The neighbours cat.

[Acre4Me]

For quite a year now we have problems with the neighbours cat.
The neighbour his girlfriend came live with him and brought this cat.
We are 99 procent sure that this is their cat.

We proofed our garden so my cat can't get out and annoy neighbours. An no cat get's in. But this cat is somehow an acrobat and mastermind in one. EVERYDAY we have to rescue the ducks for this cat; or think we have to. When young ones we find them backed up in the corner and have to rescue them. Now they chase him away but we are still awakened by the noice and we just hear in their quacks that they are not feeling safe afterwards. We don't sleep well. Sometimes it's 3 times. We hosed this cat with water a LOT. And one day he was stupid enough to go into the empty coop and I'm angry enough to close it. He went all loco. Through the whole cage jumping back and forth (dargnit dude, It is a big poop coop, I just closed the door.. and nothing else...) and managed to wurm himself through 1cm of wire... and stayed away for a week..and then returned.
Again daily.

I am afraid to talk to this neighbour.
I think you should not have a pet and lay the burdons upon others.
But where I live people think 'yeah, but cats need to be free, otherwise it is abuse'. (and your dog then?)
I'm a cat person. But I can't expect other people to be a cat person and find it okay to find cat-poo all over their garden and their fowl get killed...just so MY cat can be free.
I'm afraid that I ask friendly if he can keep his cat out of my yard he will suddenly complain about the quacking of the ducks. (which they don't, unless feeding time that we do diliberattly hours after the hours you can make noise, from 07.00 in the morning it is allowed and we do 09.00. And they are soft quackers for the rest, and he said he never heard them) and the rest of their loud quacks is because of their cat.

What to do?

Your profile indicates you are in the Netherlands. What is a typical procedure there for unruly house pets? For not remaining in their yard? How does one report an animal there? Can you trap and drop it off to a humane society?

Here in the US, there is some variation, but generally an animal harassing livestock is definitely considered a nuisance. Also, if an animal is taken into a shelter then the owner needs to pay to get it back and it is documented that they are not controlling their animal. Usually paying the collection fee to get their animal back 1x fixes the owner and they keep better control. But, if not, then you have documentation of repeat offense. You could install a game camera to document the problem.

 

[Ginmary]

Are you able to approach or pet the cat? I'd consider smearing some duck poop on it. Once that gets brought into their house they may decide to keep the cat away from the ducks.

 

[tigger19687]

I have a neighbor like this.

Trap the cat, bring it to shelter and act Dumb.

If it was me I may or may not remove the collar. If I saw the owner being mean to the cat I would take the collar off so he doesn't get it back to be mean to it again.

Or maybe a rubber pellet gun is enough to deter the cat?

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Ik heb een buurman als deze.

Trap de kat, breng hem naar zijn schuilplaats en handel stom.

Als ik het was, kan ik de halsband wel of niet verwijderen. Als ik zag dat de eigenaar gemeen tegen de kat was, zou ik de halsband afnemen zodat hij het niet meer terug krijgt om er weer gemeen tegen te zijn.

Of misschien is een rubberen pelletgeweer genoeg om de kat af te schrikken ?

Maar ik ben in dezelfde geest als je partner .... gebruik de schop. We noemen het de drie S's hier, schieten schoppen en zwijgen. Ik heb het gewoon niet in mij om het echt te doen.

 

[Loopeend]

This cat tried to attack ducklings below full adulthood and corners one of them. Any older he has trouble to get them in a corner because they fight back. But it still upsets them. They loudly call us awake and are visibly shocked for an hour afterwards. And they possibly awake other neighbours too.

We don't feel like putting them in a cage all the time. We don't have many birds of prey or any prey-seeking-animals. The only ones we have to watch are the jay's and crows when we have ducklings, but for some reason the ducks created some packt with the crows in our chimney's... or the crows with us...the crows chase the jay's away when near our ducklings, probably because we don't chase them away out of our chimney's and we allow them to crack wallnuts from our roof. So we don't have too, so we don't want to for someones sweet 'whitesocks'.

Pellet guns are not allowed here. My partner wanted to buy one too. But it is all big words, the thing with the shovel, we are too kind to actual kill a cat because it just 'catting' and his owners are anti-social.

The prodecure is going to the city hall, for months, after months, and months...and nothing happeneds. And most of the time escelates in a full-on neighbourfight.

Anyway, my partner started a friendly-offensive first. He brings him duck-eggs now every week. And thén is going to ask if he could keep his cat of our property hahaha!

 

[Acre4Me]

This cat tried to attack ducklings below full adulthood and corners one of them. Any older he has trouble to get them in a corner because they fight back. But it still upsets them. They loudly call us awake and are visibly shocked for an hour afterwards. And they possibly awake other neighbours too.

We don't feel like putting them in a cage all the time. We don't have many birds of prey or any prey-seeking-animals. The only ones we have to watch are the jay's and crows when we have ducklings, but for some reason the ducks created some packt with the crows in our chimney's... or the crows with us...the crows chase the jay's away when near our ducklings, probably because we don't chase them away out of our chimney's and we allow them to crack wallnuts from our roof. So we don't have too, so we don't want to for someones sweet 'whitesocks'.

Pellet guns are not allowed here. My partner wanted to buy one too. But it is all big words, the thing with the shovel, we are too kind to actual kill a cat because it just 'catting' and his owners are anti-social.

The prodecure is going to the city hall, for months, after months, and months...and nothing happeneds. And most of the time escelates in a full-on neighbourfight.

Anyway, my partner started a friendly-offensive first. He brings him duck-eggs now every week. And thén is going to ask if he could keep his cat of our property hahaha!

Good Luck. Problems with neighbors can be very trying and you are right - it can escalate, especially with already unreasonable people. The gift of duck eggs might work, especially if neighbor really likes them. You might be able to use that as a reason, ducks are stressed by cat and are laying less... Might be meaningful to the neighbor.

 

[JerryR708]

All the neighbors cats used my yard as a playground and cat litter box because I was the only neighbor that had no dogs. As soon as I got a rooster, I never saw a cat in my yard ever again. Cats are terrified of my big mean RIR rooster. Now I can enjoy chicken fertilizer to help my plants grow, instead of cat poop poisoning my plants. The neighbor with some of the cats said that my rooster makes noise at 5am every morning. I told the neighbor that her cats leave piles of poop in my yard every morning and I hear their dogs barking all night. At least my chickens let them sleep all night until 5am, unlike a barking dog that can go on all night.

 

[Tatuana]

Ah, so I'm the other side of the fence on this issue. My cats are horrible and do NOT stay put.

Years have trying have shown that water and cat B Gone type scents don't work. Neither does hauling off the cat, sadly. The cat could be very special to the girlfriend and killing it may not be the kindest.

What DOES work is motion activatrd air horns. You can get them cheap off Amazon. Kitty goes by and horrible noise spooks them off. It's worked for me! I'd try putting it up where the chickens aren't roaming so it doesn't get triggered by them. It may spooks them, but after a while the cat should learn.


Also, the way he acts leads me to believe he's not fixed? You could trap it and spay it. It settles down wild cats a LOT. My cat was feral until I fixed him. He'd note bite me all the time. Now he's a snuggle bug. It may be something to look into.

When I am on my laptop I can give more tips and tricks. I've faught with my rescue cats for 13+ years, I've learned a lot!

 

[Doc7]

How does a cat get through 1 cm gap? If a cat can escape your coop, all manner of other predators can get in. He may have just saved some future chickens for you.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm not all lovey dovey about cats either. The neighbors all turn theirs loose. The one from across the street not only pooped in my flower bed but, upchucked there also. I usually try putting out cayenne pepper(works for dogs too) but, wind or rain and that's wiped out.

 

[drumstick diva]

BTW someone on BYC once mentioned buying plastic forks (Dollar Store) and having them set in garden beds, etc. business end UP. I got quite an amount of them in neon colors from $ tree and then being feeble minded forgot to set them out last summer.

Might even keep squirrels etc from digging holes too.