No offense to cat lovers, but I do not like cats. That hatred for them became a part of me when I was a young kid in Pittsburgh, parents owning several cats, one of them having litters - I think it was every 3 months. 6 months, I don't remember. Us kids were to take care of the messes of the litters. I need not go into the specifics, do I? If I did, it would be good if you weren't eating while reading it, but I am not.
I love dogs. I have 4 of them. My Great Danes follow me everywhere when I am inside or outside the house. If I go out, they go out. If I go out front - I don't always let them - but they want out there, too. Whatever I am doing, they are there. If I'm with the fish, I ended up putting a cloth tarp thing down over the rocks because, yes, that's where they want to be.
My dogs do not cause my neighbors problems. They are in the house all night long, every night, not outside barking - as many dogs in this neighborhood are left to do. I don't have dog crap laying all over the property, it's cleaned up every day. My dogs bark - but not all day long when I'm not home. They are like any other dog, they bark when they hear something the provokes them to bark. My dogs aren't allowed to do fence-fighting with the dogs to the east of me, I put up a 4 foot fence in my yard to keep them from doing that. More importantly, my dogs don't go to neighbor's yards and shit and piss all over the place.
And that, really, is where the rubber meets the road.
You see, I attempted to engage my next-door neighbor with the burned down house about this cat situation, since this is apparently what has 3 neighbors upset with me about. He simply stated: "I cannot control my cats from going over to your house and shitting on your property". The lack of ability to control one's animals does not, in my mind, therefore give a free pass to that person to allow that person's animals to do whatever they want to, whenever they want to, because "I cannot control them". It was a pathetic conversation and he didn't want to get into it. Of course not, how is he going to defend his cats crapping and pissing all over everything?
He did everything he could to change the subject, I continued to come right back to it. Let's deal with this. The apathetic attitude I got from him only gave me one idea: put the trap out every night, catch a cat, every night, move it somewhere else. No, the trap isn't set up with tuna fish in it right now - and I am not doing that - today anyway. You see, no-one cares that my property is being damaged by their cats, they couldn't care less. It doesn't make a hootin' nanny holler's worth of difference to them: that's MY problem. Yes, but I can make it THEIR problem if they start disappearing.
This has been going on for quite a while now. I have made it QUITE well known my extreme dislike that their animals are climbing over my fence, into my back yard, over the front fence, into my front yard. It's spring and the plants that have been trampled are trying to make a comeback. If those cats continue with that junk, it's just going to be a big, brown patch of dead, grown-covering plants.
If they were just using my yard to run through it, I couldn't care less. But no, my front patch is a giant toilet to them. The fact that that other neighbor threatened my tenant yesterday about this shit only makes me want to get rid of EVERY single cat that comes through my property. Let me note that I have spent no small amount of time on my front yard. It's plants, trees, now a small pond and a lot of rocks hauled from various other portions of the property. You want to talk about sweat equity, THAT is REAL sweat equity.
So, my plan: I will spend as much time as I have to looking up "remedies" online - whatever is available to repel cats - make them not want to have anything to do with your place. I tried Cayenne pepper, it didn't do anything. If there are store-bought remedies, all well and fine. I am NOT paying for it. Those neighbors want their cats, THEY can pay for it or plan B may very well ensue.
I wouldn't DREAM of telling my neighbor: Gee, I can't control my cats, too bad, so sad. I am going to look again at the City of Phoenix detail on cats and what you can and cannot do, I don't remember all of it and I want to refresh my memory.
9 comments:
I would think the dogs being there would be enough to scare those cats from entering your yard. And since cats usually bury their messes, and quite small, maybe it's not the cats at all but other wild animals?
I prefer cats to dogs and your neighbor is right, you cannot control them! I wouldn't make such a fuss about the cats. Luckily my cat is an indoor cat.. she has never been outside (but only because I fear her getting lost or run over).
If I was a cat I wouldn't come near your yard because of the dogs!
That makes me so angry when people say they can't control their cats! If you want a cat then control it!! Keep it inside or do what 2 families, that we know of, have done, make a cat run for it outside so it stays confined within that run and can't run amok around the neighbours' yards.
Our next door neighbour has told us that they don't like their cat and then they let it roam rampant across neighbours' backyards. I once again chased it from our backyard last night. grrrr!! We like to attract parrots etc to our backyard and this cat then stalks the birds. Frustration!!
We'll be getting a puppy soon and we've making sure that it will be confined to the backyard at our new house. I'm sure our new neighbours' wouldn't like my dog running rampant through their yards and would expect me to keep it confined and that should be mandatory for any type of pet.
Over here all dogs have to be registered with the local council/shire and have to be on leashes when walked unless it's at a dog friendly beach/park. It's a shame that it's not law for cats as well.
Lynne
Western Australia
Are you actually killing cats though? I hope not. I just find that sorta creepy. Better to call animal control IMO. Catch, Spay, Neuter. Dogs too. I'm sorry your parents made you clean the kitty litter. How awful.
Puma
Dorrie:
No, it's not enough. They aren't outside all the time, number one, number 2, the cats are smart, they realize there's that divider fence separating my property in half - they can go on the side of the fence that the dogs can't get to, the cats will actually taunt them, on MY property!
Second, it most definitely IS cat junk. I have caught them in the act doing it. To say I wouldn't make such a fuss about cats is like me telling you I wouldn't make a big fuss out of it once your cat disappears. I have spent a LOT of time working on my property, to have someone else's animal come onto it and destroy my plants is maddening, to have a neighbor shrug his shoulders and say oh well just adds fuel to the fire.
Lynne: I am NOT killing cats. When I first moved onto this property some 7 years ago, there about 20 cats living under my house. I caught every one of them and I moved every one of them to a new location. I would take them to the pound but Animal Control in these parts thinks that you should catch them, take them in to have them neutered or spayed and then bring them BACK! ROFL!!! Not only that, but YOU should have to pay for it! UNBELIEVABLE!!!
AND, if you want to take a feral or stray cat to the pound, they are going to charge you $96 per cat to do so. In other words, they are making it extremely difficult to do ANYTHING about it. I am not going to just live with it. I have read the ordinances and one of them states that it is unlawful for an animal owner to allow their animal to go onto other people's property, that's all I need.
I did find a product online yesterday, though, that, if it works, would do wonders. It's a water sprinkler that is activated by a motion sensor. It sprays water once it's activated - cats don't particularly care for water the last time I checked. The problem? They want $45 for the thing and I am not exactly feeling generous to deal with another person's problem animal, especially when they don't care one way or the other.
ben
" They want $45 for the thing and I am not exactly feeling generous to deal with another person's problem animal, especially when they don't care one way or the other. "
Therein lies the entire problem. They don't care, you do. Therefore, it has become your problem, not theirs.
I know. But the problem is turned back on them if their cat disappears. Then they care. I don't exactly see why I have to jump through hoops and spend my own money to appease people whose animals are running at large.
Hi Ben .. I didn't mention anything about killing cats and I know you haven't either. It was the next message down from 'Puma'. :)
Lynne
Western Australia
Lynne, thanks, I didn't see Puma at the bottom of the thing until you pointed it out.
Puma:It wasn't cleaning kitty litter. There WAS no kitty litter. PLEASE try "cleaning" out a cardboard box with shit and piss at the bottom of it, soaking into the cardboard and smelling like hell. It was also dealing with dead kittens and years and years worth of litters of cats. You, obviously, won't understand being repeatedly exposed to that for years on end and at the same time, you weren't subjected to it.
And one more thing: I am NOT about to call animal control, who will tell me it will cost $96 per cat, or spend MY money on someone's else's nightmare to spay and neuter cats that will never stop pissing and shitting on my plants.
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