Cat Rant

BrianBay9

At the top I should make clear that we have no pets due to my wife and kids' severe allergies. And yet, all the cats in the neighborhood socialize in my yard. Our yard apparently has been designated the feline social spot because we have no dogs or cats of our own, and so are neutral territory.

The neighborhood cats used to just be an annoyance - mostly pooping in my raised beds. Disgusting to find when I'm digging with my hands, but mostly just annoying. . But this week, war has been declared!

When we're away the neighbors cats choose to lounge in the cool spots of our yard, including our front porch, flower beds, and some of my pots. Everyplace that hosts a cat is now infested with fleas. We've apparently carried them inside to one bedroom, and the laundry room. The last draw was today, when weeding some pots that the cats like to lie in, I was covered head-to-toe with fleas. I pulled at least 50 of them off of me (fleas, not cats). In the past week I've spent more than $150 on flea treatments for the inside and outside, and spent about 30 hours applying them and cleaning up.

I mention again that we have no pets - and yet we now have fleas!

Why is it that dog owners are expected to control their animals on leash, or contain them with a fence, but cats owners refuse to take responsibility for their animals? These cats are clearly flea bitten and miserable themselves, but their owners insist that it's cruel to control their movement. They say cats must be allowed to roam.

Assuming I get rid of the fleas, I'm starting to consider drastic action to be rid of the cats as well.

Rant over. My apologies to all responsible cat owners.

Brian

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RonMartin(deceased)

The easy and humane thing to do would be to call the local animal control officer. Most communities have lease laws and they do include cats. What communities don't have a lease control ordinance do usually have a nuisance animal ordinance.
A cat is still a pet and the owner is still responsible for the critter.
Don't worry about the cats owners any more than they worry about you.

larry mac

When I had cats, I never let them outside. It's a fact that they have longer and healthier lives as inside pets. Get a Have-A-Heart trap and take them to the animal shelter.

jorsh

There use to be many cats wandering through my yard. I couldn't tell if they belonged to anyone or if they were just some sort of stray cat. I alawys kept a little toy squirt gun, the type that you pump up. Then I would just squirt a cat whenver I saw one. Also when I'm out watering the gardens I spray the cats. They take off fast and lately I have not see nmany.

Happy Gilmore

They truly dislike cayenne pepper in their paws etc.....makes it's way to their mouth........a liberal sprinkling of this in any of their traffic areas typically helps tell them your place is no longer fun.

Tony

"The easy and humane thing to do would be to call the local animal control officer. Most communities have lease laws and they do include cats. What communities don't have a lease control ordinance do usually have a nuisance animal ordinance.
A cat is still a pet and the owner is still responsible for the critter.
Don't worry about the cats owners any more than they worry about you."

Nah, that's the wrong thing to do in my opinion. Just go talk to the neighbors and tell them of the problems you are having. Give them a chance to fix the problem first before you go to the authorities. That would be the neighborly thing to do. If they tell you to get lost or are unconcerned then do what you have to do. Believe it or not, neighbors have been working out little problems like this for many years before there were animal control officers.

There's a good chance that the cats owners don't even know where they are spending the afternoons. About the only way to keep a cat outdoors and in your own yard is to put it in a cage and then you'ld get busted for animal cruelty. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Tony

breefe

Teach your kids how to use a Red Rider BB gun...I'm from the country, BB won't hurt a cat from a good ole one pump Red Rider, as long as its not to close...

RedPine

Well instead of possibly getting yourself in trouble by shooting someones pets w/ a BBgun.Let the local authorities handle it !!,or get a sprinkler system, You also can just spray them w/ a water hose.Cats are very vain & proud,keep soaking em down and they soon will "HATE" you and your yard.I did this for my grandmother a few years ago.Our neighbor had 14 of them.It took about 3 days for them to get the hint, and decide the late hour trash snacks weren't worth it .

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TreeBay

We've been thinking about getting a small dog to chase off our neighborhood cats. They have a habit of lying about on the deck furniture and shedding like crazy, spritzing about and generally being feline.

Regards,

Matt

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