We have a stray cat in our basement at the moment, and City bylaw people who deal with stray animals won’t have anything to do with it. The cat has gone to ground in a small space under our basement stairs, and won’t come out. What can we do to get this cat out and trap it and take it off to the Humane Society? (It has to go - we have a cat ourselves, and we can’t have this stray cat making itself at home in our back yard or our freaking HOUSE!)
Oh yeah, the cat got in because we leave the door open a crack to let our cat get out into our cat-proofed for an old cat back yard. I suspect it ate all of our cat’s food this morning - it knows where the food is, and it will be back, I’m sure.
My friend had a good experience with trapping a few cats that had taken up residence in her front yard. We went and got the cages for free and then when trapped delivered them off for free spaying and neutering. As I recall the food in the cage was enough to lure them inside the cages. Good luck.
Can you rig up some sort of flap at the access point that allows the cat to go out, but not back in? Failing that, a humane trap. Bait it with tuna or canned cat food. Most rescues and animal control agencies will have them, probably for a nominal rental fee.
Get your hands on a humane cat trap (sounds like some animal societies provide them temporarily for free as per MonkeyMensch), put the food in it, and keep your own cat somewhere else until the beast is caught. That’s how my family always dealt with animals we didn’t want roaming our backyards.
Also works on groundhogs, and other beasties of the same general size as a cat. If you have to buy the trap, maybe if you don’t think you’ll have a further need for the trap you can sell it on craigslist or the like.
I actually have four of them. A neighbor and I do TNR (trap-neuter-release) on stray cats through a non-profit. They do spay/neuter and shots for about $40.00.
If you go that route, be prepared to cover the trap with a blanket right after the cat is contained. And keep it safe until you can transport it. Trapped cats sometimes totally wig out and slam around in the cage hurting themselves. Providing darkness prevents that.
Update: Kitty is out and at the local vet clinic! We ended up taking the front of the step off to get at the cat, and sort of fishing around with a long pole to…encourage the cat to get the hell out of there. It went up and over all the roadblocks we had set up and ended up in a basement window well, then my husband and his friend cornered the cat and eventually got it into a box with a lid. The cat was fairly traumatized, but no real damage done as far as we could see, and my husband just got one little scratch, so it went about as well as it possibly could.
Now I have to go see if I can get all the smelly fear-pee out of the basement. :mad:
Irresponsible pet owners, man - I’d like to see them get what’s coming to them. I don’t think this was a feral cat - it had nice long hair with no tangles or snags, and was quite well-fed. I think someone had a pet cat, and they just opened the door and let it roam the neighbourhood, to be a pain in someone else’s ass. :mad: :mad:
I also meant to mention that I asked about a trap, but there’s a waiting list for those here. I think we might buy our own - I really never want someone else’s cats in my yard.
On this page, third down, is a folding cat trap that I’ve bought for people. Our shelter uses this website for purchasing trapping supplies, but if they don’t ship to Canada or you want to price shop, just giving you the name and dimensions as a starting point for you. This one’s nice because it folds up, great for seldom use.
They checked for a chip, but couldn’t find one. No tags, no tattoo either. I believe the cat will be sent to the Humane Society for re-homing, because there’s no way to contact the owners. Stupid humans, indeed. He was a big, handsome, long-haired tabby who seemed to have a nice personality, in spite of being very stressed - I hope he finds a better home.
Sounds like he thought yours might be an option ;). Kudos for getting him out, and for taking him where he has a chance. I have climbed down wells ( the 1700s hand dug kind) and dismantled parts of walls to get kittens. Sometimes they wouldn’t stay in the barn…and every cat I could catch was neutered.