Wandering neighborhood cat help

[eas11]

My sister is quite hysterical over some cat drama :eek: She has a front porch and occasionally a local stray cat decides that an outdoor chair is a nice place to rest. Being highly allergic, she never touches the cat, but has not otherwise discouraged it from enjoying the rest on her porch.
She came home one day this week to find not the cat, but his gift, on the chair- sadly, this mouse was not in good shape, and it's insides were...not inside anymore.
So, DS, who does not deal well with these situations, tried to convince a friend to come over and take care of the clean-up. Said friend told DS to put on her big girl pants and deal with it- she finally did after leaving it for 3 days!
So, she's pretty freaked out and does not want the cat visiting any longer and wonders how to encourage it to find other places to lounge with people braver than she!
Any ideas? I say she should take the furniture off the porch, but I can't think of anything else.

[KimK]

Remove the furniture from the porch.

Better yet, live trap the cat and take it to the humane society. Humane societies and other animal organizations will often loan live traps just for this purpose. Depending on the organization, they may even come out and set the trap for her.

[sparrowgrass]

I vote for the "big girl panties". :D

Put something uncomfortable on the chair seat--cats hate aluminum foil, so maybe she can wrap the cushion in that.

[mcgeiger]

Move the furniture, or take padding off, or go buy a carpet runner (can be bought on a roll at a hardware store) and put it upside down on the chair (with the point ends up). Or call the local humane society and find out if they have traps or enough officers that she can call the next time the cat is around...

[momqat]

Yes, remove the chair -- easiest solution. And if she decides to trap, please be sure that she contacts a no kill shelter!!!

And tell her that despite the drama, she should be honored. Her stray left her a present -- maybe not exactly what your DS thinks, but it really was a big gift in the cat's mind. :D

[eas11]

And tell her that despite the drama, she should be honored. Her stray left her a present -- maybe not exactly what your DS thinks, but it really was a big gift in the cat's mind. :D

Yes, I told her that...however, I don't think she was impressed! :rolleyes:

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I will pass them on to her.

So, in general, is the opinion that stay cats (like this one in nyc) should always be reported and picked up by city animal control? I know there are lots of stays in the city, but, doesn't the animal control just kill them? Will a no-kill shelter take all the trapped stay cats? Would someone adopt a cat who has lived on the streets for years?

Can you tell I'm not a cat person? :rolleyes:

[KimK]

I'm a cat lover. I do believe that stray cats should be picked up, no matter where they live, city or country. I'd much rather a cat potentially find a good home at a shelter, live out the rest of its days at a no kill shelter, or even be euthanized, rather than be hit by a car, injured or killed by another animal, or tortured by sick people.

Depends on the organiztion....animal control doesn't always kill them. As suggested, your sister could contact a no kill shelter to be sure it isn't euthanized. BUT, if it is not adoptable (i.e. too feral), I'm not sure what a no kill shelter would do with it. Unadoptable cats at the humane society are normally euthanized.

As for someone possibly adopting this cat, sure it's possible! Perhaps it was someone's pet once before and would easily become a house pet again. I would not hesitate to adopt a cat that has been on its own for a while. Most cats like that are grateful for a good home.

[Peweh]

So, in general, is the opinion that stay cats (like this one in nyc) should always be reported and picked up by city animal control?
Can you tell I'm not a cat person? :rolleyes:

I was just curious how she knows it is definitely a stray; what if it is just a neighbor's cat who happens to like her porch?

[Ann1965]

Someone once told me that moth balls will prevents strays (dogs or cats) from coming around!

[armel]

My neighbor's cats LOVE my porch swing. I ended up buying X-mats. Basically they are plastic mats with pointy things sticking up. You put them on the custions and the cat will no longer sit on the furniture.

That said, they still hang out on the porch. Just on the concrete. There are things that you can get that don't smell good to them and so they won't come around. They won't smell good to you either most likely. And they lose effectiveness so you will have to periodically replace them. I buy those types of things from either the pet store, or gardeners.com. They have different types of repellants.

My mom puts cayenne pepper around and finds that helps too.