I welcome any advice on how to handle this HUGE problem...SORRY SO LONG
 

Ok, so, many of you know, some don't, that my wife and I split up and got divorced last year. She left in Oct 08 and we were divorced in March of 09.

We remained friends and in fact, began dating over fall and decided it was a mistake to get divorced. I will leave out all the personal details, but as they say, 55% of marriages don't last, well, our divorce didn't last. So, she moved back in a few weeks ago and things are going great. We won't get re-married for a while (in our eyes, we are married in God's eyes, just not the state of AZ) and that's good enough for us.

SO- ON TO THE PROBLEM

While Laura was living on her own, she got a cat and I got a dog. Morgan (my Beagle/Boxer mix is just over 2 years old and perfect in every way. Her cat is a black and white named Precious (after her precious moments collection)

We weren't sure how the dog and cat would acclimate but they did just great. best of friends now even though Morgan wants to play more than Precious and when that happens she gives him a friendly swipe and he goes and lays down.

THE PROBLEM IS: Our neighbors have a cat they adopted from stray about a year ago. this cat is EVIL MEAN AND AWEFUL!!!. I swear it is the anti-Christ cat from He*&. About every other night, the cat comes out (they have a dog door and can't keep it in) and comes in my yard, I have low windows and the cat gets up to my window and Precious sees it and goes ape-S&$#. That in turn gets Morgan going and they end up going to scraps for a bit, when I am home alone, I can't get up to break it up and it's a mess. Neither of them get hurt and they quickly make up.

So, how do I get rid of the cat from HE#$? I have talked with the neighbors and they say "we lock the dog door during the day, but at night our dog's need to come and go" and seem not too sympathetic to my cause. It happened again just now. I get along with my neighbors really well but can't take this much more.


Sorry it was so long. I tried to keep it short.

Do you know if this cat would be scared off with the careful splashing from a garden hose set on high?

Is your cat intact? Is the neighbor cat intact? Are they...."attracting" each other?

Close the window blinds orrrrr send the cat to a long walk on a short pier.:eek:

Our cat is fixed. When the neighbor cat (I call Lucifer) comes up to the window, Precious sees it and goes crazy fighting it.

I have thought of going with a garden hose, but I can't possible get to it fast enough (I have MS ya know and move slow) and the hose is on the other side of the house.

If I weren't an animal lover, I would get a 22 rifle out and take care of it, but I can't do that, LOL.

Could you open the window & splash the cat with water? Does it scare off if you go outside & holler at it?
Maybe an exorcism?

Keep a very, very, light misting hose on all the time, facing away from the window and the house. Just so Lucifer won't want to come near the window, or house area.

Or shoot a water gun at it, pet owners do that to train their animals off furniture.

Or put chili pepper powder on the ground under the window, one sniff and away goes that nasty trouble maker. :rolleyes:

what about a sprinkler set on a motion sensor? You can put them on a timer so that they are only on at night or have a manual shut off so that if you know you don't want it on for a while you can turn it off.

We are installing one to hopefully keep the elk out of our garden until we can get our fence up. The elk were terrible on our garden last year. But we have two kids so we have to be able to turn it off when we know the kids are in the backyard.

I really don't know anything about where to buy them or what brand name. But I do know they exist and are supposed to be easy to install.

i hope you find some solution. Good luck.

Kristie

what about figuring a way to use some garden netting, screening material, or something like it that will discourage the cat from getting up on or near the windows.

or thorny shrubs and rose bushes....:rolleyes:


oh yes Kristie - those sensor sprinklers - many pond stores or websites have them - helps keep raccoons and other critters away from the fish in the pond.
her's what they look like-
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q...og&sa=N&tab=wi

Spread a bit of used kitty litter from your cat around the area. Gross I know but does the trick. Top it up little and often.

You did not hear this from me. As a cat owner I would never say....... My Uncle cut the whiskers of a cat who was always in his yard. Cats use their whiskers to gauge their ability to get into things (same width as them). Cat never came near again. Worked for him, Didn't really hurt cat. Do everything mentioned!!!! I put cayenne on garbage, kept my cats out.

of course you can always go the animal control route. if they have to keep coming out for the same problem they will fine the neighbors, then they may learn to keep the cat locked up at night. I had this problem with a neighbors cat. He would jump over the fence in our backyard and sit at my sliding glass door and my dogs would go nuts. I opened the door and let the dogs out a few times. It worked. So, I would say let Morgan take care of it.

There are things you can spray in YOUR yard to discourage the cat from coming back.

http://www.critter-repellent.com/cat...FdZD5godsUMMeg

You can do things like put aluminum foil on the window sill, and the cat wont like the way it feels under his feet. You can buy pepper spray and spray the area around the sill. Or you can crush oranges and lemon rind, the strong citrus smell is nasty to cats.

You can open the TOP side of your window to let in air, and block the bottom half of your window with stuff. either cardboard, or pillows or drape a sheet across the bottom.

If you cant block the window have a big water bottle full of water. They sell them at most hard ware stores. They are like the bottles used to water your flowers. They have a nice strong stream on them, and will scare a cat silly! I used mine as training devices to teach them to stay away or stop plucking my couch. After getting hit with water each night, romeo wont be back.

Speak to animal control in your town. They may want to trap this animal and have it neutered. One cat can have dozens of cats per year, and the best way to cut down on the population is to snag the male of the territory. Make sure you tell the owner of this animal that you WILL be charging him for damages done to your property by his animal.

Enjoy your 2nd honeymoon! congratulations! :hug:

Pft. Ya'll have it backwards in my opinion. The answer is a travel pet carrier. Put your cat in it for protection and park it under THEIR bedroom window for a few nights.

Thanks for the ideas. I will try a few of them, except Cindy's. I will let you know how it goes. If you have any more ideas, let me know.

I think you have gotten good advice so far and I just wanted to commend you for not blaming the cat although I can imagine how frustrating it must be. If you humanely make it unpleasant for the cat to visit it will stay away.

If this cat is intact I would trap it myself and have it neutered which should cut down on any spraying and unwanted kittens. Anything that comes into my yard intact leaves without its bits. :D Hang in there.

Amen, Jules! :cool:

I'd actually ask the owners if the cat is intact, and suggest to them that they neuter it, rather than trapping it and sending it to the pound. Since you know who the cat belongs to.

Trap it, get it neutered and send it back home. Who mentioned sending it to the pound? :confused: It's pretty easy to tell if a male cat is "intact". If you're brave, Earl, you can return the cat with the vet bill. If they refuse to pay it tell them that you've done your good deed for the cat and for the neighborhood. People who let their un-fixed animals run loose need a great big slap on the hand (among other things). :mad:

My tiger kitty becomes what we affectionally call "Psycho Kitty" if another animal comes on our porch or deck (cats, raccoons, etc). She'll turn on our other cat for a bit despite them having been together all their lives. It's never a good time. :( Sometimes separating them in different rooms helps, sometimes not. Slowly they get back to normal.

We have to close our back door blinds at night to keep this from happening, and we keep an eye on what's going on outside. If a storm is supposed to come on later, we seem to get more animal activity since they are looking for shelter. Since it's also raccoon activity, we can't put some of the stuff down we want since it would attract them even more.

Wish you luck, Earl!

Trapping it and having it neutered without the owners permission is probably wrong. It's the owners property, you cant just neuter it without their permission. Yes, they shouldnt let it run around, spreading chaos, destruction and litters of kittens in it's wake, but it's their cat. I'd talk to them first about the problem before catnapping the cat and neutering it.

oh oh I know, how about you trap the owners and get them neutered?

That sounds fine by me! :D

It is their cat but if they aren't responsible, and frankly the term irresponsible is being pretty generous, someone needs to step in. To me, willingly producing litters of what will eventually become starving, sickly, unwanted, homeless kittens in my neighborhood makes it my problem. iI've spent thousands of dollars and probably as many hours cleaning up other people's messes. Wrong or not if it comes in my yard intact it leaves without 'em. FWIW I do TNR or rehome and haven't ever taken one to the pound.

I agree 100%, Jules. I wish there was some sort of monetary penalty for people who claim pets to be theirs but take no responsibility for their care or reproductive health. Makes me so mad.....:mad:

I've just adopted a little female kitty that's been hanging around my back patio for the past several weeks. She's the sweetest little thing and I've been feeding her. I know......not the smartest way to get rid of her but she was obviously abandoned and very hungry. I tried to find her a good home but had no takers so........off to the vet she went for spaying and shots. I pick her up this morning!! I'm so excited! My two other cats will get their noses out of joint but they'll come around.

What happened last night Earl? Any luck? :)

What a lucky little girl she is! Bless you for helping her and good luck with your other kitties, like you said they will come around. Mine are so used to it they hardly even notice a newcomer anymore, lol.

How's it going with Lucifer, Earl?

I have been out of town for a few days, but reports are that since we are keeping our blinds down, no Lucifer sightings. It stinks having to live with our windows covered, but we have to do that for now. I will let you know how it goes this week.

Good, you took my advise.....er....about closing the blinds..not the long walk on a short pier..:eek::D

He's gone!!!!!
 

The long awaited day has come at last. I went outside tonight and my neighbor looked over he fence and let me know the cat "Lucifer" went out and never returned about 12 days ago. YEAH!!!!!! I am seriously doing the happy dance. We can finally live with a sufficient dose of Vit. D. the blinds are in their much preferred position- UP.

Thanks for all your advice. the final answer that (sort of) worked was we put a sign up on the wall between our houses that said "cat out" on one side and "cat in" on the other, they would flip it at the appropriate time and we would lower our blinds. .... but we don't have to anymore. SO HAPPY.

My son's friend had a rattlesnake crawl through his doggie door in Buckeye last night.

Another friend had a coyote crawl through his doggie door. People here in the desert who leave their doggie door unlocked at night when the creatures are out feeding are loco, in my opinion.

gmi

Hopefully he found another home and didn't meet with misfortune. I still think it would have been easier for somone to fork over a few bucks and castrate the poor guy.

I agree. Whatever happened to responsible pet owners?

Yikes!
I can't even imagine going into the kitchen at night, only to find a snake or Coyote munching on Fido or Putty tat. :eek: Some people sit on their brains.