I have a new kitten, a wonderful creature who is as sweet and gentle as my Charlie, who I lost last june. Charlie was a happy indoor cat until the neighborhood cats started coming to the windows and taunting him with their ‘meowls’. He then tore through the screens and met his death on the road soon after.
Well, there is a very vocal orange car that keeps visiting my yard to sing to us. Once the weather warms up, I dont want to have to keep the windows shut to save my Murphy.
How (short of violence - maybe) can I get rid of the damn stray?
It obviously lives nearby, and unfortunately, if I were to trap it and turn it in to the spca, I can probably expect some nasty retaliation.
Not sure how much I can help with cat repellent but you made me remember my own little stray kitty I named Murphy. My Murphy could be gentle but she was from a nest of feral kittens and never lost her wild side. She could go from powder puff soft to piano wire hard in nothing flat and I admired that. I never managed to keep her inside but she was tough enough to hold her own against the red tailed hawk that hunted in the area. Not sure what killed her but guess it was some kind of poison. She curled up to sleep on a shelf and was cold the next morning, apparently never having been in distress.
As for repellent I think a little cayenne pepper could work wonders as could an industrail grade squirt gun.
The traditional method would be to gather old shoes and keep them near the window. I tried throwing a bucket of water at a cat a few times, and didn’t see him after that, but I don’t know if my bucket of water was the cause or not. It also entailed keeping a bucket of water handy near the door and trying to creep up on the offender. I actually only managed to fully splash the cat once, but the other times I was pretty close.
Kells, Orange Kitty wants to get laid, and for some odd reason he/she thinks your yard is the place to be.
If you want to be a good citizen but don’t mind being sneaky, trap Orange Kitty and bring it to SPCA and let them fix him/her. The owner is not responsible enough to take care of this, and in the grand scheme, what I am suggesting is the lesser of two evils.
If that’s too much for your morals, the squirt gun idea is great.
Yeah, the squirt gun (or one of those heavy duty machine gun thingies that shoot water, if you’re feeling macho!! I finally had to resort to a bb rifle, yeah, it does sting when it hits them but they tend to remember it, and they won’t come back. Just make sure it is the rifle, NOT the bb revolver, those can kill an animal, and I know you’d be heartbroken to do that, even to an annoying lovesick animal.
“It’s hard to avoid reading because ever wheres we go, reading is there.”
Won’t spaying/neutering your own cat keep the suitors away? My cat’s a male who was neutered as soon as possible, and he doesn’t seem to be very interested in going out. He talks a lot, but only seems interested in other cats as something to chase. Also, he doesn’t spray his little territorial markers anywhere. He’s a good boy.
I had a spayed female years ago and males never came around.
Peace,
mangeorge
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
Contact your local humane society or animal shelter and ask them if they have a feral neutering program. They’ll loan you a trap and neuter the animal (at no charge, some even give you a $5 reward as feral cats are such a huge cause of feline overpopulation.) If the animal is deemed fit for adoption, they’ll keep it at the shelter and try to place it in a home, if not it’s released back into the wild. If it’s adoptable that will solve your problem, and if it’s not, maybe you can convince them to release it in a neighborhood other than yours, haha.
Come to think of it…the little mongrelhas been pissing on my garbage too.
I dont think it would be classified as ‘feral’ though, it belongs to someone. Someone who doesnt give a damn what happens to it, but someone.
Goos ideas folks, thanks.
I finally had to resort to a bb rifle, yeah, it does sting when it hits them but they tend to remember it, and they won’t come back. Just make sure it is the rifle, NOT the bb revolver, those can kill an animal, and I know you’d be heartbroken to do that, even to an annoying lovesick animal.