Is the paperwork alluded to an FFL or something less stringent?
What has THAT to do with the fact that you’ve admitted in the past to trapping neighborhood cats and then drowning them?
You weren’t even living in the “wilds of rural America”, so what was your excuse?
Jesus. What the fuck kinda person does this?
I think I was too young to own a gun then. 
CrazyCatLady, I really think you should change your username to SaneCatLady.
For anyone who is even remotely still interested in this thread, I didn’t get a chance to talk to the neighbor this weekend.
The neighbors are avid gardeners, and usually outside much of the time on weekend days, and this makes it easy to strike up a conversation with them. Their cars were gone for much of the weekend, except for a stretch where it was raining pretty consistently and keeping them inside their house. I went over there for a sec and was going to run up and knock on the door, but that would have necessitated going onto the yucky porch, so I figured this could wait a week.
Regarding gun suggestions - thanks, but it’s not really cool on Long Island to be using firearms in residential neighborhoods. I already own a break-barrel pellet gun for any wildlife situations that might arise (including that raccoon I mentioned earlier in the thread). I doubt the situation will ever escalate to that. Besides, I doubt I could shoot a cat. Just wouldn’t seem right to me unless things escalated greatly.
Anyway, I looked in some of the home improvement stores for some sort of cat repellent and didn’t find anything that mentioned cats specifically on the label. My next move will involve looking online.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
A supper soaker might do it (ie high powered, battery powered water gun).
Cats REALLY don’t like being sprayed with water.
There is one problem associated with the dog solution, and that is barking. We have two smallish dogs in an enclosure behind our house. When a cat happens to amble through the property, the dogs bark their fool heads off. Dang cats.
Forgot to mention… I’m a dog person, but for a variety of reasons that include a 10-month-old child and some other stuff I’d rather not get into, we can’t have one. My wife does, actually, own a dog but it stays full-time with her parents.
The way I see it, there are two scenarios here - you may want to present these to your neighbors:
-
Your neighbors own the cats. (I know, insert joke here about how cats own YOU!) If they are the cats owners, then they must take responsibility for the actions of their pets. This includes keeping them out of your yard, and preventing them from damaging your property, or killing wildlife. They are the owners; they must be accountable for the actions of their cats. Owners have responsibilities. Since they are pets owned by the neighbors, you should work together to find a solution that keeps them from damaging your property or your ruining your enjoyment of your property.
-
Your neighbors do not own the cats. They are merely feeding them. ie. I have a bird feeder up, but I don’t own the birds. In this case, the neighbors still have a responsibility for the actions of the cats, since they are attracting them to their (and your) property with food. However, they do not have any say about what happens to the cats when they are on your property, or any property other than their own, any more than they have a say about what happens to the raccoon in your shed, or the mouse in your basement. So you have a free hand to do whatever is legal and ethical to rid your property of unwanted (and unowned) pests. They in turn have a responsibility to stop attracting these unwanted pests to your neighborhood.
Is there a nuisance ordinance covering cats where you live? Ours says that outdoor cats are required to have a collar and ID tag with the owner’s name. If not, they’re rounded up and disposed of.
Another thought – tell the neighbors you’re concerned about the health of the cats. Offer to share the cost of a vet check-up, vaccinations, spaying and neutering. When they say no, all they’re able to do is feed them, tell them you’re worried about living around animals that might be spreading diseases. When they say “What diseases?”, make something up. Like cat flu, or feline ebola.
Is it just the neighbor’s wife who feeds the cats? Is the husband okay with it too? Maybe he needs someone on his side to help convince his wife that having a filthy porch isn’t a good thing. “Honey, I’ve put up with this for a long time but now the nice new neighbors are complaining!”
Or, don’t make up any diseases - instead, give them a list of real diseases, such as toxoplasmosis, giardiasis, rabies, campylobacter, and other diseases and parasites that infect both domestic cats and humans
I’m sure there is. I tried calling the town animal shelter over the weekend, though, just to ask some questions and no one picked up. I guess I’ll try again Friday when I get my head above water at work.
Based on my initial conversation with the husband, I thought the wife was driving this. However, the brief couple minutes I did see the husband this weekend, he was emptying his car of groceries and I saw him run a big bag of cat food in from the car in the rain. So even if he’s not supportive of the notion of feeding the cats, he’s at least enabling.
I like your thinking. I have a problem with Mormons proselytising on weekends - do you do outcalls?
Alley Cat Allies
TNR guidelines:
http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=285
Quick update…
I’ve seen the neighbors twice since I last posted. The first time, both of them were backing out of their driveway. The second, I had company over and thought it wouldn’t be nice to take up the cat subject while people were hanging out at my place.
We trimmed some bushes back over the weekend, and we found a place where the cats had moved the lattice to the side and are accessing the area under my porch. So when I walk past the bushes and they dart out and startle me, it’s because they’re hanging out under the porch. Now I’ve really got a beef because the last thing I want is a feral cat giving birth under there. I’m sending some workers down there in the coming weeks to level the grade under the porch (it slopes toward the house, which could become a water intrusion problem) so I’ll ask them to let me know if they see any kittens or anything like that.
Might I suggest:
The Cat Stop:
The Cat Scat:
OR
Motion-activated sprinkler:
I loves me my Lee Valley Tools (also available in the US).
Thanks for the suggestions. I have a few concerns, though.
[ol]
[li]Do the ultrasonic things work? Unca Cecil wrote a column about this a long time ago, but I was under the impression they don’t really work.[/li][li]I don’t think I can put something with spikes on it in my yard. My daughter is learning how to walk. I’d be too paranoid.[/li][li]Do the sprinklers really work? If they’re only marginally effective, I’d probably avoid. This place has a nice sprinkler system and I’d be hesitant to schlep hoses.[/li][/ol]
This. They either own the cats or they don’t. If they do, they’re responsible for them. If they don’t, what happens to the cats shouldn’t concern them.
It’s the OP’er yard. He doesn’t want the cats in it. IMO he’s authorized to do whatever he wants to (that is otherwise legal) in order to keep them out. If that means the cats go to kitty heaven because they are too feral to find homes, thems the breaks.
And I don’t see why TNR is considered the perfect solution. He has a problem with the cats now. He doesn’t want them in his yard now. TNR ensures there will be no more cats later but is completely nonresponsive to the existing problem.
Cecil did a column on ultrasonic bug repellers, which are clearly useless. This is more like a motion activated air horn that only cats/dogs/other-non-human-animals can hear. It’s based on the logical idea that animals don’t care so much for sudden loud sounds, but I’m sure there are cats out there who won’t care about loud sounds (or sprinkling water) and the devices won’t work for them. I saw some reviews on Amazon for a product like this and it was about 50/50 “works great” and “piece of junk”, though many of the negative reviews had to do with battery life.