Ask neighbors if it is a pet, first, and express your concern about how it is decimating the wildlife in your backyard. If they do not take it in, call your local Animal Control and see if they wil trap it for you. lf they won't, get a Havahart trap from your local animal shelter, trap it and take it to the local shelter. Life outside is no life for a cat.

Your township or municipality should have animal control.
They should be able to trap the cat and remove it.
Feral cats have been a big problem in my township and persons bitten by them had to have rabies shots. It is a matter of health and safety.

I know this isn't a feral cat. It belongs to somebody...probably in the townhouses behind us. This cat used to come around regularly 3 years ago. It disappeared and has now shown up again. Even though whoever the owner is isn't being responsible, I couldn't trap someone's 'pet' and take it to a shelter. I hate avoiding it...it seems to just want attention. But whenever I do pet it, it gets overstimulated by rubbing and rubbing against my leg and then bites. The owner HAS to know this cat does this. Even if I were to find the owner, I don't think they'd keep the cat inside. It would just keep coming back. I thought if I'd ignore it and not feed it that it might go away. But it doesn't. I just don't know what to do.

I would catch the cat and put a note on a collar. If the situation doesn't abate you might try something I used with a dog that was pooping in my yard. Since talking to the owner didn't help, I caught the dog and spray painted a nice blue streak down the back. I haven't seen it since!

You might get a dog. We have 2 indoors cats and an indoors/outdoors dog. He does a great job of keeping cats and deer out of our yard and he gets along quite well with our indoor cats. I do like the painting suggestion too!

I like the painting suggesting also. I wish I'd thought of that soon after one of the neighbor's cats tore the screen out of my window to try to get to my indoor cat (long time ago).

Other suggestions: Eat a lot of oranges, lemons, grapefruits? Scatter the peels in your garden. Cats hate the smell. They also hate the smell of vinegar, but vinegar can also kill plants, so you'd have to be creative to use that. If the cats are digging, put chicken wire on your garden soil and just barely bury it. Cats dig, get feel the wire, and hate it.

Learned these from Paul James, that Gardner Guy.

One other would be to get motion detecting sprinklers, but guess those are illegal right now with the water restrictions in most places. Wouldn't you just love to see a trespassing cat get surprised by a sudden squirt of water? Better than seeing it get caught by a dog and killed, and that can happen! (Don't these cat owners realize that?)

At our former residence, someone's cat would constantly hide under our azalea bushes and wait to pounce on the birds. It was a beautiful cat--very fluffy and a smoky color. You could not get close enough to it to attach a note to it's collar. I was always running outside to shoo it away. Then I noticed for about 3 weeks it didn't come around. I was relieved and thought maybe the owners had moved. Then everyone in the neighborhood got a note in their mailbox from the owners saying their cat, Misty, came down with excrutiating pain, was rushed to the vet's office and died during the night. The vet suspected it was poisoned possibly by anti-freeze. The owners, in the letter cautioned everyone to remove any spilled antifreeze because evidently it has a sweet taste that cats like. At the same time, they said if the cat was a bother to anyone all they would have had to do was notify them and they would have kept the cat inside. Oh, and their address was 2 or 3 streets from our neighborhood. My point is how can the owner be notified when nobody knows where the cat lives. I had seen the cat many times in the backyard of a home 3 yards away from mine and just figured that's where he lived. Other people probably saw the cat in my yard and assumed it was mine. Anyway, it's a sad story but pet owners should not assume that their pets will be safe roaming the streets.

Have you figured out a way to keep the pesty kitty away? I love kitties and I have issues with neighbors who don't keep theirs indoors either. I have 4 of my own and a 90 lbs dog that loves her kitties. They ALL stay indoors. I used to be an adoption counselor at a pet store and the sad point is that cats need to stay indoors! But some pet owners think it is okay to let them run.

One thing you might try to do is get peppermint or eucalyptus oil. Some empty baby food jars will work or something other that you have like tuna cans with lids that you can put holes in. Use cotton balls and put the oil on the cotton balls and then put the lids on them. Put them around your garden or in areas you don't want the kitty to be. It shouldn't affect the bugs, but it might keep the birds off the ground, but they won't stay way from the feeders. Just add oil when it seems to not smell. This should work for dogs and other furry pests, but I don't know if it will chase away the bunnies or chipmunks. Maybe if you put it in location to keep out kitty and keep in bunny. I hope this helps.

Btw, I like the paint idea too, but the kitty would try to clean itself and that may not be safe. Maybe when you find out who the owner is spray paint them!!!!!

Water is the best way.

Keep a pitcher of water near the door for a while. When you see the cat open the door and pitch water on the cat.

No harm done, it doesn't hurt the cat any. But after 4 or 5 times the cat will avoid your yard. Cats are slow learners it'll take a few good soakings for him to get it.

But you'll feel better each time.

I feel for you. I have 3 cats (I did have six at one time). Mine do go outside, but I have a fenced back yard with a special cat fence so they can't get out. I have had issues with neighbor or stray cats getting in (then they can't get out!).

My neighbor has two orange cats, one of whom loves to roam. I wish she would keep them in, but I do love this cat. But she did kill a bird that was nesting in my front yard last year. So I took down the bird house.

I think putting a note on the collar is a good idea. Maybe you can strike up a dialog with the owner and convince them to keep the cat in.

Sometimes you have to experiment with different things. Water is a good way and it is safe too; and it also works when you have dogs that like to use your yard for their bathroom. However, if you are not there every time the kitty is around it may take a while for kitty to catch on. If it is possible to get close enough to the kitty maybe get a bell for the collar and attach a note too. Or if you can spare the money on your own get a collar with a bell to attach a note.

As for nesting birds and kitties. Even with a bell it doesn't help the birds because when mama flies away kitty will still check out where she was. Unfortunately, I did the same thing. I don't try to attract birds anymore, but I can still attract the butterflies. Kitties only come around to mark their territory so I used the eucalyptus pellets in my garden to keep them away. I found a kit at the Dollar Store and it had 4 towers and a bottle of pellets.