Neighbors Cat

[21hens-incharge]

I am in town. A neighbors cat started coming round to harass my birds. I have bantams so the risk was real.
The cat was a horrid biting thing. Cat bites are no joke. They get really infected really fast.

After managing to get the phone number off the collar I called them. We chatted about how dangerous it was to not only my birds but to the cat since there is a main road really close.

A week later it was back, and another week and another.
I grew tired of calling them. It got a free ride to the pound and I explained the entire issue to them.

Never saw that cat again.

I won't give that many chances in the future.

No need to kill it but the pound does come with heavy fines. Oh and here unless you have darn good reason not to spay or neuter you don't get it back until that is done.

 

[bald Rooster]

Wow people really love cats!
This cat isn't a every day visitor.At least I don't think it is. Im not sure its a male.
Truth is I think its a female and she just urinated in my feed room In some of the lose hay on my dirty floor.
I have no intent of harming it. Or even troubling the people at the old folks home in the woods 400 feet from my barn, about there cat. ( I Think its theres) Then again there is a black and white Tom hiding in my old trailer house in the back of my land! HMM
Any way I have some extra wire laying around And Im just going to close all the openings into my feed room. Thats were my brooder is.
Thanks for your comments it has been very interesting !

 

[RiverOtter]

LOL, @Brahma Chicken5000 , it actually works just as well on really crappy neighbors. It's really, really hard to justify, even to yourself, being a jerk when someones been nothing but nice to you. I had another neighbor who spent all his time just spoiling for a fight, but when my pig got loose, he had to suck it up from the memory of the 3 times his did and I was sweet and kind about it and the whole town knew I had been.
No one wants to think they're the bad guy, even when they're a jerk.

@Ruralhideaway , I've had really good results with both OdoBan and when that fails, this;
http://www.scoe10x.com/
I keep a bunch of barn cats because packrats are a plague near me and however bad the occasional tom spraying is (I like my cats fixed, but people see mine and want to dump more here) holes chewed in things is way worse. A cheap pressure washer is great for cleaning not only walls, but horse blankets. Once you have your walls clean, an old-fashioned coat of whitewash (1 part salt, 3 parts barn lime, water to the consistency of half and half) is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Do you have horses still? Here's my youngster, 4 years old and started under saddle this summer

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

LOL, @Brahma Chicken5000 , it actually works just as well on really crappy neighbors. It's really, really hard to justify, even to yourself, being a jerk when someones been nothing but nice to you. I had another neighbor who spent all his time just spoiling for a fight, but when my pig got loose, he had to suck it up from the memory of the 3 times his did and I was sweet and kind about it and the whole town knew I had been.
No one wants to think they're the bad guy, even when they're a jerk.

I really dislike them! They made me get rid of my first flock. I’ll try to be nice to them but no way am I sharing my eggs!

 

[Ruralhideaway]

Thanks @RiverOtter I'll get some of that.

I feed cats that show up and do what I can for them. Four of them have wormed their way inside even, but once in they stay in. Nothing starves here and they tell all their friends! Toms happen randomly and the crazy ones usually don't stay to be trapped and fixed. The ones that I consider my barn cats take care of all the small rodents and young rats so they are welcome.

Still have a barnfull of horses but quit training for others. The ground got so hard!

 

[lazy gardener]

River Otter, you made a very good rebuttal to my post. I have had extensive conversations with local ACO regarding wandering dogs who have threatened myself and my husband, have wandered into our house, and would gleefully have killed my fenced flock if we were not at the time present to stand guard.

Your post caused me to search the Maine state laws regarding animal tresspass and damage caused by them. According to state law, the land owner can seek civil damages for all injury to property or pets caused by tresspassing animals. This would include the neighborhood cat who sprays my personal property, uses a child's sand box as a litter box, uses the garden as a litter box. And the land owner has the right to shoot the dog who is in act of aggression towards land owner or his livestock or pets.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

LG the stray dogs wander into your house?!

 

[SW31]

A couple of thoughts came to mind reading the excellent posts. Firstly we have a very much loved cat who thinks she can fight with everyone but always end up the expensive loser. We were on lookout when we moved to France due to the feral cats. If we see one we react immediately before our cat knows anything; they rarely come back. We keep an old water pistol just in case.
If you know who the cat owner is politely ask them if they have liability coverage if their animal attacks yours. I know you don’t want to deal with it after the event, as we are at the moment, but people start to realise there will be a cost if they don’t do something. Sometimes the ‘nudge’ factor can work. Our problem here is the domestic dogs, stupid lazy owners and the hunters dogs.

 

[ben0125]

I think not. It's well within the land owner's rights to protect his property. My neighbor's rights end where my property line begins. Unless the person who's property is being ravaged lives in a no shoot zone, then, he can pull out the lead pills and use them. However, in the case of a cat that belonged to a neighbor, I think I'd first use paint balls. After that, if the cat continued to cause problems on MY LAND, he would simply disappear. We have fishers, coyotes, GHO, and fox in my neighborhood. Lots of wandering cats go missing.

Sorry, my mistake. But however I don't think you should shoot the cat, roaming around is natural for them. I may be wrong but I am just imagining a little boy/girl in tears hearing their cat had been shot.

 

[lazy gardener]

LG the stray dogs wander into your house?!

Yes. I live in a raised ranch. One rainy day, hubby and I had come in for lunch, and inadvertantly left both the overhead garage door open, as well as the pass door through the basement and stairs. I heard a noise, and turned around in time to see the same 2 dogs who had been involved in a stand off with us several weeks earlier come trotting up the stairs just as if they lived here! So, I calmly walked behind them closed the cellar door, and called the ACO, telling him that he'd better get over here and pick up these 2 strays. Stupid, perhaps. But, in the house, they showed no signs of aggression, and I wasn't about to let them run loose again without getting ACO involved in more than a phone call (which was placed during the stand off incident, but not knowing where the dogs came from, there was no way for ACO to follow up.)