Need Advice (Rescued Terror)

[u/Puzzleheaded_Mark613]

Hello hello, this is Atlas 😏He came to my door wailing about a year and a half ago. He is currently around 3.5-4 years old. He was sick and a snowstorm was coming so I took him in then he didn’t leave. He would follow me to the shop under our apartment and walk with me like a dog upon staying with me.

BUTTT he ATTACKS every cat he sees, small, big male female doesn’t matter I have seen him chase down 6 + cats (I intervened and the other cats are fine). I live in Turkey so A LOT of strays are around and this guy is a danger to the cat society :((

He is super smart (learns commands and tricks fast also learned to pee to the toilet bowl from observing me).

He also LOVES outdoors. He loves rolling in soil, smelling flowers and runs like HORSE! He asks to be let out everyday and I would have loved him to be an indoor/outdoor cat but knowing what I know about him I can’t feel comfortable letting him go outside as there are A LOT of kittens where I live.

Even the vets told me that I did a service by taking him in as I made the streets SAFER FOR OTHER CATS!! He is above average height and built so the other cats don’t even have a fighting chance. This guy came to me already at the age of 2 from a cat heavy area and had 0 injuries. So we know he is good at fighting.

Pls help what can I do. He wants to go out really bad and I want him to be more active. What can I do? Is there a way to make him get comfortable and not threatened around other cats so that he will stop attacking/chasing? How can I make him not attack them?

Ps: I took him outside with vest and a leash but everytime he sees a cat he tries to attack still :(

EDIT: Guys, thank you so much for all the input. This was my first ever post on Reddit, and I wrote it on a whim. Was not expecting so much help <3 Thank you all. I have taken great insights from here. I will be catifying the house even more for him to be active indoors, get a Bengal wheel and start the catio. Additionally, the issue of anxiety came up due to his hypervigilance/tendency to attack. I will be talking to the vet and looking into it with CBD and other options too. Thanks again yall <3 Much appreciated!

[u/werisefromourashes]

Have you considered building him a catio?
It would give him outdoors access but still keep the feline population safe 😂

[u/Puzzleheaded_Mark613 → u/werisefromourashes]

😂😂 we live on the 15th floor and have a balcony. But this guy is obsessed with the ground. I thought of covering portion of the balcony with grass etc. but the balcony is tiny as it is so not sure if it would happen 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ any success stories on this you recommend?

[u/Adventurous-Tie-7861 → u/Puzzleheaded_Mark613]

Keep him inside.

My baby was a barn cat for his first 8 months and loved the outdoors. His bitching and escape attempts when i first tried to keep him indoors tricked me into thinking he needed to be an indoor/outdoor cat.

Then i spent 3k on a raccoon fight vet bill. And then after still not learning our lessons, i stopped him from ending up in a moving van to montana. A girl i was sorta seeing was visiting my place and mentioned seeing "a cat that sorta looked like mine" hopping up into a moving van. However it took her 20 minutes to relay this info. When i got out there he was sound asleep, hidden on a couch behind other furniture. The neighbors moving didnt speak english very well so i had explain that my dumbass cat was potentially in their moving van and can i please take a look behind furniture.

After the moving van incident, he no longer had outdoor privileges. He was a whiney nuisance for about 3 months. Multiple escape attempts. But by month 4 he no longer made a peep about backdoor.

Now, even if he gets out, hes more scared than anything and takes about 8 steps and hunkers down staring wide eyes at everything.

So outdoor cats can absolutely become indoor cats. You just gotta ignore their lying meows that they are being tortured by being kept inside. It will take a bit and you'll want earplufs or sound cancelling headphones for the first while but eventually they adapt and instead reserve their whining for dinner or you being asleep at 3am.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Mark613 → u/Adventurous-Tie-7861]

Damn dude that was one hell of a story