Feed the cat inside.

When I still had my dog TinyMonsters, I always had to take a little breath upon opening the door before taking him outside. We dont have a fenced yard, so I always had to take Tiny out on a leash.

If I smelled skunk, I told Tiny to hold it for a bit and we'd go out a little later. We never had a problem with skunks giving us any squirts.

We kept Tiny's dog food in the garage (in an animal safe container, even Tiny couldnt get it open, and he was the canine version of Harry Houdini for getting past locks)

One day we got a possum inside our garage. It was a juvenile possum, otherwise we'd have had bigger problems with it. As it was, it was a good thing that my dad had Tiny with him when he tried to sweep the animal out of the garage. It attacked my dad. Was flying for his face when TinyMonsters leaped forward and caught it in his mouth and killed it.

But, it's the food that was attracting animals to our house. I miss TinyMonsters now, but since he died, we havent had any problems with critters wandering up to the house.