It will just teach him to look for her before he goes.
Seriously, Broomstick, nothing’s going to work here but a trap and relocate or a trap and whatever. This is what Animal Control is for. If they can’t get out there, they should be able to loan you a trap, I hope. Bait it with stinky cheap canned cat food.
As someone who has turned over a couple of abandoned cats to Animal Control - don’t let anyone, even yourself, convince you that you’re somehow guilty or at fault for the cat being killed.
I hope Animal Control will be able to rid you of this problem, soon.
This is the second time that this has come up, what, this week? I agree with Scumpup and Una, just shoot the damned thing and be done with it. Hell, shoot it with a bow and arrow if you don’t have a gun. Even a slingshot with some practice and some marbles should be enough to get this damned thing out of your food supply.
…
…
“But Broomstick,” they said, “why don’t you just buy a BB gun?”
Third from me. If you took half the advice from this thread, you’d be jumping thorugh your ass for months. Cap the little bastard and be done with it.
Hell, my gramma used to keep a bolt-action .410 shotgun about specifically for protecting her garden from pests. That old gun didn’t even have a manufacturer’s name on it and had been purchased for very little from a hardware store, but more than a few cats, rabbits, and groundhogs were sent on to glory by it. A gun is every bit as much a necessary gardening tool as a hoe, IMO, if the garden is actually expected to provide necessary food rather than just be a hobby.
At the risk of a woosh, did you not see the many times in this thread where Broomstick points out that she has a budget of exactly nothing?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I hate cats.
At the risk of a whoosh, yes.
Animal Control will quite definitely not simply come out and shoot the cat. It scares the straights, and it’s not done. They may come out and try to trap it, and if they do trap it, they will take it back to the pound (or whatever they call it in your city), and if it isn’t adopted within whatever the deadline is, it will be euthanized. And since adult cats are a dime a dozen, and since this isn’t a “free to good home, won’t someone please take my kitty” adult cat, this is a full-grown feral cat, it is, to all intents and purposes, unadoptable.
Really, there are very few answers for this that don’t involve the cat dying. If it isn’t going to recognize the various deterrents, and if it is going to continue shitting in your garden, then it needs to be removed. In order to remove it, you can:
[ul]
[li] kill it. [/li][li] trap it.[/li]
[list]Who will trap the cat?
[li]You.[/li][list]Where will you get a trap?
[li] Buy one.[/li] [li] Borrow one.[/li] [list][li]From Animal Control.[/li] [li] From some humane society.[/li][/ul][/list]
What will you do with the cat once you have it?
[ul][li] Adopt it.[/li] [li] Find a home for it.[/li] [li] Give it to Animal Control. Cat most likely dies.[/li][li] Take it out into "the country" and release it. Cat probably survives, but is still a public nuisance, albeit "somebody else's problem". And assuming it doesn't simply come right back.[/li] [li] Give it to some humane society. Cat possibly dies.[/li]
[/ul][/list][ul]Someone else will trap the cat.
[list][li] Animal Control. Cat most likely dies.[/li] [li] Your landlord. Cat certainly dies.[/li] [li] Some humane society. Cat possibly dies.[/li][/ul][/list]
[/list]
The only option in this flow chart that has a 100% guarantee that the cat will not die is for you to trap it yourself, and then either adopt it or find a home for it. Every other option–including having it trapped by, and/or giving it to some humane society, unless you can find a no-kill shelter to take it–let’s face it, basically ends with the cat dying. So, really, there aren’t a lot of options here.
Except that you can explore deterrents more fully. But you’re constrained by your budget; hardware cloth or chicken wire to cover the soil’s surface (which was actually the best suggestion from your GQ thread), and cosmetic mulch to put on top of it to appease your landlord, all cost money.
So. You have a problem.
But, if you change your priorities to include “Cat possibly dies”, then your problem goes away. Your decision-making process is affected by your stipulation that the cat survives. But if you can live with the fact, say, that after you handed it over to Animal Control it was possibly euthanized, then you don’t have a problem after all, and you can get on with your gardening.
Myself, I wouldn’t advocate going out there and plugging it yourself, or even getting your landlord to do it. I’d trap it, hand it over to Animal Control, and walk away. Because, yanno, even supposedly unadoptable animals do get adopted, so I could live with that. YMMV. 
County animal control wants $50 to trap the animal. It if were a feral dog standing on the back porch growling and frothing at the mouth they’d do it for free, but because it’s a goddamned cat it’s $50 for a live trap, and no, they won’t come out and shoot it for me.
That leaves only one alternative. Too bad for the cat.
Be sure to post pictures! You know how much we love kitty pictures here.
AW. I NO HAZ MY HED ANYMORZ.
A hundred square feet is not much to cover in netting if you have it - only 10’x10’ or 5’x20’ and you can use any old sticks as the stakes.
Or did you mean ‘a hundred feet square’ i.e. ten thousand square feet?
Another vote for plug 'em. I like cats fine, but that like ends where their feces and my property meet. There are way too many feral cats in the world already, and not all of them are going to grow up to be president.
I feel for you! We have consistently had the same problem, only worse – the feral cats who shit in our vegetable garden keep having kittens, who also shit in our garden, our grass, everywhere. It’s foul. It’s not the cats’ fault, it’s the fucking irresponsible pet owners who let their animals run around destroying other people’s property. I’m sure the hateful rants against me for saying that will start any moment. Too bad.
We had a cat with 3 kittens last Summer that we had to trap (we’ve got another 3 nearly full-grown ones this year!). Bless her heart, ems drove down from Bakersfield and adopted one of the kittens. I found homes in the neighborhood for the other 2. The mother cat we had to trap and take to a rescue group. Here’s what I recall. . .
One of the local “feed” stores (they primarily deal with horses, I believe) offered humane traps for rental – at the cost of $2/day! It only took 1 day to trap the cat – she was hungry!! I know you have “no money”, but $2.00 - $4.00 should be easy enough to swing, no?
So check around, perhaps you can find a similar solution in your area.
GOOD LUCK!!!
Don’t know how far you are from there, but I called the Humane Society Calumet Area and they offer humane trap rental for $5/day. (They require a $60 deposit, then give you back the balance after deducting for however many days you keep the trap out, so if you only have it for a day, you get $55 back.)
If they’re not in your nearby area, I’m sure The Humane Society of Northwest Indiana has a similar program, or whichever one is closest to you.
Kill it.
I love cats, but feral cats are a hazard to native wildlife, to domestic cats, and are a pain in the ass. They just continue to run wild, and to breed, thus leading to more feral cats. Even in the presence of other options, i think killing it is the best option.
People who don’t neuter and spay their cats are almost as big a hazard. Shooting them might be a bit too harsh, but they definitely need a beating.
Where’s that Crafterman when you need him. I’ll bet he could float a round into a cat at a 100 yards. Probably use a 30 30. Sounds about right.
Of course, he’d make sure it was someone’s pet first.
She can’t waste time because the cat destroys stuff daily she needs for food. She can’t waste any money on renting traps. For the dumb ass animal shelters that claim to offer free traps for a donation, that isn’t free that’s a fee. This is all the support I can give you Broomstick.