Have you dealt with feral cats in your yard?

I would feed them..... because I loves the kittehs.... but that would contribute to the issue, not solve it.... :P However I don't care because I love them and want to feed them and hold them... :D
 
SCBassist said:
Maybe getting a dog, at least a dachshund (small enough to tolerate having indoors) to inconvenience the cats from establishing themselves on your property.
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We're trying to simplify our lives, not take on more responsibilities.

I do love dogs. We used to have two Labs until they died. Now I enjoy visiting my daughter's family and their dog, an Aussie.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Humane Trapping Instructions



Is there a no kill shelter near you that you could call and see if they could set some humane cat traps . The mother cat could be neutered and kittens could given to new home . I had a no kill cat shelter help me trap a cat I was feeding b/c it was left behind by it crappy owner. The cat did not show up for a few days and I got worried . He came back to my condo looking very sick and in pain . The poor cat was hiding behind a bush and would not move . I put some food out and when he came to eat I saw that half his back been bitten off! I called the no kill shelter and some people came out set up a trap and I called the back as soon as cat was in it. The cat lived and got a new home.
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That's probably what we'll have to do. The trick is trapping them all.

We're also going to enclose the crawl space under the shed. TCS bought the lattice last night.

Then, we realized, our entire deck is open underneath, so we'll probably have to enclose those, too. This is getting very expensive, labor intensive, and time consuming.
 
Jabberwocky said:
There are alot feral cat programs out there focused on trapping and spay/neutring and relocating if necessary.

The programs are beneficial to the community, if you can contact animal control and ask if such a organization focused on your area existed, sorry cant give you definite answer as dont know where you live specifically. Animal control or local pet rescue sure will give you leads.

Chicago area has several feral cat programs its quite cool.


Agreed totally about doing something sooner because cats mulitply like crazy. And the pee smell with several cats in an area can get bad.
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Yes, we're going to check the local feral cat program.

I know that some areas here have that program. They catch the cats, neuter them, notch their ears (one ear each), and then release them back.

I'm still not thrilled about the idea of them bringing them back. They'll still attack my birds and use my yard for their litter box. Sigh….
 
Mewtilation said:
I would feed them..... because I loves the kittehs.... but that would contribute to the issue, not solve it.... :P However I don't care because I love them and want to feed them and hold them... :D
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I love cats too, which is why when we had them we didn't let them roam.
 
I still say call the local WOK, they love ferel cats, free to catch and will go to good use.
lol
 
Reba said:
That's probably what we'll have to do. The trick is trapping them all.

We're also going to enclose the crawl space under the shed. TCS bought the lattice last night.

Then, we realized, our entire deck is open underneath, so we'll probably have to enclose those, too. This is getting very expensive, labor intensive, and time consuming.
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It might hard to trap the mother when she has babies , I wonder if you it put a small plastic bowl with some milk in it if the kittens would go for it. The kitten may not be heavy enough trig the trap to close . You might need to get humane traps design for smaller animals ?? Good luck ! We had lattice
put up around our deck but I think some animal found a way in under my deck last winter b/c Marty kept sniffing around the deck.
 
Reba said:
I missed my cat, not random stray cats.

Right now, I'm doing the best I can just to get thru each day. I can't really take on any new stresses or responsibilities. I just want them gone from my yard.
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I know you are. That's a big reason I suggested you adopt the mother cat.

Pets can boost your mood and immune system, significantly to help you adjust to your new situation.
 
Bottesini said:
I know you are. That's a big reason I suggested you adopt the mother cat.

Pets can boost your mood and immune system, significantly to help you adjust to your new situation.
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When I brought Finlay to the hospital with me , the nurses love petting him you could see how relaxes they became and Finlay did not shed so he left no black fur on the nurses uniforms. When I went to get a blood test and did not bring Finlay the nurses would ask where was my dog . I had doctors tell me after they petted my dog they felt better and I would tell the doctors I will be sending them a bill. I could had made some $$$ doing that. :giggle:
 
TCS spent about $70 and several hours buying, cutting, and installing vinyl lattice around the open spaces under our sheds and deck. (He checked first to make sure there were no critters underneath.

I hope that keeps them out. I haven't seen them lately except for the momma cat once.
 
Reba said:
TCS spent about $70 and several hours buying, cutting, and installing vinyl lattice around the open spaces under our sheds and deck. (He checked first to make sure there were no critters underneath.

I hope that keeps them out. I haven't seen them lately except for the momma cat once.
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Boy TCS was lucky there where not any skunks under the deck. Stinky!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Boy TCS was lucky there where not any skunks under the deck. Stinky!
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I haven't seen any skunks in our yard. Just possums, raccoons, feral cats, squirrels, moles, snakes, and lizards. I love the lizards. :)
 
Reba said:
I haven't seen any skunks in our yard. Just possums, raccoons, feral cats, squirrels, moles, snakes, and lizards. I love the lizards. :)
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We had possums around but I think they're done b /c of the field being plowed down. When I was feeding a homeless cat I had bowl on food on a chair that was on my deck. I looked out sliding door one day to see if the cat was eating any food and there was a possum sitting right in the bowl eating the cat food. I knocked on the glass to get the animal to go away and the possum looked up at me and said do you mind I am trying to eat ! and it when back to eating the cat food. I was like WOW that possum is not afraid of people . We have skunks, chipmunks, ton of rabbits, squirrels groundhogs had deer a few time ,foxes and coyotes but no lizards. We have toads and I like them .
 
whatdidyousay! said:
We had possums around but I think they're done b /c of the field being plowed down. When I was feeding a homeless cat I had bowl on food on a chair that was on my deck. I looked out sliding door one day to see if the cat was eating any food and there was a possum sitting right in the bowl eating the cat food. I knocked on the glass to get the animal to go away and the possum looked up at me and said do you mind I am trying to eat ! and it when back to eating the cat food. I was like WOW that possum is not afraid of people . We have skunks, chipmunks, ton of rabbits, squirrels groundhogs had deer a few time ,foxes and coyotes but no lizards. We have toads and I like them .
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I forgot the bunnies and toads; we have them, too. Yes, I like the toads. We have turtles and bright green tree frogs, too. I like them if they stay outdoors. If they get in the house they poop all over. Yuck!

Not in our yard but nearby we have wild turkeys, armadillos, foxes, wild hogs and deer.

Yes, possums can be bold. We've had them of all ages in our yard. The little ones are cute but the big ones are mean and they hiss at us and bare their teeth.
 
Reba said:
I forgot the bunnies and toads; we have them, too. Yes, I like the toads. We have turtles and bright green tree frogs, too. I like them if they stay outdoors. If they get in the house they poop all over. Yuck!

Not in our yard but nearby we have wild turkeys, armadillos, foxes, wild hogs and deer.

Yes, possums can be bold. We've had them of all ages in our yard. The little ones are cute but the big ones are mean and they hiss at us and bare their teeth.
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We had wild turkeys too they use love hanging out in the field behind my condo. My daughter and granddaughter could hear the turkeys gobbling . Man I miss the field and so do all the wild animals . I tried to save it was not able to.
 
Reba said:
TCS spent about $70 and several hours buying, cutting, and installing vinyl lattice around the open spaces under our sheds and deck. (He checked first to make sure there were no critters underneath.

I hope that keeps them out. I haven't seen them lately except for the momma cat once.
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Sounds like you are off to a good start!

We are building a new house right now, and a few miles down the road lives a male (beautiful blue!) peacock with about 4 girlfriends :). That will be interesting. We go out there about every other day to see the progress on the house and on our way home we slow down to see the peacocks. Their yard has them fenced in.
 
I had to clean up a rental property once where the lady had over 30 cats in the house and another 20+ feral cats she had been feeding UNDER the house. Talking about a mess! How she hid them from us I will never know, but I came to the conclusion after cleaning up all the remains of the cat piss that was over 1/2" on the subfloor that the woman was first, lucky she was still alive and second, NUTS! I also came away believing that there should be laws regarding the number of cats someone should be able to have similar to what is on the books in most places for dogs.
 
seb said:
I had to clean up a rental property once where the lady had over 30 cats in the house and another 20+ feral cats she had been feeding UNDER the house. Talking about a mess! How she hid them from us I will never know, but I came to the conclusion after cleaning up all the remains of the cat piss that was over 1/2" on the subfloor that the woman was first, lucky she was still alive and second, NUTS! I also came away believing that there should be laws regarding the number of cats someone should be able to have similar to what is on the books in most places for dogs.
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Out here, the county law is we can only have 3 pets ( any combination of cat/dogs eg: 2dogs 1 cat, 2 cats 1 dog, dog/cat/bird, ect...ect...)
Now as far as farm animals, we need permits and allowed up to 5 hens/roosters, or limited numbers of other animals depending on land size and restricted to pen sizes as well. We thought about some egg laying hens as it will aslo make good fertilizers for the garden.
 
AlleyCat said:
Sounds like you are off to a good start!

We are building a new house right now, and a few miles down the road lives a male (beautiful blue!) peacock with about 4 girlfriends :). That will be interesting. We go out there about every other day to see the progress on the house and on our way home we slow down to see the peacocks. Their yard has them fenced in.
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Oh, those birds are beautiful. Some of the plantations here still have them roaming about, just like in Gone With the Wind. Sometimes hearing people don't like them because they have a very loud call, and they use it frequently!

BTW, the "girls" are called peahens. :)

You must be very excited about seeing the progress on your house. :)
 
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