Am I out of line? I love cats but I firmly believe that they should not be allowed outdoors in urban neighborhoods. Right now I'm thinking that if I trap the cat tonight I'm better off driving it 10 miles away and letting it go and permanently putting an end to this problem. But my better side says to send the message.........
Any thoughts?
I trapped a feral cat once, and blasted it with the hose for a good ten minutes. Let it go and never saw it again.
Feed the car something that will give it gas and the runs and send it home.
Please don’t do anything bad to the cat. Is there anything you can put against the glass at night so your cat can’t SEE the other cat? It sounds like the only real issue is that the yowling wakes you up.
If you love cats, why are you considering dropping one off ten miles from its home, where it will be confused and miserable, wondering where its people are, and will probably end up getting run over?
Taking out your irritation on the animal makes no sense. Put up a notice, ask around, find out who the cat belongs to....then read the owners the riot act.
Take the cat to a shelter, period. Trust me, idiot owners will just keep letting the cat out. Too lazy to feed it or clean up its mess.
That is exactly what I would do, and sort of what I did do once. We used to have a black cat come visiting our yard. I would pet her a little and she’d leave again. Then one day she got annoyed and NAILED me with her teeth. It got infected & I went to the doc, who threatened me with rabies shots if I didn’t find the cat and keep her in quarantine. Luckily she showed up again, and I had to keep little Jezebel in our spare bathroom for eight more days! At the end I put a collar on her (she didn’t have one to start) with a sternly worded note and let her go. She never came back again!
Please don’t dump the cat. Take it to the shelter. It won’t cost you anything if it is a feral cat.
for gods sake, leave the cat alone. Call the owners and ask then to pick up their cat when it is bothering you. Stop making a drama out of this. Cats have been in urban locations far longer than you have and have fared just fine. Great rat deterents.
My first thought is that the visiting cat will not go home until it gets that note off. cats are irritated by alien things on them and will be quite adept at removing it.
Trap it and take it to the SPCA and if it has a license they will contact the owner and if not the owner will have to try to locate it or it could be spayed or neutered and adopted out.
I have a female house cat and as I live in the country there are ferals coming around. I do feed them once a day and let them fend for themselves and keep down pests the rest of the time. My cat loves to throw herself at the french doors and carry on and sits and waits for them to show up so she can do that. Mostly they ignore her. There are seldom more than two cats around.
Why? Cats keep the rodent population down, which is a good thing. They do their best hunting at night, when the rodents are about.
I’d go with the live trap and friendly notice to the owner.
I caught my neighbor’s cat a few weeks back and they were just happy that I use a live trap and said they’ll try to keep him in at night. I don’t have any issues with the cat but I tild them that I trap coons and possums so if their cat didn’t come home they could check the trap.
No, I don’t think you are out of line.
I suspect, though, that you will not trap it too quickly; cats are too wily.
Suggest you put the food near or on the cage first. Let it get used to being near the cage over the course of several nights before actually putting the food inside.
I wouldn’t say a thing to the owners. Just know that this troublemaking cat needs a free getaway vacation. Just trap the cat, take it on a nice long ride into countryside or the mountains, take a hike a little ways from road, and let the kitty go. Coyotes or another locally observant predator will have a nice and tasty meal!
I hate that people think they can drop animals off in the “country”. Those feral cats take a toll on game and therefore if I see them while hunting I will shoot them, unless one of my kids is with me.
I don’t live in the “country” necessarily but close enough people think it is. I see feral cats around my house all the time, in fact I now have one that is a house cat. (I have 7 daughters so you know what that must be like.)
We have this in our townhouse community with dogs off leash and menacing other residents.
After you have spoken nicely to the pet’s owner once, then speak firmly next time. Or, you might remove the animal’s collar and tag, and only return if after 24 hours, with the stern objection to law-breaking.
If it happens a third time, take the animal by early morning light to another state, preferably at least 50 miles away, to a no-kill shelter. Most of the lazy stupid pet owners do not think to cross state lines when calling around to shelters looking for lost pets.
Be humane, but careful. Avoid cameras. Box the animal with airholes, or cage it under a blanket, with ventilation, food and water. Call ahead and say you have a stray and ask “What is the procedure for bringing it in? Do I have time to bring it in before my work shift? How long will it take?” If you are lucky, they will tell you whether they require ID or not, such as your license that can be traced.
Sheltering it far away will take the owner a really long time to find the animal, if ever, unless the pet has an ID implant. The unchipped pet has a chance to be adopted by a caring guardian. Even if the original careless owners do find it, the hassle to them will be worth your hassle and will probably stop their inconsiderate behavior.
Moving a cat away from its family and food source is cruel. In suburban areas, it’s normal for pet cats to roam freely outside. If this is colony of feral cats, that’s a different story. Trap them or call animal control to trap them, and take them to a shelter. If these are tame pet cats, leave them alone unless they are bothering you.
That may put an end to your problem, but it's also the reason I have 25 cats on my farm.
You are an evil person.
Cats have a tendency to breed like rabbits; if you don’t want to drown it, catch it in a live trap and take it to the pound.
Make sure you tell the people at the pound who it belongs to and let them deal with the irresponsible idiots. The owners will either have to spend about a hundred dollars to bail their kitty out or the pound people will give kitty the needle.