severe and fatal brain injury.
More: Difference between cats playing and fighting
His name is Chris Reeves, a Network Rail signaller living in Rugby, Warwickshire. His son is devastated and described the freak accident as “unimaginably unfair”. He said that his father was a friendly and softhearted man. He has started a fundraiser to give his father a proper sendoff.
Dominic Reeves said that his father, in riding his bike, must have startled the cats as he came around the corner and they ran out in front of him. One of the cats ended up under the front wheel and the other cat ended up under the back wheel according to Dominic.
Comment: I would be surprised if his father startled the cats because when two domestic cats are fighting over territory nothing will startle them. We are so committed to the fight. I think they just fought their way into the road. They fight anywhere and do anything no matter how dangerous it is to them. And in doing this they ended up under the wheels of his bike.
Nobody has told us what happened to the cats. They were under the bike after all. I suspect they’re okay but I would like to know. Chris Reeves was very close to his workplace at the time. Dominic does confess that his father was not wearing a helmet. If he had worn one, he would have probably survived the fall.
Dominic, now 20, said: ‘It’s tough to say because I want my dad back, but his injuries could have been lessened or he could have been completely fine if he was wearing a helmet. So wear a b***** helmet’
So, I guess we can’t blame the cats entirely. Security camera footage shows that his father was found semiconscious by a passerby on Abbey Street, Rugby, at around 5:30 AM on July 30.
He was sedated and taken by ambulance to a nearby field and then airlifted to Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry. That’s the story. Two cats fighting viciously getting in the way of a cyclist minding his own business going to work. It couldn’t have been worse luck for Mr Reeves.
More: Fighting cats fall off roof and dog attacks one of them on ground
