Posted on 04/10/2010 3:50:39 PM PDT by SandRat
I have a fence right behind my chicken coop, and the local cats love to sit up there and watch my chickens on the other side of the 1/2” welded mesh...I have been told that the best repellent is human urine. Cats cannot stand the scent, so go whiz where you do not want them and see if that doesn’t solve your problem.
Beyond that, I recommend a good quality air rifle with a moderately priced scope, and the pointed lead pellets....
Yeah.
The Chinese are fanatics for
FRESH food.
Good.
I wasn’t too sure.
OK. Something is very wrong in your neighborhood.
Right now we have two cats and we had a third until very recently. With three of our own cats and the wild cats we’ve never had a problem with cat feces on our lawn. You must have a very large cat population for there to be an issue.
I would suggest that your problem may not be cats. Cats tend to bury their feces. It really sounds like you have a small dog (or many dogs), not cats.
If it’s really that bad, I’d suggest that you give them an alternative. Put in a “sand box” (4x4 would be great) somewhere on your property and give them a place to go. Cats will happily cooperate if they’re given a good alternative to your grass.
But, again, I’ve never come across a cat dropping in my yard. Not once. And I’ve had multiple cats for my entire life.
Our DOG, on the other hand, leaves evidence of her existence all over the place.
It must be a Texas thing.
We have multiple cats. We vaccinate them and give their flea treatments. We put in a dog door so they could come and go as they please and they're fine.
We depend on these guys to keep the rats, mice and snakes down. So do our neighbors.
It's funny. Most of the cats stay in their own yards because the neighbors all have cats defending their yards. :-)
Of course, we all have a minimum of 4 acre lots (I have 8) so the cats have plenty of space.
I just don't see the problem with cats. Once you've had squirrels eat your wiring and mice contaminate your grain, you suddenly develop a love of the wandering kitty. Cats were worshiped in Egypt for a reason! lol!
Wow.
This is a classic "city vs. country" argument.
I was raised on a farm in Michigan. We had "barn cats" and we had "house cats".
The barn cats were sweet and we loved them, but they could take care of themselves very well thank you very much.
These are cats that can hunt and fight and find water and shelter just fine. They were born and bred to do this.
As a matter of fact, if you take a barn cat and try to make it into a house cat, you're going to have one very unhappy feline. And no, they never "get over it" and settle in. They'll long to be outside for the rest of their lives.
So why have these outdoor kitties in the first place?
Well, they serve a purpose for the farmer. They keep the grain clear of the urine and feces of mice and rats for one.
Have you ever seen a *real* mouse infestation? The mice will eat the ears clean off a pig in one night. That's a living, breathing animal that's simply so over-run that he can't begin to fight back. Yeah. It's great to see your livestock eaten alive.
Farm animals get deathly sick from eating grain that's been excreted on by rats and mice. Cats are the *best* defense against this issue. (I get *really* irritated by people who want to go "organic" and eliminate all forms of pesticides, but then who also want to eliminate barn cats. These same idiots have no problem using Lady Bugs to keep their hemp crop pest-free.)
You need to realize that there if a cat has been allowed to roam, he won't tolerate being cooped up. Period.
Go to your local shelter and adopt a random kitty. Pick an adult who'd most likely to be put down - not the cute kitten. Be VERY humane.
Now bring him home and find out that you've got yourself a loving barn cat.
This animal will fight you every moment of every year to be let out. He'll scheme and sneak and rush and fight for freedom and he'll never give up. NEVER.
But, if you let him go, he'll come back to you every night.
Cats are very much like people. Once they know freedom, they'll never tolerate tyranny.
There *are* house cats that need our love and support always. They don't know how to hunt and can't defend themselves. (I have one of those right now.) They shouldn't be free to roam. But there are very capable barn cats that don't need or want your help. (But they *do* need and want you to smooch them behind the ears.)
Learn to respect the difference. And try to understand that there are people (like me) who don't see cats as their babies, but as partners and friends. My cats protect me and my property. I give them support, love, medical care and supplemental food and water. (And a kitty door so they can even come to me as they please.) They're not my toy dolls. They're independent animals with an intense will. We have a symbiotic relationship and mutual respect.
That'd probably keep them away!
Yes, it’s annoying to hear people talk about hating, torturing, and/or killing cats when I know that they can be such delightful, loving pets. And they never purposely do anything to make anyone angry; they’re animals who act on instinct only. So it’s pointless and cruel to harm or torment them in any way.
Nice picture. Just how I feel.
Buy a cat (male). Make sure he’s a tough sonofgun.
May you live in interesting times.
You make excellent points.
I have never had a barn cat mainly because I’ve lived in cities and suburbs all my life. But now that I live amid farmland, the three that came starving to the door and we thought were barn cats obviously were not. One died of FeLV, but the other two are very happy to be inside, well fed, amused, and groomed. None of our cats has ever tried to live outside, so I’ve never felt guilty about keeping them in.
Your essay really taught me the whys and wherefores, and I appreciate it.
Yea. But, I have been real lucky so far. A few years ago one of my cats went missing and I got it in my head that the hawks that the City introduced to control the pigeons got him. So I took to laying on my back and trying to pick them off with my AR-15 .223 from about 500-1000 feet in midair. Then I got to thinking that the slugs must be coming down somewhere so I altered my trajectory to be shooting over the river and the less populated are to the East. Then, I saw a little blurb in the local paper’s web site that pilots had reported muzzle flash from the ground on their approach to the airport. I got a flash suppressor - problem solved. Questions?
LOL.
a mean boy dog; they pee on everything and will establish a territory.
I am...the Cat Screamer!
Leave them alone. It’s their world they keep the mice away.
But I know how we handle feral cats back here in the woods.
WOW....That’s just BAD.
(True,but bad! :P)
Hater . . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.