Begging for helps with cats

[islandgirl82]

Hehe that's right, it would be too expensive and also wouldn't stop them from using my garden as a litter.

BoodyMama, I didn't even think about that. There a hundreds of free cats in the classified adds. And that implies catching the kitty, making a picture, putting it on the web and keeping the cat until someone calls. That is way too much work and danger for me. I have no idea where I'd put those cats to keep the diseases out of my house.

I have 2 dogs and a cat, and in no way I am putting my own animals in danger because of stray cats that are NOT my responsibility (and my house as well, cat pee stinks and the smell stays for a long time!!). My primary responsibility as a dog and cat owner is to make sure they are safe and healthy. Exposing them to animals that I know for a fact are sick is not something I want. But yeah, in the ideal world I could have done that.. if the cats were healthy and sociably, but they are not .

And feeding those cats is the worst idea in my head. They are not neutered. My house is surrounded on two sides by a river, on the right by the cat lady and in front there is a road and a field. All the cats and future baby cats are almost stuck on my property forever. They can cross the road but in front of my house it's a field. Not much food there - except mice.. they much prefer to stay near a house, near trash cans and chickens and birds that are an easy catch for them. A cat population grows crazy fast with 2-3 males and 10 females. Ouch, I cannot imagine my life in 2 years if I'd feed them

Everything that you think of that is nice (re-homing them, feeding them, drive them to the shelter) is OK for 1-2 cats (and I have do it many times in the past) but with 10-20-30 it is humanly impossible, unless we are very rich or have a LOT of spare time.

I'm sorry I sounded mean and cruel previously. I love animals, I was a vet assistant for many years. I've hand fed my dog because her mom dies on day 2. I volunteered to work with premature horses and had to milk the mothers, then bottle feed the babies, then go to work during the day! I worked at the biggest animal emergency clinic of my province helping dogs hit by cars, intoxicated, etc. I have tattoos of animals all over my body. I've asked my neighbour if I could help re-house the cats when she still kept them in the VR. I told her I could groom them for her, make pictures, etc. She refused my help. The town, the shelters, the newspapers, the police, the neighbours ALL refused to help me.

I tried, a lot. But.. having bought my house mainly for the large lawn space. My goal in life is to be self sufficient.

After having dug 996 square foot of gardening space BY HAND and grown my veggies from seeds, then transplanted all of it to see it all die, I decided I could not be nice anymore ;( It's my dream, it's my money, my work.. all gone now ;(

Our local shelter takes in feral cats, treats them for whatever they can, spays/neuters them and once they have a clean bill of health, they offer them for free to people looking specifically for outdoor/barn cats. They call them "Barn Buddies". Hopefully your local shelter does the same or something similar with those who are healthy enough to be rehomed. You've done what you can and you're finally getting the help you needed so now they can get what they need.

 

[horsechick48]

Hehe that's right, it would be too expensive and also wouldn't stop them from using my garden as a litter.

BoodyMama, I didn't even think about that. There a hundreds of free cats in the classified adds. And that implies catching the kitty, making a picture, putting it on the web and keeping the cat until someone calls. That is way too much work and danger for me. I have no idea where I'd put those cats to keep the diseases out of my house.

I have 2 dogs and a cat, and in no way I am putting my own animals in danger because of stray cats that are NOT my responsibility (and my house as well, cat pee stinks and the smell stays for a long time!!). My primary responsibility as a dog and cat owner is to make sure they are safe and healthy. Exposing them to animals that I know for a fact are sick is not something I want. But yeah, in the ideal world I could have done that.. if the cats were healthy and sociably, but they are not .

And feeding those cats is the worst idea in my head. They are not neutered. My house is surrounded on two sides by a river, on the right by the cat lady and in front there is a road and a field. All the cats and future baby cats are almost stuck on my property forever. They can cross the road but in front of my house it's a field. Not much food there - except mice.. they much prefer to stay near a house, near trash cans and chickens and birds that are an easy catch for them. A cat population grows crazy fast with 2-3 males and 10 females. Ouch, I cannot imagine my life in 2 years if I'd feed them

Everything that you think of that is nice (re-homing them, feeding them, drive them to the shelter) is OK for 1-2 cats (and I have do it many times in the past) but with 10-20-30 it is humanly impossible, unless we are very rich or have a LOT of spare time.

I'm sorry I sounded mean and cruel previously. I love animals, I was a vet assistant for many years. I've hand fed my dog because her mom dies on day 2. I volunteered to work with premature horses and had to milk the mothers, then bottle feed the babies, then go to work during the day! I worked at the biggest animal emergency clinic of my province helping dogs hit by cars, intoxicated, etc. I have tattoos of animals all over my body. I've asked my neighbour if I could help re-house the cats when she still kept them in the VR. I told her I could groom them for her, make pictures, etc. She refused my help. The town, the shelters, the newspapers, the police, the neighbours ALL refused to help me.

I tried, a lot. But.. having bought my house mainly for the large lawn space. My goal in life is to be self sufficient.

After having dug 996 square foot of gardening space BY HAND and grown my veggies from seeds, then transplanted all of it to see it all die, I decided I could not be nice anymore ;( It's my dream, it's my money, my work.. all gone now ;(

Ill try to keep thinking of something that might help you. I wish there was a simple answer.
Have you looked for just cat rescues around. Sometimes the local shelters arent very helpful but if you look for private places that just do cats they might be of help.

 

[jwood]

Maybe if you made a call to your local news or newspaper? Maybe if some people in the area hear your story they will offer to help? Some might come trap the cats for you or a die hard rescue may come and take them all. You never know. It's worth a shot.

 

[Sabz]

Maybe if you made a call to your local news or newspaper? Maybe if some people in the area hear your story they will offer to help? Some might come trap the cats for you or a die hard rescue may come and take them all. You never know. It's worth a shot.

I did
On saturday I was fed up, I wrote an email and CCed the whole planet. The email had all the previous complaints I made to the town, including their answers lol.
I sent pictures.
I also asked all facebook to share the story!

And it moved, because I just received an email that the shelter will be calling me this afternoon to come and place cages on my property to catch the cats! I guess / hope the city was starting to feel stupid.

Otherwise I'd go in court. It's a city law and they are not reinforcing it, so I guess I would win in court.


BarnBuddies!!! This is so cute. I've never heard of such a thing here.
I feel that we (Quebec I mean) have a huge lack in animal laws / shelters / general knowledge by the population, etc.
Some places are so called shelters but keep the animals in very poor conditions. People complain a lot, but nothing happens. It is very hard to get those places to close, it takes many years and a lot of supporters, most of the time.

Since my cat story begun, I've read lots of newspapers and a lot of cities have similar complaints from citizens. Very rarely do the cities help. In Montreal, last I heard some people were making the cats "disappear" or attaching mean messages/threats to their collars - if they had one. the police says it's not their jurisdiction. The cities claim the cats are stray so the city cannot be held responsible. The shelters are cracked full of abandoned animals, so they ask for a fee if we want to abandon another one..

I wish there was a neutering pill. Put that in some cat food, they eat it, then they become sterile and don't make any new babies .

 

[islandgirl82]

Animal hoarding is unfortunately a growing problem and situations like this, sadly aren't uncommon. Our shelters here rely heavily on volunteers as well as fund-raising events and sponsors. I hope that with your contact to the town, police and especially the media, it becomes a catalyst in raising awareness of this growing problem and people are inspired to actually do something about it including developing legitimate organizations to help.

 

[toynutz]

Wow... just, wow. To think your city wouldn't help until they got some bad publicity. I feel so bad that you lost your lovely summer to this horror story. I really hope the city pulls thru for you... in the meantime, you could try spraying them with a hose whenever you see them and putting down a thick line of pepper spray on some of their known pathways around your property. Good luck with this and keep us posted!

 

[Sabz]

Post removed by Staff

 

[RichnSteph]

I truly hope everything works out for you. We had a similar situation with my grandmothers neighbor across the street. Dozens of cats that roam the entire neighborhood getting into trash, attacking other animals, peeing on everything they wanted to including vehicles. They were attacking my grandmothers chickens. Pooped in every flower pot and garden bed she had so much that we couldn't harvest the veggies without raking ahead of us hoping not to step in poop. They peed around the place so much that we could smell it from half a block away on warm moist days. The neighbors stance was "cats will be cats", the city said it wasn't their job, the police said the same and the county claimed it was someone else' responsibility but didn't know whose. After months of this I took the rather drastic and distasteful tactic of setting a trap in the evening and waking up early in the morning to shoot the cat in the trap and dump it in the river. Weeks of this went on until we moved out of grams place (we were waiting on our home to be finished). We took her chickens and brought them out here to raise and get them away from the darn cats back in June and guess what has happened since... the cats have been busy being cats and now there are more of them than ever and I can't afford the fuel to drive 40 minutes one way twice a day to take care of them and gram is too kind to shoot them herself. Now the house and property once again is covered in pee and poop and after decades of being a gardener and loving her flowers outside she's resigned to never having a garden or orchids again. It breaks my heart to see her like this and infuriates me that the neighbors don't care and the city/county/police refuse to help. I don't know what to do at this point. Gram has even considered selling the family home that we've owned since 1972 to get away but the realtors tell her that the smell of cat is so strong that it has devalued the half million dollar home that her and my grandfather built and she'd be lucky to sell it for full price.

I have no sympathy for wild cats..... none.

I pray that you get resolution in this and that you can start up the garden next spring without dealing with feral felines and useless neighbors. Id love to see all 996 square feet of your garden planted and flourishing.


RichnSteph

 

[islandgirl82]

I would be contacting an attorney and the media first. This is absolutely ridiculous and if anyone should be paying these fees, it's your town. If they had upheld their own law in the first place this wouldn't be an issue.

 

[bobbi-j]

I would be contacting an attorney and the media first. This is absolutely ridiculous and if anyone should be paying these fees, it's your town. If they had upheld their own law in the first place this wouldn't be an issue.

I agree - an attorney if you can afford it, and the media for sure. That stinks! The garbage can idea sounds more pleasant than drowning, although you're goign to have a frantic cat or two in your garbage can until the CO2 kicks in. You're going to have to do something.

RichnSteph - I'm thinking of your grandma's garden. It's so sad that she can't garden anymore. At this point, I don't even know that it would be healthy for her to do so with all that's in the soil from the waste of all those cats...