Cat Mace Saved Our Cats—And It Might Help Yours Too

A black and white cat sitting near a window looking outside

sdominick via iStock

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Sadie was running out of ideas to resolve a heated battle between her household cats, and a heartbreaking decision loomed. That was how she stumbled across cat mace.

The trouble started when Sadie took Percy into the backyard on a leash to get some fresh air. Percy, a handsome indoor Tuxedo cat, decided he liked the new country and planted a flag. He sprayed a bush—and started a war that nearly brought the entire household to its breaking point.

Percy sits on the porch, admiring his handiwork.

The problem was Rascal, a beautiful outdoor Bengal whose passion for patrolling the neighborhood earned him the nickname “mayor of the street.” He and Percy were never on good terms; whenever Percy spotted him slinking across the backyard from his window perch, he would yowl and hiss a blue streak. But since Sadie’s house was low priority for Rascal, Percy’s meltdowns were rare.

Until he got Rascal’s attention.

How To Keep an Outdoor Cat from Bothering Indoor Cats?

The next day, Percy watched his plant around the clock. When Rascal eventually strolled by, he noticed immediately—and it was clear the message had been received. He started to visit the house far more often, coming up to the window overlooking the yard where Percy sat. Percy went into fits of rage trying to reach Rascal, and once he nearly managed it.

Sadie remembers coming into the room to find the window open and the screen halfway off the frame as the two cats batted and clawed at each other. After that, she kept the windows closed.

Percy waits for Rascal to appear.

But Percy could still see Rascal, and the other cat’s appearance on his patio made his blood boil. He started to take his temper out on Sadie and Mimi, Sadie’s other cat. Mimi would come to investigate when she heard Percy howling at Rascal, inadvertently presenting the frustrated Tuxedo with an outlet for his anger.

Mimi grew timid and fearful of her companion, and the two of them would have to be separated any time Rascal appeared—which was now at least once a week.

For nearly a month, Sadie tried to find a way to restore Percy’s peace. She knew it wouldn’t be easy; Percy runs a little paranoid at the best of times. He was deeply skittish until he started taking Prozac, which helped with his anxiety. But it couldn’t solve his Rascal-inspired aggression.

So she tried placing Feliway Diffusers near the window, which made Percy sleepy. They helped a bit, but not enough.

Rascal, the “mayor of the street,” surveils the neighborhood.

She considered cat scarecrows and motion detectors that make sounds or flash lights, but she couldn’t find any that she thought might daunt an expert prowler like Rascal.

Things were looking bad. Her own scratches were one thing, but Mimi’s terror was another. Sadie was starting to worry that she might have to rehome Mimi.

That’s when she discovered cat mace.

What Is Cat Mace?

It sounded bad. The name conjured visions of squirting cats in the face with pepper-spray-style canisters. But that’s not what it turned out to be at all.

Nature’s Mace cat mace is a product that goes on the ground, not on a pet, and it’s meant to discourage feline visitors, repelling them with its unusual odor—a concentration of scents that cats loathe.

It’s not great for human noses either, Sadie reports. She says it’s hard to describe, but when pressed, she categorizes it as “kind of like licorice, but I like licorice, and it’s not pleasant.”

Still, if it could help Percy and Mimi, it would be worth it. And she had reason to be hopeful—she’d encountered a product review that described her exact situation: an outdoor cat was bothering indoor cats, and it was wreaking havoc in the reviewer’s home until they tried cat mace.

Percy and Mimi, when Rascal isn’t around.

So Sadie decided to give it a shot. She bought both spray and granule versions of the cat mace, then followed their instructions meticulously. She sprinkled the granules over her flagstones—a light dusting that just looked “a bit like dirt.” Then she sprayed beneath the window along the base of her porch.

The granules were to be refreshed monthly (unless there was particularly heavy rainfall, in which case the schedule could be moved up), and the spray was to be applied every day for seven days to thoroughly discourage the visiting cat. Once the habit had been broken, the spray could be applied just once a week.

It was a powerful smell, Sadie noted as she worked, and it did tend to linger, but it wasn’t so bad that it made the whole yard smell—just the few feet surrounding the mace.

She worried that the spray, a disturbingly urine-like yellow color, might stain the side of the house, especially since it would have to be reapplied. But a month in, she hasn’t seen any staining on her property.

And she also hasn’t seen Rascal.

Cat Mace to the Rescue

In the four weeks since she started applying cat mace, she’s spotted Rascal patrolling her neighbors’ yards, but he hasn’t made an appearance in hers, which has made both Percy and Mimi happy campers.

She knows cat mace might not repel every feline—after all, reviewers report mixed results. But Sadie says she thinks it’s worth a try for anyone who needs to fend off a wandering outdoor cat.

For her, Percy, and Mimi, it’s been worth every penny (and the occasional whiff of bad licorice).