White cat pix problems

I have a Nikon Coolpix 5700 which is a couple years old but is fairly
advanced (I'm told).
Can't seem to figure out how to take pics of my white Persian cat
without him being completely washed out. This is especially true when
the flash kicks in. Is there a trick to this? I admit to being mostly
an "auto setting" guy and haven't read the manual in detail.
What's odd is that my kid has a newer Canon ( 7 megapix) camera that
cost 1/4 price of the Nikon and it takes awesome pics of the cat using
auto presets.

Thanks
Mark