I love cats. I have a cat. I am totally pro-cat.
HOWEVER,
I have two neighborhood cats that insist on fighting on my doorstep at various times throughout the day and late at night. We have a city bylaw that does not allow cats to roam free, but no one really enforces it.
Is there anything I can do to make my step less hospitable to this feline cage-match?
Personal suggestion 
A water gun
Cats don’t like to mix it with water - even a Burmese does not like a jet.
Try sprinking red pepper flakes on your doorstep. Or something with a strong citrus scent. I’ve had luck using grapefruit peels to keep neighborhood cats out of my flower beds.
One word: BB Gun.
I’ve used a cat repellent spray successfully when some nasty Tom kept spraying my back door to piss off Lenny and Squiggy. It produces an odour (humans can’t smell it much) that they hate and avoid. We sprayed our back steps every few days and it worked okay.
It was kind of like this one.
It did have a strange smell, but it wasn’t stinky and didn’t bother me much.
I love cats but if I found myself in this situation, I’d have a bucket of water at the ready and at the first sign of a cat fight, it would be douse-arama.
One word: That could totally get you a jail sentence.
I can’t douse them as it’s winter here and I am not trying to make kitty-sicles.
I will try the repellant though, thanks.
As an aside, the only cases of frostbite in animals I have ever seen have been in animals doused with water combined with very low temperatures.
Most repellant sprays I’ve tried work for a brief period. The downsides; You have to respray the area often and the smell is not pleasant. I’ve also noticed that if you can’t smell it yourself, enough to be repulsed by it - it won’t keep critters away. I go with the squirt gun or water dousing. Even in the winter, if it’s not freezing, they’ll very quickly learn not to come back around.
