GYMPIE woman Amylee Turner is urging people to keep pets restrained at night after a stray cat entered her home, antagonising her pet cat and leaving a mess behind.

Ms Turner woke to the sound of a "kerfuffle" in her house about 1.30am last Thursday.

After switching the light on to investigate, she saw a large black and white cat inside her kitchen.

Beside the stranger was Ms Turner's pet cat Bella, a fluffy rag doll Persian cross, visibly distressed amidst a pile of cat hair.

Rubbish was over the floor, and the contents of Bella's food and water bowl were everywhere.

Ms Turner traced the trail to a window in her kitchen.

She surmised the intruder had pushed the inward swinging screen to get in, and like a cat on a hot tin roof, jumped on to the stove and knocked over the kitchen bin.

Far from a cool cat, Ms Turner said the burly feline frantically clawed chunks out of the screen of the window it came through in an attempt to escape.

Ms Turner rang her mother, Carolynne Turner, who drove over to help.

Ms Turner used a water spray bottle to coax the agitated cat out through an open door, but instead it bolted further inside the house.

The furry visitor could not be found.

It was a case of curiosity got rid of the cat when the women picked up Bella's enclosed cat litter box to look for it and the scared intruder dashed out, spun on the floor and bolted out the kitchen door.

"It looked healthy and looked like it belonged to someone. I reckon it was more scared of us," Ms Turner said.

As the owner of a "very happy inside cat", Ms Turner believes it is important to keep cats in at night.

"During the day they sleep, and at night they want to go out and prowl and get into mischief so it's better that they're locked up," Ms Turner said.

"If they are fighting they get injured or they could spread the cat flu."

Luckily sleep - and some of Bella's fur - was all that was lost in the attack.