Posted on 11/25/2012 3:17:35 PM PST by Hot Tabasco
There is a house cat that is being allowed to roam free. What do I do?
I suggest you discontinue assuming you know anything about me, what I have and have not studied, and what my personal experiences and observations are in this life.
Box your cats in a cage if you want to. I'll care for mine and allow them their freedom, as I always have.
That's just ridiculous. Felix Domesticus is valued throughout the world for its excellent rodent hunting abilities, and has been for thousands of years. No, they're not suited to hunting in the wild, but the great outdoors of your yard isn't exactly an untamed wilderness. They're quite well adapted to man's structured environment, but still retain their wild ancestors' hunting skills and tools.
That's the reason they make kitty doors. They do well when they're allowed to be inside or outside at their own choice.
There isn't an animal on the face of the earth that evolved to live as a ward of humans in a confined space. If that were true of house cats, they would have lost their claws and excellent night vision long ago. They also wouldn't have retained their stalking/hunting instincts, but they have.
Our cats don't have any indoor provisions, but we let them in whenever they want. They stay in for as long as they like, and when they indicate they've had enough, we let them out. They're happy, contented, and well adjusted to that lifestyle, and so are we. I wouldn't change a thing.
You’re a little testy here. Calm down and do the below to eliminate the problem.
You have been given two very good solutions for you cat problem.
A_perfect_lady suggested you place a cover in front of the glass so they can’t see one another.
Bigg Red suggested you place moth balls on the deck.
Both of those used together should fix your problem with cats, however it won’t do anything to repair your cognitive skills.
After a lifetime of owning cats, I think you are totally right. Since I now have about 4 cats, I’m thinking about a kitty door.
Good rebut...!!
Well, I suppose it's possible but it would require that the cat (or cats?) hang out and watch me express displeasure with the odor under my porch. And actually, the peeing under the porch came first as I don't really care if the neighborhood cats wander across my lot; my issue with the cats is their use of the area under my porch as their bathroom.
Personally, I’d love to see you express displeasure!
Hope you can fix up the urine smell. Cats’ urine is the very worst of the worst.
Rabies. I never touch or interact with free-ranging animals.
I am somewhat paranoid, of course. Anyway, my advice with the problem cat for the original poster would be to simply scare the crap out of it. An airhorn, yakety-sax turned to full volume, or better yet the grand finale of the 1812 overture.
I'll bet that you have nice, soft, easily dig-able dirt under there.
You must be kidding. I have 25 cats on the farm. We still have tons of wild birds that love to pick at the chicken and duck feed, we have a stinking blue heron that eats the goldfish in my pond, we have coon, possum, skunk, squirrel, bats, lizards, rabbit, and those destructive hoofed rodents (deer) that tear up my stone fruit trees.
Maybe I need a dog......
You absolutely need a dog - or two! We have 4 - 3 of which stay outside and patrol our property all night long (we hear them barking). Mr. claret says the deer are not as visible as they used to be because of the dogs. They certainly don’t get near enough to the house to eat my flowers or mess up the trees. Our dogs kill armadillos and skunks and chase coons, coyotes, wild hogs, mountain lions, bobcats and any other varmints that dare to show up. All our dogs are “walk up dogs” and are extremely loyal. They think our ranch is their personal property and protect it accordingly.
As for trying to put a collar with a note on it around the cat's neck, that didn't work out too well. Just getting the trap's door open while the cat is jumping and snarling and spitting was a chore and I wasn't going to risk my life trying to grab it.........
LOL, don't blame you---you don't want to lose a limb.
Thank you for not dumping the kitty off somewhere, HT! You sounded like too kind a guy to do that---just frustrated.
I also don't blame you for keeping your cat inside. I don't have a cat at the moment, but all of my past felines were indoor cats. They live a lot longer.
Gee, I’m sure your neighbors were so pleased that you felt so strongly about your cat “living free”. It’s one thing that you don’t care about your pet’s health and safety and yet another that you don’t care about irritating your neighbors. Trust me, roaming cats are a bother.
Oooh! How much would you like to bet?
I've seen no evidence of scat. What's under the porch is mostly gravel with some hunks of concrete where the previous owner dumped what they didn't need after pouring the footings.
Why would I kid about that?
It’s damned depressing.
The mammal population mostly got taken out by the rabies and the young rabbits, squirrels and birds are commonly found laying around with their heads torn off.
Not much to kid about it, there.
I had to stop feeding my migratory birds because the stinking cats would lie in wait near the feeder and slaughter any bird that hopped to the ground to pick up dropped seed.
Squirrels kill a lot of birds. They raid the nests, eating eggs and nestlings and the new fledges.
Rats- and if you leave birdseed in your feeders at night you will have rats, lots of them- kill songbirds, eating a little, though rarely the entire thing. A full feeder will often host upwards of 60 rats per night in FL.
‘Possums kill a huge number of birds, grabbing them off the perch at night; their urine also carries a pathogen that makes birds ill and can kill them.
Skunks are opportunistic bird killers, and for some reason they like to eat just the head. The cats usually eat the bods and leave the heads.
Coons will eat anything, killing anything up to the size of a goose and carrying it off. I’ve lost turkeys to these varmints.
Not to mention weasels, mink, bobcat, fox and coyote, though at least the bobcat, fox & coyote will catch your cats.
Cooper’s hawks and sharpies specialize in songbird killing; I have a a fit with these hawks every year about this time as they try to strike my aviaries. The red shouldered hawks are snake eaters and are never a problem, in fact when they are around they run off the redtails and the bird killing hawks.
Why would I kid about that?
It’s damned depressing.
The mammal population mostly got taken out by the rabies and the young rabbits, squirrels and birds are commonly found laying around with their heads torn off.
Not much to kid about it, there.
I had to stop feeding my migratory birds because the stinking cats would lie in wait near the feeder and slaughter any bird that hopped to the ground to pick up dropped seed.
Thank you for the detailed but useless nature lesson.
I do not live in Florida but I do have a 24/7 CC/DVR security system watching all 4 points of the property, color by day and infrared by night.
It’s stinking cats slaughtering everything.
I’ve seen them on the recordings.
I case you missed it in my other post, most of our mammalian predators have died of rabies, except for possums that are mostly immune to the virus due to their too-low body temperature.
The cats have also used my yard as their personal toilet, infecting my yard with worms.
I spend a small fortune every month giving the dogs Interceptor tablets to combat the disgusting things.
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