How do you deal with your neighbor's cat?

Fall and winter actually brings more birds to my backyard than summer. So right now there are probably a total of 20+ birds (juncos, chickadees, housefinches, sparrows) that go to my feeders. Plus I have an occasional flickers, warblers and hummingbirds (an adult female and a juvenile female). Every now and then I will see these birds scampering and I know for sure that my neighbor's cat is on the fence trying to grab 1 bird. Yesterday I saw the cat hiding in my wife's plants and almost caught a junco. How would you deal with this cat? I don't want to talk to my neighbor because if anything happened to the cat, I will be a prime suspect . And no, I will never do anything to hurt the cat.

Not easy Jo, especially for us as we have a cat as well as many birds. The best advice I've read is to site your feeder as far away from walls or bushes or anything the cat could hide in or jump from as is possible. Cats will still stalk towards the feeder but the birds have plenty of warning and can fly in good time. It's becoming less of a problem for us now as our cat is getting on in years, he doesn't chase birds andy more, he just meows at them in disgust

I'll echo Mark re placement of the feeders away from shrubs, bushes etc the cat could hide under. Although, the shrubs and bushes are also what help attract the birds in the first place. Things like spraying the cat (or squirrel) with a hose are just temporary.

LoL . Thanks for the inputs Mark, it actually gave me an idea. Maybe I will give my neighbor a gift, a nice big bell for the cat so it will make noise to warn the birds

Thanks Ian, as much as possible I would not want to do anything to the cat, 1 reason is my kids will crucify me, they love the cat.

Get a Dog or feeder placement if your a pacifist (Just kidding)

lol, dog is actually not a bad idea! .

with a similar situation a while back I did notify the neighbor very politely, obviously this was denied and ignored.

I then placed a motion camera and caught the cat in my backyard chasing the birds away, I then met with the neighbor and showed them the repeated times, to which he replied what can I do, I told him to keep the cat inside, he ignored that too.

I told the neighbor I would be placing live cage traps in my backyard, I set two of them and certainly caught the cat who spent several hours in the trap, I was @ work. Upon returning home I notified the neighbor and told them the cat was in my property and in the trap for over four hours, he called the police. Guess what they told him after quickly viewing the tape, keep your dog in your property if you don't want him to spend hours in the trap. The neighbor replied that's fine I'll just check and when I see him there i'll cross over and get him. I told the police the access to the backyard is closed and they told the neighbor then when you're caught there on tape charges can be brought against you for trespassing. End of story he keeps his cat inside now, he dug his own hole.

You definitely are much bolder than me. I actually wanted to put this question in my initial post, whether cats should not be allowed to roam around, because very seldom I see a dog roaming around. But of course, I've never heard a cat biting a person or another animal (except the birds) .

To start, I am an animal lover, I have 2 dogs, (one's a dog I brought home from a park area where I was photographing birds, and we also have a cat that lives inside.

I have a neighbor that always has a cat, one that is not spayed or neutered, I might add, and they have always come to my yard to 'hunt'. One of their cats had babies under my garden shed about 4 years ago, she had several kittens, 6, I think... They were really cute, and I could do nothing about it, but let them grow up, I wasn't about to take them to possibly be put to death by the City Pound. My neighbors are the worst, we are not on very good speaking terms, expect the mother, she is very nice, but does not understand how things work in America, she doesn't know what "No!" means with her ADULT kids, (They live at home still) so it's a waste of time to try and explain that cats should be neutered.
Anyway, the kittens grew up, and in the past, this has happened with other cats claiming our yard as their hunting grounds, and 'home', and every one died of natural causes. (If you include climbing underneath my truck and my wife's car in the Winter, then we turn on the ignition, not knowing) They also froze to death in the past, and other things that happens to feral types. I assumed this would happen again, but for some reason it didn't, immediately a couple of the cats got pregnant, by the uncle, no less, so I knew that nature wasn't going to take care of this, I had to do something, I should have already, but, that's what I get for 'assuming'. We had 11 cats now, they were using our yard as their 'catbox', play area, fight arena, bird eatery, you name it, they OWNED our yard. (They killed frogs in my ponds just to play with them until they died, that really upset me) Of course, I wasn't happy, but my wife is way more tolerant than I am, so eventually I won out, and I made the decision to trap them. (I wasn't about to call the City, they told me once when I called about a neighbor that had trapped a possum and left it in the cage that they would euthanize. So this would be no different. He promised me that he would take the possum to the woods and release him, but...) Anyway, I had had enough, I placed traps and it took me forever to get them to trust the traps, (I bought 3 traps at Harbor Freight) finally, 'some' were trapped, 3 were never trapped. To say this was a nightmare, that is an understatement, I had to take each cat I trapped to the vet and pay to get them neutered and spayed. It cost us a few hundred dollars, not counting the traps, I don't really remember the total amount we have spent. Having them spayed and neutered means they are protected from being picked up from the City Pound as ferals, they clip an ear to 'mark' them. I was told the cats would not be as wild, and they would calm down soon, no fighting, not trying to chase birds, etc. That wasn't the case, I finally got sick of it and trapped them again, then took them to a place at a pond, near the woods. I know, I know, but, I was sick of them, and what I was considering in my mind was a lot worse than what I ended up doing. (I don't think I would've gone through with my thoughts, but I was desperate) Now, we STILL have 2 cats here from that litter, 2 sisters, they are not really bad, they are only being cats, but I wish they were gone, of course, that is an old argument between my wife and myself... Actually, there are actually 3 cats, the mother of these cats is still around, she has been ousted by her daughters though, they don't allow her anywhere near, if they can help it, so we feed her too. (I actually don't mind her, she has never to my knowledge killed one bird here)

So, after that horribly long story, if you even read it, it's best to nip it in the bud as soon as possible, don't take ANY chances, do what you have to do, it is not guaranteed to end well.
Now, if I see a stray cat anywhere in my yard, I pop it in the butt with my BB gun, yeah, I know, it sounds cold-blooded, but wait until you go through what I did, you'll get you one too.
There are those of you that are thinking why I didn't go to my neighbors and ask them to pay, they do not listen to reason, but there is a language barrier, plus, as far as I know, nobody works there, so I did what I thought best. I decide to eat the costs because I didn't feel it was worth the effort. I had attempted to go through (their) proper channels once before over their barking dog, that didn't end well either. They are the worst neighbors I have ever had in my life, well, aside from the ones that live on the other side of me, now THEY are really bad, no English, no attempts at all to try the least little bit to 'talk' about things. I know this sounds like a rant, and this last part is, I just live as close to Hell as you can without burning up, I think.

My main point is, do something now, I am pretty sure that your cat situation is nowhere near as bad as mine, but still, a nightmare can erupt from just one cat, don't let it ruin your life!

Really, I apologize for going on so long, but even though it was slightly cathartic writing this, I did it to possibly help out in the future, that's all.

I forgot to mention that the main reason we kept the (very young, just weaned) kittens at first was their mother was killed early on, so they had to be fed or die a slow death possibly, that is why we initially took on the extra responsibilities.

Randy

I want you to know that I read your reply word for word and understood completely where you are coming from, your predicament, and the decisions you eventually made. I also get your point that its better to do something now rather than waiting for it to get worst. I understand the BB gun, and it could be an option for me also. Just pop it around the cat's location just to scare her away. Thanks!

Putting a bell on the cat might work depending on the size of the bell. Say about the size of the liberty bell should do the job I should point out an airsoft gun might spook the cat w/o harming it at all. I prefer to distract the cat with a laser for it to chase. You can call animal control about too many feral cats in your yard and ask for their assistance in reducing the count. There are all sorts of noninjurious feline solutions around just be inventive but non inflammatory to neighbors.

Controlling behavior by aversion is effective as a management technique, but use plastic airsoft pellets or a blowgun which has stun darts you can use. Bbs and pellets can cause injury even on low power and that can lead to legal crud. I use my blowguns to keep the squirrels off the feeder. I feel like a ninja and after a few times they get the message. Everyone lives happily every after.

jodelak wrote in post #15045530
I want you to know that I read your reply word for word and understood completely where you are coming from, your predicament, and the decisions you eventually made. I also get your point that its better to do something now rather than waiting for it to get worst. I understand the BB gun, and it could be an option for me also. Just pop it around the cat's location just to scare her away. Thanks!

Thanks Joe,

My problem, and your problem, they may differ, of course, but the thing is, you have to do what 'you' have to do, because it is your problem, and other's views are not going to help you out in a case like mine. heheh
I forgot to mention to you, Good Luck on your problem!

To any and all...

Just for the record, I don't necessarily enjoy popping cats in the butt, and, I take GREAT CARE in not shooting them in places where it can hurt them. My BB gun is actually a pump pellet rifle, I can pump it once and there is no way it can hurt a cat, unless I shot it in the eye. I can attest the to fact that I have not done that, it's possible, but I am a good shot, and I time it all to make it a non-injurious as I possibly can. Plastic pellet or not, that can do damage to an eye too, so it's not any different, I don't think, rather, it's not fool-proof. The reason I know my pellet gun is not that strong is, I left it pumped up for a few weeks by accident once or twice, it somehow made it to where the air must escape and doesn't hold as strong of compression now. Of course I can pump it up and make it powerful, but I don't need to. Now, I can just point my finger at the two feral cats we have, they know what 'pointing' means now, I guess, so I have them trained, and that's all I wanted.
The reason I bought the BB gun anyway was that I had a couple of snakes in my main pond, I loved that idea, and I watched them and took pictures, that is, until it started eating my fish. We had some fairly expensive fish in there, and NOW my wife wanted the snakes gone, so I had to try and catch them, but I sucked at that, so the BB gun was my next step. I had to kill them, I sure didn't want to, I LOVE snakes,and I still do, I have saved several snakes from people wanting to kill them because they are what they are, they don't differentiate between the species. I say that because I don't want it to come across like I am a crazy person with a BB gun, I value all life, even ants, I am almost a tree hugger hippie. (sorry hippies)I actually care, but I also actually take care of what would otherwise be destroyed by 'something' if I don't intervene.
Really, I have nothing against any of the cats (or squirrels) that invade my yard, but I have to do something. I didn't mention the damage they caused in my 12'x16' building, they crapped everywhere, I have to wear goggles and a mask, (my wife too) plus a painters suit to clean it out, it was horrible, and I am sure, diseased filled. I hadn't been out in the building at all because it was over the Winter, so I had no idea that somehow a cat, or a possum wiggled it's way inside at the roof and opened up an entrance just large enough for them all to get in. It was as disgusting as you can probably imagine. (two dead cat bodies too) It took me a LOT of money to fix that, part of it was my workshop, I had to completely redo the entire thing, except for the ceilings. It took me around two days to clean that out enough that I would walk in it without all of that safety stuff on, then I still had to 'clean' it to make it "clean".

Now I can shoot my BB gun out the door and they're gone, (not the 2 we spayed, but any NEW strays) after they have been popped a few times, they remember. Just shooting the gun around them may scare them, but in my case, it wasn't enough to thwart them permanently, so I had to do what I had to do. Of course, at night, it's a different story, they rule the place again, but only until daylight...

I can't tell you all how bad all of this was for me, my wife, my DOGS, and the cats, it was a complete infestation of invading life. When someone is facing that kind of thing, they do what they need to so they can remedy the situation at hand. Really, I do realize that it's not the answer for everyone, I know people that would kill them all at the drop of a hat on the first time, so I don't agree with that, at all.
This doesn't count that I also got a flea infestation, it took a LOT of effort to get rid of that problem too, those cats cost us a lot by what they did out there, most sane people would've just called the City Pound and called it a day, but I am trying to do the humane way. Our local animal places are so full up, they don't take in ANY more animals, they are always full, people leave a family of cats in boxes out in front of the Humane Society, I saw that once while they were turning me away. I called several other places too, NOBODY, and I mean, not one place had room at the inn...
One of the cats I mentioned earlier was pregnant with 9 kittens, 7 of which were females. Can you imagine the pure hell I would've endured had I not did what I did? I saw a chart somewhere and it showed how fast they could multiply if you don't have a female spayed, it's flat out stupid-crazy in numbers.

Still, I probably come off as a crazy person, heheh, but I promise, I think long and hard about a problem before I do anything, I don't jump the gun, (so to speak) on everything, even if I do live in Texas! heheh

My point is, if I didn't have this problem, I wouldn't have known what a TRUE nightmare was, nobody does until they're confronted with maybe 5 cute kittens that seem all innocent, they are, but then again, they aren't, not at all.

Sorry again for being so long-winded, but it's serious business, at least it was for me, I grew up on that deal, I had to be as responsible as I could be. heheh

Randy

Your far more forgiving than many Randy. Being in the wildlife management field its a cold reality that if pet owners were responsible, hundreds of inured wild animals, and abandoned/feral domestic would not have to be dealt with. Unfortunately lethal methods are sometimes a need to serious problem individuals and the only cost effective solution. Your BB gun will usually be fine its just recommended to use a low velocity & low mass projectile, not everyone is bb gun savvy. Same reason for rubber bullets.

Generally once a nusiance organism raises financial or safety concerns, swift or severe action often follows for good reason.