Neighborhood cats!

[mbrogier]

We've lived in this house for almost a year. This week I've had two cats in my yard. I wouldn't care, but I have two inside only cats, and it upsets them to have these cats in "their" yard. The back of our house has a large sunroom with floor to ceiling wrap around windows. The cats spend their days in their--obviously. Tonight, I heard a noise and went to check on them. Their tails were as big as their bodies, and they were growling at a black cat sitting on the other side of the glass. I yelled at the cat, and he left.

There is also a little chipmunk that lives right outside the sunroom. He was eating my garden, so I've been feeding him safflower seeds. The cats love to watch him and get exercise by following him around (through the glass--they NEVER go outside). Yesterday, I was out in the sunroom reading and spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was a large tortoiseshell cat about to eat my chipmunk! I almost ran over her a month ago after she darted out from behind some trash cans at night right in front of my car. :mad:

I really wish people would keep their pets in their own yard. I guess I'm going to have to put up some pie tins or something.

*rant over*

[jellyben]

No advice, just sympathy! We also get visited by neighborhood cats and it drives me nuts. What is this about pie tins?

[mbrogier]

You hang them up and they rattle, supposably scaring the cats off.

[bobmark226]

So this is what I have to look forward to, is it?

<shriek!>

Bob

[RunnerKim]

we have indoor only cats too and a few neighborhood cats that wander by. I have just considered it entertainment and excercise for mine! I had a vet that told me to let my cats fight (they're littermates) because it's good exercise for them... so I kind of have that philosophy. Your cats are very lucky to have that sunroom!! I'd make sure to have birdfeeders for them ;)

Now them pooping in our raised bed garden :mad:

[donleyk]

Bob,

You might not mind the cats taking care of the local chipmunks and moles and whatever else that might munch your well tended gardens.

If you do have trouble with them a well aimed water hose works great. You just have to be fast!

In our old neighborhood we would occasionally have trouble with them but mostly it was the smell of them marking their territory. Spring was always the worse. I think these cats were strays more than neighbors though. Hopefully you won't have a problem.

[bobmark226]

Bob,

If you do have trouble with them a well aimed water hose works great. You just have to be fast!



LOL. This I like. :)

Bob

[DeeK]

We have had a long-standing problem with roaming cats in our neighborhood. Seems the local college kids love to adopt cats during the term and then just "dispose" of them in our neighborhood when they tire of them. :eek: :mad: :(

It has led to quite a "feral" cat population. So far, we have had to replace a pool screen (to the tune of $1200) because one big male insisted on climbing the screen every night and finally fell through the roof. They sit on our cars (scratching the roof and hood paint) and the males just love to "spray" the front door(Phew-ey!!!) and they all poo in the garden.

It gets quite frustrating and the only help we get from animal control is that they will rent us a trap for $50.00 a week. YIKES! So, if anyone can come up with a HUMANE way to deter them from our yard I would be forever grateful!!!

[mbrogier]

I have one chipmunk. I found if I feed him, he leaves my tomatoes and basil alone. :D A bag of safflower seeds costs a $1 and lasts all summer. Now a whole chipmunk village would be a different story.

Motion controlled sprinklers is what I would do if we weren't under such high water usage restrictions...

[gertdog]

Our neighborhood has lots of feral cats. They like to sun themselves on our deck and tease Gertie by walking s-l-o-w-l-y back and forth in front of the sliding glass door. I think one of them lives under the deck. We haven't had any problems with marking or messing up the garden, though. I wouldn't have guessed they are strays, as they all look pretty healthy.

One of our neighbors catches the cats and pays to have them fixed and given shots; a local vet gives her a deep discount. She re-releases them in the neighborhood because she doesn't want them put to sleep, but according to other neighbors it has cut WAY down on the cat population- I guess you used to see multiple new litters each year. :eek:

[sandyv]

What a terrific idea. I am a cat owner and an animal lover. The thought of people trapping cats makes me ill, but your neighbour shows really great initiative.

[Sugar]

We live in a town house that has a small back yard - last year we got new next door neighbours and they brought a cat with them.

They also brought a cat that loved to use our back yard as his personal litter box - so we talked to the neighbours and they bought us a spray can of some stuff that you spray on the grass and the cat is suppose to stay off. We jsut sprayed the perimiter and it worked - we spreayed it last fall and even after going through a winter (with snow) the cat has not come back. Litterally walks around our yard along the fence.

The name of the product is Hertz Help or something like that - not too sure where they got it from, I would assume a local pet store.

We do not have children playing in our back yard, so the thought of putting a chemical on the grass was not an issue for us - not sure your situation - but I would definetly recommend the product to anyone dealing with an unwanted cat.

[mbrogier]

I just was a bit afraid of chemicals because I don't want my cats to smell it through the screen door. We're moving in a little over a month. Hopefully we'll have a fenced in yard, and it won't be an issue anymore.

[donleyk]

Motion controlled sprinklers is what I would do if we weren't under such high water usage restrictions...

What an excellent idea.....

[patissac]

OH my gosh! I can't believe I'm reading this!
We've got a similar problem, our next door neighbor's house is just disgusting and he likes to feed about 10 stray cats when he visits his house about once or twice a week. The cats like to crap all over our front yard and provoke my jack russell. This has really irked me, we call the humane society and they said the same thing, pay $40 for a trap and trap them yourselves...yeah sure...I'm almost positive these wild cats are going to be like "Oh gee look at this, lets walk right into the trap". Even worse they are mulitplying by the dozen. We've talked to the neighbor and told him to stop, but he says he has a soft heart. This is driving me nuts and we've called the city on him and still nothing!!!!!

[mbrogier]

So this is what I have to look forward to, is it?

<shriek!>

Bob

No, no. This is what you have to look forwards to:

MEOW, HISS-HISS

WOOF WOOF WOOF

GROWL GROWL

pffffffff

GRRRRRRRR

[rosie_one]

The live traps DO work. We used one when a feral mama cat and her 3 kittens (so cute) staked our deck as theirs. Mama wouldn't let my kids out the back door without much hissing and yowling. Within 48 hours they were gone. We felt kind of like homewreckers. :( But it was early November and there is no way those kittens would have lasted a Wisconsin winter. They were too young. It led to us adopting another kitty eventually.

I have no problem with neighborhood cats that have collars and liscences. It's the strays that bug me. So much opportunity for reproduction.

When we took our Ollie in to be spayed my DD was five. She really didn't want to let her have the surgery as she had visions of cute Ollie kitty babies. I explained that Ollie could have 15 babies every year for the next 10 years and that we really couldn't keep or find homes for 150 kittens! DD agreed, reluctantly. It was so cute to watch her try to imagine that many kittens. :D

[gertdog]

I'm almost positive these wild cats are going to be like "Oh gee look at this, lets walk right into the trap". Even worse they are mulitplying by the dozen. We've talked to the neighbor and told him to stop, but he says he has a soft heart.

In our neighborhood, the feral cats do get trapped pretty easily (although I've heard a lot of groundhogs get accidentally caught as well, and they are not fun to release). The cats are hungry and if there's food in a trap it's pretty appealing, I guess.

Our feral cat population is apparently the legacy of a former homeowner in the neighborhood- he let his cats run free but refused to spay/neuter them. He has since passed away but there are dozens of cats still living here. I don't understand the mentality at all. I do find it interesting that most communities have leash laws for dogs, but no such rules about containment for pet cats.

[donleyk]

I don't know how much this will help those of you with strays but we had a feral momma that was relentless about getting into a dry well we had. We kept piling rocks on the lid then the next day all the rocks would be moved. :mad: When we finally figured out that her babies were in the dry well it made a lot more sense.

DH devised a trap using a pet carrier. He tied a string to the door and back thru the closure then ran the string into the house. He put a bowl of food in the carrier, leaving the door open and waited for her to go in. Surprisingly, it didn't take long. As soon as she went in DH pulled on string and he kept it taunt until he could get out there to lock it. She went crazy in there but settled down as soon as he started collecting her babies and putting them in the carrier with her. It was very easy then to transport them to the human society.