what do you do with a neighbors cat.

[talos321]

There is a feral cat we affectionately named Mambo. She is very old maybe 15 years or more and was here before we moved here. She's good around the grown chickens but the chicks I keep put up in a small dog kennel (exchanged chain link with hardware cloth) with a house until they get at least her size.

Sometimes she does steal a few pellets from the chickens. She does kill a lot of mice and attacks snakes, dogs, foxes anything that enters our property. After 5 years she tolerates a little bit of petting . I was surprised one day to see a huge dog sniffing around the pens and she literally started screeching and jumped on it's back with claws locked in..looked like she was riding him hehe but he never came back.

As far as your neighbor's cat, if you can't find a way to work around the cat to get the benefit of it's predatory nature, I would say capture it and take to your local animal shelter. Many of the shelters will loan you a trap for this.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I used to live in a suburb with a large feral cat population. There was also a self-appointed & self-righteous organization that would trap-neuter-release all the cats they could, and also went out daily to feed them in the neighborhoods. If anyone dared to complain about the excessive numbers of feral cats encouraged to make their home in their neighborhoods they were harshly criticized by this group & compared to Hitler, while the group members proudly compared themselves to Ghandi.

Personally I don't think it's a kindness to the cats to release them in urban/suburban areas, and not considerate to the human residents. The cats are still vulnerable to climate, traffic, disease, and predators. The residents are burdened with excessive amounts of cat urine, feces, hair, dander, diseases and vermin from animals they do not even own.

I think it's fantastic that some folks care so very much for feral cats and spend so much of their own personal resources trying to look out for their welfare. But I do not think they have a right to impose their viewpoint on others in their community. They can catch all the feral cats they wish as long as they find them other homes or keep them contained in their own cat colony.

But I think it's wrong to release them in someone else's neighborhood and/or encourage them to live there by feeding them.

 

[Guitartists]

I have tried a couple of times to befriend the feral ones that are young yet, but they are already too wild and want nothing to do with me. It's a shame, the one is actually a cute little tabby.

Oh man! Overheard the nieghbors today

They were SCREAMING back and forth at each other across the yard between them when I was leaving to take my DD to girl scouts. We didn't catch the whole thing... but what I did manage to catch was something like this................

(Brick house family #1- 3 Dogs NEVER leashed or fenced and 4? Cats) We'll call Brick
(14 foster kids family #2 - 14 kids or something close to that, no pets that are known) We'll call Kids

Brick - I've told your boys to quit feeding my dogs!
Kids - You're dogs are always coming down into my yard!
Brick - It's because your boys lure them in with treats! I hear them out there.... come on doggie!
Kids - That's not true. You're dogs are ALAWAYS coming over here into our yard!
Brick - Now come on, you know my dogs have never bitten anyone and they're not going to hurt anyone!
Kids - I DON'T know that! And what about your CATS! They're everywhere and in everyones yard!
Brick - There's more cats around here than just ours!
And so forth and so on........................................

I'll tell you what.... I'm staying out of this mess!

Looks like we'll just deal while we are here. And for the record, I have no problem with cats, dogs or foster kids.. LOL Just the people who aren't responsible for them! The brick house has 3 dogs and while I have never seen them go after anybody.... it's not responsible to allow them to leave their yard. There's no such thing as a "Safe" dog. Any dog can be pushed to it's limit and sometimes a good dog will just decide that it doesn't like a particular person. They make responsible dog owners suffer, because when it does happen, we all pay the price. Not to mention it's impossible to enforce aggressive dog owners to chain, restrain, house their animals when "good" dog owners allow there's to run at large.

 

[Guitartists]

Oh and Sunny-side up......... I agree 100%!!!! If they go to all the trouble to catch them, they should find a farm or something to keep them on. I feel sorry for anyone in a "kept feral kitty colony" area who is trying to bring birds or any other small wildlife into their yards or area. It would be like if you had a surplus of coons or skunks....... as much as you love them, you wouldn't want them causing so many problems. Checks and balances.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Ouch!!! Yes it will hurt it! One of my cats got shot by a neighbor for stalking around his bird feeders. The BB went right through his paw! One of my boys was shooting his BB gun and one ricocheted off a tree and penetrated my dog's eyelid! BBs can hurt! Not a BB gun!!! Now, the airsoft may be okay but not a BB!

My cat is constantly stalking my chickens. Its almost like a game with them and the rooster, Sue, finally gets irritated and chases him away. He will stalk them and half-heartedly give a little chase but never really lays a claw on them. I have also seen the rooster and him touch noses, er, beeks, well...you get the picture...and I wish I had got a picture, it was so cute! BUT, he does go in the coop during the day and comes out with a mouse nearly every time. I say give this cat the benefit of the doubt and not risk offending the neighbors or hurting the cat until he actually causes a problem.

 

[ChickNLittle]

I have had cats around here with the adult and baby chickens. Actually these cats are "afraid" of the chickens. Tehe! Unless the cat becomes a problem, I wouldn't worry about it. For some reason, cats do not seem to bother chickens as much as they do birds in the cage inside your house. Don't know why. But, you do need to watch the cat actually, tehe....my chickens would rip apart any cat for a bite of cat food. Serious! My daughter in law lives next door and has cats. Last year she couldnt keep my chickens from beating up her cats for the cat food. It was so funny. They would hide until the chickens got their fill and left.

 

[Frosty]

A few things that I would like to add to this discussion...

We have only lost one chicken to a cat, it was in the winter about 14 years ago. My barn cats do chase a few chicks around, but never tried to hurt them (except when the chicks are newly hatched... had a house cat pull one through a vent hole in a GQF Sportsman incubator).

Spraying the cat with water, shooting with a BB gun, etc... has one outcome. It teaches the cat to run from you when it sees you. Then if it does cause problems and you have to take more permanent actions, it will make it very difficult. Trust me. Been there, done that. And a BB gun can actually kill a cat.

Feral cats... I don't tolerate them here. One wandered through here once, was around for a few days and never saw it again. A few days later, most folks with barn cats had cats suddenly start dying. They had distemper. Co-incidence? Maybe. But it was my wake up call. What if it was rabies, or something else really bad? Afterwards, for years, any barn kittens had to be vaccinated before they hit 9 weeks old, or they died.

We had to get rid of quite a few of my neighbors tom cats (he knew and said that it 'saved him from having to do it'). They came up here and attacked my cats, causing infections and vet bills. One of these was the cat that I had hosed down and DH shot with a pellet gun. Took forever to get him.

And last, I wanted to comment on the TNR program (trap/neuter/release). Believe it or not, there is a reason that they return the cats to where they found them. These cats already have their territory, and defend it from other cats. If they do TNR and take the cats elsewhere, more cats will just move in. They have done studies that show if they return the cats to where they found them, the cats will defend their territory, but will no longer be reproducing. It will take time, but your cat population will start declining (at the very least, it will slow the population growth).

 

[jjthink]

Frosty sheds light on an important point about TNR.

Spay/neuter/re-release is not ideal but it is better than letting them continue to breed and starve to death.
While I catch ferals, get them spayed/neutered/medical care/ tame them and adopt them out not everyone is willing to do this so we have to be grateful there are groups out there who will at least take the time and spend the money to trap/spay/neuter. I don't think anyone should complain unless they are willing to go the extra mile and one up those groups by taming and adopting out the little buggers. They are at least making the situation better than it was. The colonies will get smaller by attrition since it cannot grow.
JJ

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I must disagree on the supposed benefits of TNR. Certainly it's nice that folks are willing to T & N, and yes, it keeps the cats from making more. But unless you're releasing them onto your OWN property, then it's a nasty imposition. It imposes the cats' excrement, diseases & vermin on somebody else's neighborhood. They may be keeping other feral cats away, but they're also keeping native wildlife away too. And I don't think it's a kindness to the cats, it's a poor quality of life they lead exposed to danger & discomfort.

I wonder how these cat TNR folks would feel if others began a program to TNR populations of dogs, rats, pigeons, seagulls, ducks, iguanas, boas, monkeys or kangaroos in THEIR neighborhoods? These are all species that some people adore but have large nuisance populations in some areas...

 

[luvmychicknkids]

It imposes the cats' excrement, diseases & vermin on somebody else's neighborhood.

I think you missed the point of TNR.....the cats were ALREADY in those neighborhoods. The only difference is they are no longer able to reproduce. No babies, less feral cats, and hopefully, none eventually. They are released where they were caught. Since these cats were already there you can't exactly accuse these people of dumping them off there.​