I am allergic to cats. I don’t really hate the damn things, but I really don’t like cats either, maybe due to my allergies. In order to prevent the cats from reproducing on my property, I set traps and take them to animal control who bitch at me for not taking the vermin at the right time or for not being a home owner in the community.
I have talked to my neighbors and told them to keep their cats out of my yard, and they all agree until I get one of their cats in my traps late at night. The two times I have returned a cat, I was looked at as though I had trapped a child. I had one tell me, “You can’t control what a cat does when you let it out.”
A nearby neighbor got pissed when I told her that her animal was at the shelter. She said, “You should have known the cat belonged to someone when you saw that the hair was cut.”
Finally, I like birds. I don’t like the fact that the birds I tend to may become the prey of the beasts that some cannot control.
“Hey neighbor, I caught your dog pooping in my yard again.”
“Well, you know dogs. They’ll go where they go. Haha.”
“Haha haha not if they’re dead. Haha”
I like cats fine also but I don’t want one around. Nonetheless, my neighbor’s cat comes into my yard and shits in my garlic bed. I don’t like that. It is irresponsible for people to own animals and not control them. If you’re neighbors really cared about their cats they would keep them in doors, especially now that they know there is a cat trapper nearby. They won’t, and you will be (are?) hated. But for what it’s worth I salute you.
No, you can’t control a cat, unless it’s on a leash or within walls (with a ceiling). The promise to do so was where the trouble began.
My cats are indoor cats *because *I can’t control their movements outdoors. Seeing as we live in a city, there’s too high a risk of cars, not to mention coyotes and nasty huge rats and alley cats and 'possums and racoons for a cat to tussle with and catch nasty viruses or be injured or killed. If I had a neighbor who was trapping cats and taking them to animal control, it’d be another reason for me to keep my cats indoor-only cats.
I’m not going to say you shouldn’t trap them - your yard, “your” birds, your rules. But I will say that you shouldn’t blame people for not keeping their cats in their own yard - you should blame them for agreeing they would when they can’t. Not if they keep them outdoor or outdoor/indoor cats.
There are motion-activated systems that spray water when something comes into your yard. It would be less time-intensive than trying to trap the cats. Of course, you wouldn’t have to spend time and money on this if people would take responsibility for their own pets.
No, you really can’t. You can keep the cat indoors, but it’s still just a matter of time before they get out (exceptions from Dopers who have “trained” their cat not to like the outdoors aside). And you can’t fence them in like dogs.
You have a better shot controlling your birds, which I assume are in cages, so I don’t know why cats are a problem for them. If you let them out, you’re not controlling them just as much as the people who you claim aren’t controlling their cats.
I do wonder how you manage to trap the cats if you’re so allergic that them merely being in your yard causes you problems. Do you have someone else handle them for you or something?
It’s not a good idea to get on your neighbors’ bad side, either. The water suggestion would be a lot better. Sending a cat to a shelter is generally just a delayed method of killing them. I don’t own cats anymore, but I know that, back when I did, going to a shelter is the last thing I would have ever thought of, so my cat would likely be dead.
So I get where your neighbor is coming from, even if you have legitimate reasons to keep cats off your property. (Generally speaking, they don’t do anything, so I don’t get cat haters. I get plenty of strays in my yard. The most I do is scare them away.)
I don’t know where the OP lives, but this (bolded part) is a bad way to view the issue.
I have spent hundreds (yes, multiple hundreds) cleaning up the feral cat population here. Now, my neighbor would have called them “their cats” because they joked about feeding them and how they started with two and had reached over 20. But in fact they were unaltered cats, left to breed and run wild. They routinely had their sickly kittens in my hay, the carcases destroying a LOT of hay that was no longer safe once you have 3-4 dead animals rotted in it. They are also a vector for disease. So, when I get a cat stuck between boards in a stall, I don’t know if it is there because it slipped or because it is in the final stages of rabies. I trap them out and turned them in for euthanasia. I do this to every stray cat on the farm. I have 2 cats here that are altered and maintained. Their only purpose is to maintain the territory and prevent the idiot neighbor’s new acquisitions from attempting to move in. My dog also knows the difference between the two farm cats that she does not touch and strange cats that she will run down and kill like any other rodent on the farm. (It is not a pretty sight, but I am not going to correct her for doing her job of keeping rodents off the farm)
My neighbor has a simple solution to it all. He shoots any cat on sight. It would be cheaper all around if I could do the same, but I can’t stand the thought of not having a clean kill on them.
Then there are the coyotes, who make quick meals of cats if they venture out into their territory. And the hawks and Owls that will go after the smaller cats who aren’t quite smart enough to look up.
I’ve posted all of this to say that IF you have a PET CAT that you are attached to and that you would like to have around TOMORROW… it is a bad idea to let them wander loose and blame your neighbor when something happens.
Just like my neighbor, if your cat in on my property, it is the same as a ground hog or a raccoon… it is a pest and a potential for disease to my animals. If my dog doesn’t kill it, it will be trapped out and turned into an already overloaded shelter who will put it down w/in 24 hours of turn in.
It has taken about five years, but my cat problem has been resolved. I don’t know if the neighbor quit getting new cats; if they decided to keep them indoors; of if my dog gets them before I see them… but I rarely see a stray cat on the farm anymore and as far as I’m concerned, that is the desired state.
I don’t like the idea of the trapping. We keep our cats 100% indoors, but I live in fear that one of them might accidentally get out. There is a woman in our neighborhood who does set traps for cats and I don’t think much of her. I’m doing everything I can to keep my cats safe and out of her way, and people should be responsible pet owners, but it’s weird to think there’s someone in the neighborhood who almost relishes trapping cats. I haven’t seen any feral cats around - I’m sure there are some, but I don’t think it’s enough in this neighborhood for her to be able to say she’s being overrun by cats.
You probably aren’t seeing feral cats because the woman is trapping them out.
If you showed her your cat, she would probably return it if for some reason it was accidentally trapped. (When I approached my neighbor, they thought neutering was a wast of money and found it ‘cute’ how they had a huge cat herd running around)
I don’t know about other regions, but in this area, two stray cats can create a large population very quickly (2 cats became 20+ cats in less than 5 years because the neighbor was feeding them, but not doing anything else. The neighbor LAUGHED about the huge pack of cats that came running for their feed).
The lack of feral cats in your area is actually helping to protect your cat from the diseases that the feral cats can bring into or spread in your area. The cats I trapped out were not healthy, some were deformed (inbreeding?) and many where sickly. Each winter, several (say about 10) froze to death amongst my hay. Feral cats are not the least bit cute.
I missed the edit window, but I also wanted to post that obviously, any cat turned into my local shelter with a RFID tag would be returned to the owner registered with the RFID tag. So, that is another way to protect a cat that may get out occasionally. In my area, return of a pet that has gotten loose and been turned in costs about $35 + any tag of licenses that they are supposed to have.
One other point, there is a group in my area that traps out cats on a continuous basis in some areas. They are a no-kill group and I helped them to collect traps on occasion. They have a huge building FULL OF CATS seeking homes. So just because someone is trapping out cats, does not mean that cat will be put down. If you cat goes missing, it could be worth the time to call around to see if it has been turned in to the local shelters. – I personally think most cats become some other animal’s dinner.
For the record, the cats I trapped were absolutely wild and dangerous to handle. My neighbor was notified that I was getting rid of the feral cats after I lost hundreds of dollars of hay the first winter. Had they wanted to ‘save’ them, they could have built a cattery and started taking care of them. But they couldn’t be bothered to even do basic vaccines and rabies shots.
My cats stay in the back yard along with the dogs. They could easily jump the fence but they don’t. I have no idea why. My only theory is they are affraid to go where the dogs can’t. (Security, I guess?)
Beofre that I had a cat that would disappear for days at a time, until he finally just didn’t come home one day. Oh well, that’s nature I guess.
It’s possible to keep a cat contained in a yard BUT it requires a special kind of fencing with an overhang at the top that prevents them from climbing out (and, obviously, no trees that overhang the fence). But really, they should just be keeping the cat indoors. If they’re upset about their cat getting trapped, what would happen if the cat ran afoul of a dog with a nice strong prey drive?
I have read quite a bit about ailurophobia and it’s wretched victims from Napoleon to Lord Roberts and came to the conclusion that suicide is the only answer for such sufferers.
I would try to stop the cats attending the funeral if that helps.
I have an indoor cat who I adore. But I really don’t like cleaning my own litterbox - having cat feces in my flowerbeds is less fun because it isn’t my cat. And I LOVED cat shit in the sandbox when the kids were little - especially when they got to the age to take the top off the sandbox, but weren’t old enough to put it back on.
I think its a neighborhood thing though - there are very few roaming cats in my suburban neighborhood - my in laws inner city neighborhood is cat central - and its hard to know if they are pets or feral.
Around here, I assume the birds are why I only rarely see roaming cats, these days. Specifically, some impressively large hawks. They also seem to be keeping chipmunks, rabbits, and squirrels to a manageable level.
Surprise cat shit in my garden that I discover when working in the soil barehanded.
Paw prints all over my car.
Scratch marks going up the side of my car from climbing cats.
Dead Mice on my porch (a gift?)
Not quite dead mice on my porch
Pieces of mice on my porch
Cat hair all over my patio furniture.
Midnight serenades
kitten carcasses in my yard
dead bird in my yard
Archived GQ threadon the legality of killing (and trapping) trespassing cats.
If I were you, I would invest in a fence and share the costs with your neighbours/pet owners.
I agree with Big T. that it sounds rather contradictory for you to be too allergic to have cats in your yard, yet not allergic enough to trap and handle them and bring them to the shelter. Why don’t you just say honestly that you hate the cat trespassing and making a mess? And you kind of like hunting and pestering both cat and owner if the cat trespasses on your property?