Goddamned Feral Cat

The BBQ Pit
81

[QUOTE=FoieGrasIsEvil]

Spoken like a true defender of feral animals overrunning the Earth.

They ARE a problem, and as the OP pointed out, he/she has examined his/her options and since you don’t live where he/she does, you don’t know what his/her local animal control office charges for removal, which, as the OP also pointed out in an act of guilty conscience that you should appreciate, is a death sentence for a feral cat anyway.
So why don’t YOU fuck off and try to have some empathy for someone who has clearly maintained their relative poverty and is trying to actually come up with a humane option for this crop-ruining, flea-infested animal that is rendering his/her source of inexpensive food inedible despite his/her hard labor.

Unless of course you’re the local “crazy cat lady” that owns 25 felines that emit the odor of ammonia and feces that can be detected from a mile away, then of course YMMV.
[/QUOTE]
Did you even fucking read the goddamn thread and my posts in it, you contemptuous fuckstick?
[QUOTE=Euphonious Polemic]

BZZZTT! Wrong! Shayna was merely trying to point out that perhaps, JUST PERHAPS, there may be an option that might only cost $5/day. For this foul suggestion, she was roundly shat upon. She does not love feral cats, she does have empathy, and she was, in fact, trying to help. Next time, read for comprehension.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you!

Missed this before I posted, hence, the edit.

82

[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
I didn’t recommend Animal Control, and wouldn’t expect them to lend traps.
[/QUOTE]

I was just thinking of a family member who told me that A.C. used to give these traps out to people on request. Those were the days.

83

[QUOTE=Broomstick]
That $5/day option requires a $60 deposit. I do not have $60. I do not have a credit card. Yes, money at my household really is that tight. Whether she intended it to be that way or not, her “solution” is on par with Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake” which was uttered with complete sincerity as a solution to a bread shortage. It would have been fine - if there had been free cake.
[/QUOTE]

Fair enough, but you took your anger at your situation out ON HER. Your situation truly does suck, but… It probably is best if you assume that everyone is trying his or her best to empathize as best they can. They may not hit the mark, but most are trying.

(good luck in getting rid of the little bugger as cheaply as possible. I hate, hate hate cats that wreck my precious veggies)

84

[QUOTE=Broomstick]

That $5/day option requires a $60 deposit. I do not have $60. I do not have a credit card. Yes, money at my household really is that tight. Whether she intended it to be that way or not, her “solution” is on par with Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake” which was uttered with complete sincerity as a solution to a bread shortage. It would have been fine - if there had been free cake.
[/QUOTE]
I also offered to send you the damn money, but you preferred to be a raging bitch at me. As if it’s my fault you don’t have a job!

85

[QUOTE=Silver Tyger Girl]
People don’t get that they’re not doing the cats any favors. Unless they’re doing catch & release and fixing the damn things, there’s just going to be more and more cats. And none of them are going to be healthy or happy.
snip.
[/QUOTE]

Darned right. I just chased two more of the damnable things out of the back yard, where they were fighting. I just hope they didn’t have time to take another in a series of many dumps back there or on my patio. :mad:
And I have another one waiting in the cage trap right now for A.C. to come n’ get it.

86

[QUOTE=Broomstick]
Yes, money at my household really is that tight. Whether she intended it to be that way or not, her “solution” is on par with Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake” which was uttered with complete sincerity as a solution to a bread shortage. It would have been fine - if there had been free cake.
[/QUOTE]

Except Queen Marie didn’t offer to give them bread. Shayna straight up said that she would give you $50 to help and totally sympathized with you. It’s clear that you are upset and with good reason but you owe her an apology.

87

[QUOTE=Euphonious Polemic]
BZZZTT! Wrong! Shayna was merely trying to point out that perhaps, JUST PERHAPS, there may be an option that might only cost $5/day. For this foul suggestion, she was roundly shat upon. She does not love feral cats, she does have empathy, and she was, in fact, trying to help. Next time, read for comprehension.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the suggestion regarding reading. I will look into it.
Perhaps the OP wasn’t clear…even $5 a day is too much?
FWIW, I AM NOT shitting on (her) or anyone else, except to point out that killing the cat, despite the fact that trapping it at X expense is the more humane result period.
A feral cat, as the OP notes, is NOT going to be adopted, and will be euthanized anyway.

88

[QUOTE=Shayna]
Did you even fucking read the goddamn thread and my posts in it, you contemptuous fuckstick? Thank you!

Missed this before I posted, hence, the edit.
[/QUOTE]

Wow, contemptuous fuckstick!
I’m moving up in the world!
Thank you for the kind remarks.
I appreciate even being acknowledged in life at this point, being married and all.
Perhaps my dislike of wild animals running rampant over human agriculture has gotten the better of me.
Apologies.

89

[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose]
Okay, now we really need a Mr. Yuk smilie. :smiley:
[/QUOTE]

Dandelion greens are very good for you. Plus, if you’re pulling them and eating them, fewer in the yard! Win/win!

90

[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord]
She has already put a lot of effort into growing some food to supplement her family. It’s a lot of work and it is a big deal. The bolding was so people would actually see the sentence and stop suggesting renting traps. She has said over and over she can’t pay anything for traps.
[/QUOTE]
She has also demonstrated that it’s ok to treat people like idiots because they dare to provide her with anything less than a 100% cost-free solution. You want the problem solved with “no budget”, some of the suggestions are still going to cost you a few dollars. Even a bullet costs something. Sorry, but those are the facts. Yelling at the people who made suggestions because they’re not cheap enough (or fast enough, apparently) is really bad form and makes once-sympathetic people less so.

Also, foaming and frothing about not being able to afford any expenditure whatsoever is ridiculous considering the value of the food the cat is apparently destroying. Given the choice between letting the cat continue to destroy food, which she’ll then have to go buy, and spending $10 on some bird netting, which can she actually not afford? Hint: think long term.

91

[QUOTE=Broomstick]
When I discovered a cat was using my hard-labor-prepared garden beds (no money for a rototiller, so I’m breaking sod and cultivating with hand tools) as his personal latrine…
[/QUOTE]
I’m not sure why you consider this a problem?

On our farm, we pay a neighbor to haul manure from his pigs and distribute it on our fields and our vegetable garden. It’s called fertilizer, and it greatly improves the yield we get.

If this cat is fertilizing your garden for free, why is that a problem?

92

[QUOTE=Shayna]
I also offered to send you the damn money, but you preferred to be a raging bitch at me. As if it’s my fault you don’t have a job!
[/QUOTE]

There apparently aren’t enough lips in the world to give your ass the kissing you believe it deserves for all the “help” you’ve given.

93

[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net]
I’m not sure why you consider this a problem?

On our farm, we pay a neighbor to haul manure from his pigs and distribute it on our fields and our vegetable garden. It’s called fertilizer, and it greatly improves the yield we get.

If this cat is fertilizing your garden for free, why is that a problem?
[/QUOTE]

Completely different type of manure. Toxoplasmosis is the main threat.

94

Yeah, normally you do not want carnivore droppings, like cat/dog, in your garden/compost heap, because of the overall risk of pathogens. If you have a really huge garden, like one of those half-acre truck gardens out in the boonies, it’s not an issue, because statistically the cat’s poos will be spread out over a larger area. But Broomstick is practicing square-foot gardening in a small and restricted area, and if she doesn’t nip this in the bud now, basically her entire vegetable garden is going to turn into nothing more than a litterbox.

95

Hell, people, the level of hostility in this thread is frightening. May I suggest that everyone take a deep breath and make a conscious effort to unclench?

Shayna, I realize that you didn’t get the response you felt was appropriate, but take a few moments to consider:

  • Broomstick is severely under-employed and was completely unemployed for several months.
  • Her husband has a chronic condition which compromises his health and costs a LOT of money for prescription medications. Currently, they can’t afford the necessary tests to make sure the medications aren’t harming him.
  • She is broke. Not “darn, I can’t afford pizza” broke, but “fuck, I can’t afford groceries broke”. She has no credit card and precious little cash to draw on. She, literally, does not have $60 to hand over for the use of a trap, even if she’ll get $55 back.
  • Now there is a threat to the food she’s been able to grow for herself, and her options for dealing with it are severely limited in ways which many of us consider unfair.

While ideally, her response should have been more considered and polite, she is under tremendous stress, and I’d speculate that she felt like no one was really listening.

And you? You’re employed, right? Bills are paid, right? Food on the table and roof over your head and no worries about where your next meal is coming from, right? Your husband and other loved ones are reasonably healthy, and you’re not staring at medical bills which would devour your entire paycheck, right?

She ranted at you, but she didn’t call you any names. She did not harm you. She did not wish you ill. She’s frustrated. She’s scared. She’s angry. She has every right to be.

It’s not about you, Shayna. I’m sorry you feel rejected and disrespected, but you had the opportunity to be a genuinely compassionate, giving person, and you blew it.

Wow. Just . . . wow. I realize that I’m just a stranger at a keyboard, but . . . you’re talking to another human being living through incredibly trying times. She snapped at you, and you . . . you wished frustration, stress, humiliation, and hunger on her.

Do you understand that this is no minor thing? You had the opportunity to show another person patience, compassion, and respect. Doing that when you feel respected is so easy as to be meaningless. Doing it when you feel disrespected is when it really matters.

I’ve been on this message board for years. I read a lot more than I post. I’ve read more than a few of the tiffs you’ve gotten into and thought it was nothing more than passionate feelings given expression. This? This wasn’t. This was mean, small, and vicious.

Honestly, Shayna, I thought you were a better person than that.

96

  1. The seedlings get dug up and those are to be full sized plants that feed you. It’s not just that there is shit left behind, the plants are killed. The neighbors cat dug up my peas twice this spring to shit. I lost a third of my plants. You can’t keep reseeding and putting off the harvest date.

  2. Saying she can’t afford not to buy something to stop the cat falls way short of reality. She can’t afford the cat destroying the food. She can’t afford the prevention. The fact that fencing plants in may protect stuff in the future, doesn’t work because it’s not something she can implement, so it’s irrelevant.

  3. I agree that swearing at the people by all parties is unacceptable and to be avoided. I recognize other’s don’t feel that way, so people don’t need to point out in a response to this that they’ll swear at people if they want to. I know you will.

97

How about a different approach? If you cannot afford to get/rent/“donate-to-borrow” a trap and you don’t have means at your disposal to get possession of the cat through other means, how about perusing the free section of Northwest Indiana Craigslist for stuff you could use to gradually fence the garden? You’d have to be scappy and innovative and the resulting fence would no doubt be ugly, but you’d have the satisfaction of solving your problem through ingenuity and persistence.

Or you could use the free section to get stuff to build your own cat trap. Rube Goldberg? Sure.

Or you could post an ad in the barter section to offer groud-based flight instruction for help with the cat situation. If not ground-based flight instruction, you surely have some other talent or some stuff in your garage that you could offer in trade.

98

Everything in life has risk.

That said.

Kill. The. Fucking. Cat. And. Be. Done. With. It.

99

[QUOTE=Shayna]
Broomstick, I hope the cat keeps shitting in your yard and spoils every scrap of your food.
[/QUOTE]

Now that’s really cold. Rises nearly to the level of evil, in my book. Or at least tilting towards that direction. And I’ve seen evil.

In fact, I’m scheduled to see evil again in about 20 minutes. Gotta run.

100

[QUOTE=t-bonham@scc.net]
I’m not sure why you consider this a problem?

On our farm, we pay a neighbor to haul manure from his pigs and distribute it on our fields and our vegetable garden. It’s called fertilizer, and it greatly improves the yield we get.

If this cat is fertilizing your garden for free, why is that a problem?
[/QUOTE]

  1. Manure needs to mature a bit before being good fertilizer. Pure fresh piss can burn plants.

  2. Carnivore shit does not make good compost, and is more likely to be carrying disease that the shit of an herbivore.

  3. F. domesticus buries it’s waste. It’s the digging that’s causing the most damage. The cat is ripping up the plants. If it was JUST a turd deposit lying on top of the ground it wouldn’t be nearly the problem that the digging is.