Hey Nif! Step 1. talk to the owners and explain nicely that you have a wild bird haven and that the cats are truspassing in you yard and destroying what you have spent time and money to create. Step 2. arm yourself with info. There are a few good websites that explain the dangers cats cause to wildlife AND the dangers wildlife causes to cats. I know they are listed in an old thread over in the BB forum, I will try to find them for you. Step 3. Check around to find a feline rescue in your area that will foster the cats untill they can be placed with a loving family. (this is best for the cats). 4. Inform neighbors the cats on you property will be trapped and taken to the shelter (just don't REALLY take them there).5. get traps from the humane society. I feel bad for the cats out there, they get such a bad rep and it's not the cats fault. Every cat deserves a nice warm lap to curl up on and a safe enviorment to live in.
Hope this helps
Lisa

I agree with Lisa, try talking to the neighbors first. It may not help, but it can't hurt. Print out the information from Cats Indoors! (link below) to explain why you will not tolerate cats in your yard.

If the problem persists, live trap the cats with a Havaheart trap, sometimes available to borrow from the local humane society or often for sale at Home Depot type stores (it may be worth the $30 investment). If at all possible, bring them to a no-kill shelter or organization, especially if the cats are reasonably friendly (or at least not afraid of people). Unfortunately, there are very few groups that will try to rehome true ferals and you will need to decide what you will do with any that you catch ahead of time. If you can find a group that will try to place them, go for it - ferals can become wonderful housecats given time and patience.

It's a rotten thing to have to control cats in your yard because other people are too darn lazy to spay or neuter, or don't care enough to keep their pets inside where they belong. I have 11 former strays, five of which were true ferals (and all of which found us - we have never had to look for a cat...) All but one are now happy lap cats, and we're working on the last hold out. She loves being petted, she just wishes that it weren't people that have to do the petting!

Good luck and remember, it's not the cats' fault, but their owners'. Still, you have to protect the environment, too, and those cats don't belong in the wild.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cats Indoors!

If you see 3 or 4 cats in your yard, you can bet that the actual number is at least twice that.

No matter what you do, you'll never be able to get all of the cats out of your yard, short of putting in rather expensive cat fencing all around the outside of your fence (if you have one). So the very best thing you can possibly do for the birds is to get rid of the feeders and replace them with "natural feeders" - shrubs, trees, tall grasses, and other plants native to your area which provide natural bird food AND provide cover at the same time. There's a thread on this forum currently called "Another example of natural vs. artificial feeding pros and cons" which might help explain to you why using native, bird food-producing plants are better than using bird feeders. Bird feeders tend to concentrate birds in a spot, often an open spot since people usually set the feeders up so that humans can see the birds, which leaves the birds open to any and all predators in the area, since the predators can see the birds easily, too. If nothing else, you should at least move the feeders into clumps of shrubs or trees so the birds have a place immediately available to dive for cover whenever cats come around. A brush pile is a good idea, too; I get discarded Christmas trees in January every year and pile them up along with branches, pinestraw, leaves, and any other stuff I've cleaned up from my yard. The birds like wrens, brown thrashers, and towhees LOVE it and they usually head for that pile rather than the nearby trees or shrubs when a cat comes around. I've even see woodpeckers making their way through the branches to get to the trunks of the Christmas trees, presumably searching for insects in the trunks.

Not only will planting native plants in your yard provide cover for the birds that are already there, you will probably find that over time, the native plants will actually attract many more birds of various species into your yard. And planting native plants is by no means dull or limiting - there are literally hundreds of possibilities for you to choose from and most of the shrubs and trees that birds like have attractive features that you'll like, too. You can still have a beautiful garden planting with natives, and you'll find a lot more wildlife in your yard with native plantings. If you want to grow native plants in your yard but don't know where to start, you can ask here or on the Native Plants forum for help getting started.

Of course, establishing a native garden takes time, so for now, you need to do something to deter the cats, especially with winter coming and many trees and shrubs losing their leaves. That leaves birds even more vulnerable. If I were you, I would first try to talk to the neighbor. Let him/her know that you don't want the cat in your yard. Look up your local laws - chances are good that there's some kind of law against allowing cats to roam on other people's property. If you have a law like that in your area, you can show it to your neighbor. I've included a link to a website called Cats Indoors! that's a project of the American Bird Conservancy. They have a lot of info and printable material that you can take to your neighbor to explain why the cat should be kept inside and how he/she can go about transitioning the cat from an outdoor to an indoor cat. If your neighbor ignores this, then go to the local animal control shelter and ask them if they have humane traps you can set up in your yard. Most shelters have them and many will lend them out to citizens with cat problems. Any cats that you trap, take to the animal shelter the next morning. After your neighbor has to pay a fee to reclaim his/her cat a few times, that might change his/her attitude about letting the cat roam freely. Unfortunately, the likelihood that the cats will be adopted if they're not claimed by an owner is pretty small. I know this may seem cruel, but I think it's better for them to be humanely euthanized than to let them die from being hit by a car, being mauled by dogs, infected wounds from a cat fight, eating poisoned meat or small animals, one of the many deadly and debilitating diseases outdoor cats are exposed to, shot or set on fire or otherwise tortured by cruel people who just hate cats, and so on. After working in vet clinics for a couple of years and doing rescue work for several years, I have seen all kinds of horrible things happen to outdoor cats. Even if they can manage to avoid all of the things I've listed, they almost always have harsh, short lives and they have to deal with multiple internal and external parasites, constant hunger, constant stress, and chronic diseases like feline herpes that aren't deadly but cause a lot of discomfort. I love cats and I have two which are strictly indoor only. But after all I've seen, I've come to the conclusion that it's far kinder to have cats humanely euthanized than to let them die in one of the ways I've listed. If you have a problem with that, though, try finding a rescue group or no-kill humane society in your area that will agree to take the cats you trap. Make sure you've found a group that will take them BEFORE you trap them, though, because it will not be easy for you to find a group that's willing to take outdoor cats; cat rescuers know that outdoor cats almost always have incurable diseases (feline leukemia, feline immunovirus, feline herpes, just to name a few), they often require a lot of vet work which can cost a lot of money, and they often are not socialized so therefore are difficult to adopt out. Like Lisa said, it's not the cats' fault. But there's no way that all of the millions of outdoor cats in this country can go to homes. If a cat can't be one of the lucky few who does get to go to an indoor home, it's better off being euthanized humanely.

The only other alternative is if there's a Trap-Neuter-Release program in your area. You would have to call around to local rescue groups to ask if they know of one. This will not help your local wildlife, though. But it will help to prevent the local cat population from growing any larger, at least. TNR programs work on the ecological principle of carrying capacity; when the local population of cats reaches a level which is no longer sustainable (there's not enough food for them all) any kittens that are born have a low chance of survival, because the mother cat will not be able to easily find and catch enough prey for them all (due to competition with the other cats in the area). On the flip side, when large numbers of cats are removed from a population all at once, the remaining cats will find it easier to catch enough prey to raise their litters successfully, and they'll keep breeding until the carrying capacity has once again been reached. The TNR programs trap and neuter as many cats as they can, then release them back where they were. This way, the cats they neuter are prevented from breeding at all, but the cats that they aren't able to catch (the ones that are still able to breed, in other words), won't have the resources (read: a surplus of prey animals in the area) to raise several large litters of kittens because of the competition with the adult, neutered cats in the area. The idea is to reduce the population over time, but the only way that could ever work is if people stop constantly adding to the outdoor population by letting their cats out. So TNR will not help you with your problem, but if you're not willing to take the cats to a shelter, then you need to at least make sure that they aren't breeding and adding to the outdoor population.

Whew! This is very long, but I hope it helps to clarify some things for you. If you do a search for "cats" in this forum and others, you'll find many, many threads on this topic which might help you if you want to read more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cats Indoors

Well Jennifer, I guess you see that the "C" word is a big issue here in these forums and has been discussed at length in each one of them, on occasions not so nicely either. If you do what garden4wildlife suggest and search "cats" on any of the forums that we frequent you will see what I mean.
Natural planting for the birds sounds great and I am going to work at that, I bet you would have room for a go at that yourself at your Mom and Dads?
Remember it's not the kittys fault for doing what cats do.
Good luck'
Lisa

Oh yeah, I am very into planting a native garden, it is one of my dreams!

It is going to be a lot of work. My yard is very barren, just lawn for like 30 years at least, and rocky soil, and, get this, garbage, yes, garbage, buried in the yard, old siding, glass, and the like. I live in a nice area, but the 'problem' is that 30 years ago it was TOO rural and people thought it was a good idea to bury garbage there!!!

It is going to have to wait until next spring to plant anything, and then a few years after that for anything to get established, but I have it all planned out already - and with the advice from you guys, it will happen.

The good news is that I border on an old field that is grown into a birds paradise, is borders on mature forests, and even some wetlands hidden in within the 12 ares or so that border my house.

So, I really already have the benefits of a natural area close to my house, all I have to do is plant some great food sources and I am good to go.

I am obsessed with *only* planting natives, with thousands of native trees, bushes, plants to choose from, WHY would you EVER feature a non native tree, most of which are really boring anyway because everyone plants them - and isn't that sad.

Okay, I am saving all your emails so I can read them and ponder over them when I have more time. And I will follow all your suggestions to the tee.

This is going to take some determination, but I think I can do it.

Thanks!!

:o)

Where I live there are about 30 cats wondering around. Talking to the owners of the cats probably won't do you any good. We have trapped them and taken them to the shelters but the shelters don't want them. We took so many to the SPCA that the person at the SPCA thought that we were breeding them and told us not to bring them in anymore. My DH will shoot the sick ones. It seems like for every one he shoots there are 3 more taking its place. We don't know what to do anymore.

Dawn

Dawn, that just makes me SO MAD. Cats should be purring in your ear and snuggling up in your bed.The only wildlife they should be harming is a mouse that may make it's way into your house or playing with a bug. The people that let thier cats wander and breed are just as bad as the people who tie thier dogs to a tree and leave them there year in and year out. Cats and Dogs are PETS, that means they should be petted right? In order to do that they need to be indoors at your side. I believe people who allow these things should be spayed and newtered themselves so they don't raise a bunch more ignorant people.We don't need any more of them either!Actually they should just be put to sleep like all the strays they leave behind.
Sorry, I had to vent.
Lisa

Anyone know where I might find an audio of mating cats? I have an obnoxious neighbor who hates my dogs and is doing all kinds of weird stuff to get us to move or get rid of the dogs, which is not going to happen. So, I want to throw a little weird stuff at him.

Lisa, I hate when people dump their pets. I also hate seeing all the cats. In a perfect world all pets would be by our sides. But until that happens we will continue to live in a world of people who don't care about what happens to their pets. Dogs and cats that are allowed to roam around are disease carriers. You don't know what they are getting into and what they are bringing back to you and your family.

Dawn

I have 2 cats right now that some ignorant persons dropped off. I live on a side road with only a few houses and every year someone drops off kittens and sometimes adult cats. There was a third little guy but I found a home for him. I've been desperately trying to find a home for these 2 but it seems everywhere I look I see "FREE KITTENS" signs. It's so sad because I can't keep them and I know they'll be put down if I take them to animal control. The No-Kill shelters are filled to capacity and the pets from the hurricanes have filled other shelters in the area.

I too hate people who dump their unwanted pets like they're nothing more than trash!! Shame, shame!!

Same here Peggy, I live on a side road and someone dumped two cats on my property. One did not make it, found her frozen in the snow last February (so so sad). the other has become housecat #3 of mine. If they drop more off this winter I do not know what I am giong to do!

They dropped these two because they thought they were defective. The one which died had a deformed paw and Tips (my fat houssecat) has a lazy eye.

The stray cats we have around here are missing eyes, tails, ears and one is missing part of its lower jaw. I'm not a cat person but this just makes me sick to see this.

Dawn

Jill, that's so sad. Cats are warm loving animals and they make great pets. The ones I have are starved for affection. I hug them and stroke them all I can.

Good news! Today I found a home for one of the 2 cats I've been feeding. The other one, I've taken in but I already have 2 old cats and they aren't real happy about the newcomers.

Dawn, your story makes me sick as well. If it wasn't for DH, I'd take in all the strays...I'd gain a reputation as the "wierd catlady." But I wouldn't mind.........

Just a suggestion for those of you fostering or caring for strays.(thank you) You should all have a freecycle site for your town, and they do allow "free to good home" adds. It's free and you would be suprised at all the stuff people are giving away. www.freecycle.org
Lisa

Lisa, many freecycle sites do prohibit animal postings (ours does). And while I know you mean well, you should never advertise an animal as "free to a good home" (even if it really is). Requesting an adoption fee, even a small one, is a good idea because:

1) It emphasizes that pets have expenses associated with them. If you can't afford to pay $20-$100 to adopt one, how can you afford vet and food bills?

2) It reduces the chance that your animal will be "adopted" by people collecting animals selling to laboratories. Many tests performed on companion animals are only valid if the animals are socialized, i.e., someone's former pet.

3) It reduces the liklihood that your animal will be adopted on the spur-of-the-moment (these kinds of adoptions are most likely to end with the animal being abandoned or put back up for adoption).

I have 11 former stray cats in my home, all indoors, and I have adopted out over two dozen others over the past decade. These have all been animals that have found me (or in one case, were dumped in a box on the doorstep). In every case, I have requested an adoption fee (which also helps to defray my vet bills to get the animals ready for adoption, usually over $150 per cat). I have either known the adoptors or performed a home visit, and I have required that adoptors keep the cats inside. Someone serious about adopting a cat will appreciate that you are taking the time to ensure that it is going to a loving, forever home.

So use a resource like Petfinder.org where you can post that an adoption fee is required, or local veterinarians will often know of people who are looking to adopt. You can always waive the fee once you determine that an adoptor is serious, but all of the major humane organizations in this country advise against posting animals as free to a good home.

Jill, good points. I was a foster Mom for an all breed rescue when I lived in Co Springs and fostered 30+ dogs during the years I was there. I guess I just assume people who are giving away animals do thier homework before actually letting people walk off with them. Here are some tips. 1. ask the perspective owner if they have ever had a pet before, then ask what Vet they used.Call the Vets office (with all the new privacy acts now they will only be able to tell you wether or not the perspective owner made regular Vet visits). 2. Do a home check, anybody seriously wanting a pet will be happy to let you see where it will be living. 3.You do NOT have to give a pet to anybody that responds to your add that you don't like, you can always say that somebody else has looked at the animal and has first "dibbs" if they check out. 4. Insist that you can have a follow up visit to see how the animal is doing. 5. Write a contract on how you expect the animal to be cared for, IE. expect the cat to be kept indoors at all times, and have the new owner sign it. This won't do any good leagally but will ensure that the new owner has the same values you do. 6.The most important, contact the humane society to be sure the perspective owner has not relinquished a pet. I understand the point about having to pay a fee for the animal, but there are poor people out there that will give an animal a loving home (much better than running wild) that may not respond to a for sale add.
Just want to get as many of these kittys safe and out of the wildlife harming business as I can!
Lisa

Lisa, those are all excellent points, and typically, that's exactly what pet rescues do when they adopt an animal out. I was not advocating placing animals "for sale" - but rather noting that there was an adoption fee required. The SPCA and pet rescues all charge hefty fees for adoptions for the reasons I listed, among others, and private rescuers can and should, too. Like I said, you can always waive the fee, but I am nervous about anyone wanting to take on the expense and responsibility of an animal that cannot afford the adoption fee. Cats are expensive to take care of properly, and I don't mean buying premium food and litter. Vet bills are a minimum of $50 a year for a healthy cat in most parts of the country, and even indoor only cats get sick sometimes. A cat is a potential 20 year responsibility, and there are some people, caring as they are, who probably should not adopt if they do not have the resources to care for the cat.

Just to add to Jill's point about the cost of properly taking care of a cat....both of my indoor only cats lived outside before I got them. Both of them have feline herpes, which is incurable. In my older cat, it manifests only in his eyes - eye discharge, inflamed eye rims, frequent squinting, and painful eyes. In my younger cat, the virus manifests as painful, large ulcers on his chin, lips, and gums and a nearly always snotty nose. Both of them are on l-lysine every day for the rest of their lives to help suppress the virus and keep the flare ups of symptoms to a minimum. The younger one also has to frequently take prednisone to clear up the ulcers when they occur, and recently, my vet advised that we try to put him on a preventive dose of prednisone since he gets the ulcers so frequently. The older one has another health condition called lymphocytic plasmacytic stomatitis, which is an autoimmune disease where, to put it simply, his immune system attacks his own teeth. If left untreated, his gums would get very red, painful, and inflamed, he could stop eating from the severe pain in his gums, and eventually he would lose his teeth. To keep all that from happening, he has to take Clindamycin 5 days a month, every month, for his entire life. These medicines are relatively cheap, but since their conditions are chronic and incurable, I'll have to continually buy medicine for them all their lives. Both of these cats are what people would call "cheap" cats - the older one I found after he had been dumped in a fast food parking lot, and the younger one I adopted from the pound for $45 which included all of his basic vet work. If somebody who didn't have the money to spend on vet care had gotten either one of these "cheap" cats there would be a problem. I've probably spent over $1000 on the older one now (I've had him for 3.5 years) and about $300 on the newer one (who I've had for 4 months) and will continue having to spend a minimum of $100 a year on each of them for medicine alone. There's no such thing as a "cheap" pet if the owner is actually taking care of it. If somebody doesn't have the money to pay a $50 or $100 adoption fee, then they definitely cannot afford to properly take care of that pet.

"they are starting to be attracted to the birds I am feeding."

STOP FEEDING THE BIRDS! Setting up feeding stations creates permanent "buffets" for predators.

If you want birdlife, plant things that will attract them in smaller, more natural numbers.

Cat Deterrents for your Garden:

Keep in mind that each cat is different (like people), a deterrent that works for one may not necessarily work for another. On the plus side, most cats will keep pesty squirrels, moles and other critters out of your garden. They're great for keeping out moles, rabbits, squirrels, and other critters which can do more damage in your garden than a cat ever will. If the cats have owners, talk to them without being confrontational. The cat owner who allows his cat to damage other peoples' property is as guilty as the cat hater who kills the cat for trespassing. Remember, cats will be cats, and it is unfair of us to blame them for being what they are and how nature intended them to participate in this world.� After-all, we praise them when they catch mice or rats or other creatures we deem to be 'pests'.

* amonia soaked (corncobs, etc)
* aluminum foil
* bamboo skewers
* black pepper
* blood meal fertilizer
* bramble cuttings
* Carefresh - "recycled" wood pulp
* catnip - donated into your neighbor's yards (so they'll stay in their own yards)
* cedar compost
* chicken wire (metal or plastic)
* cinnamon
* citrus peels
* citrus spray
* cocoa bean shells
* coffee grounds -fresh & unbrewed, not just a light sprinkling (highly recommended by MANY Gardenwebbers!)
* dogs
* electric fence for animals
* essence of orange. essence of lemon, lime (citrus essential oils)
* fresh manure(ditto)
* garlic cloves
* gumballs from the Sweet Gum Tree
* gutter covers
* hardware cloth
* heavy bark mulch
* holly leaves
* keep the area damp, they like dry soil
* lavender
* liquid manure (good for your garden too)
* motion sensor sprinkler
* pennyroyal
* pinecones
* pipe tobacco
* plastic forks
* predator urine
* red wine vinegar
* river rocks over the exposed soil
* rocks, crushed
* rose bush clippings
* rue, an herb (Ruta graveolens) (highly recommended in plant form only)
* short twigs throughout the planted area about 6" apart
* six-inch bamboo skewers (pointy side up)
* Spray on your leaves (not the cat): fill a spray bottle with 1/2 t chili powder, 1/2 t cayenne pepper, 1 t dish soap and water
* squirt gun with water
* talk to your neighbors
* tansy
* thorny berry, lilac, hawthorn, rose clippings
* toothpicks
* upside down vinyl carpet
* vinegar sprayed on areas where they roam
* water bottle on "stream"

NOT RECOMMENDED:
*** chili powder, red crushed pepper, cayenne pepper (NOT recommended), it gets on the cat's paws then they wash themselves and they get it in their eyes, beware cats have literally scratched their eyes out because of this. Even if it's one cat out of 500 infected in this way, that's one too many for me.
*** Don't ever use mothballs or flakes. Those little toxic waste pellets destroy cats' kidney function, could seriously harm people who handle them, and yes, contaminate your own garden soil. Their packaging even warns against using them this way.

Give them their own areas:

(To keep them out of where you don't want them)
(If you don't mind them protecting your garden from other critters)

+ pick the cat up and bring it to eye level with the plant to see and smell it up close. She noted that once her cat has seen and sniffed at the plant, she usually doesn't bother with it later.

+ give them their own plants - i.e., pots of grass for her to chew on and a place in a large planted container on her balcony with some miscanthus grass in it (the cat likes to curl up in that for some reason)

+ if the cats are strictly indoors and attracted to your houseplants, grow catgrass for them. If someone forced you to remain inside one enclosed structure all your life, you might be attracted to the plants too.

+ Barley Grass
+ Any type of "catgrass" from the pet store
+ Carex elata 'Bolwes Golden' but put it in some shade
+ Catmint Nepeta mussinicultivars (Simply put, Catmints are Catnips without any culinary or feline use. In any case, they are, however, phenomenal, long flowering, hardy perennials that belong in every fairie or flower garden.)
+ Catnip Nepeta cataria (in your own yard) The oils of which also work as a mosquito repellent that works 10 times better than Deet! Catmint is the common name for all varieties of Nepeta. Catnip is the common name for the specific variety of Nepeta called nepeta cataria, which is the variety that cats are most attracted to.
+ Cat Thyme (Teucrium marum)
+ Flax
+ Oat Grass
+ Jacob's Ladder
+ Lemon Grass
+ Loose soil and mulch like small bark mulch
+ Mints
+ Purple Fountain Grass so the cat lays in the long leaves all day. Maybe put something in that the cats really like and - you know cats won't winky were they like to hang out.
+ Sandy area
+ Silver vine (Actinidia polygama)
+ Striped Ribbon Grass (can be invasive)
+ Sweet grass
+ Trificum aestivum (type of cat grass)
+ Various Varieties of Cat Mints (Catnips)
+ Wheat Grass
+ Wheat Berries
+ Valerian

This list compiled by Violet_Z6, email at violet_z6@yahoo.com for comments and suggestions regarding this list.

I have a bit of a different problem...my daughter came home one day and was crying because she had found an abandoned kitten in a neighboring parking lot..now we already had a cat that i had adopted from a shelter yrs before and we had another cat pass away, so i was not looking to get another one. i did, however, go out every day and leave a can of food for this kitten (he looked to be no more than a month old), well of course one very rainy day i went to feed him and saw that where he was sleeping had been flooded so i begrudgingly took him home. Now almost 4 1/2 yrs later i am regretting that decision. Our other cat has since passed away and we are left with the stray we took in. Here is my problem, i cant stand him anymore..he has the worst behavior of any cat i have ever seen..my first cat did have these same behavioral problems but he calmed down after a couple of yrs, this cat, on the other hand, has gotten progressively worse..for example: i am a single parent and it took me 2 yrs to save up enough money to get my daughter a laptop computer for her schoolwork and i also saved in that time for a new tv since ours had pretty much died 2 yrs ago. Now since we have gotten these things this cat will purposely try to break them..he will look right at me and try to knock over the tv (its a flat screen) and he tries to knock the computer on the floor. He also will go into our bathroom medicine cabinet and pull everything out. In addition he will jump on our kitchen counter and try to knock everything off and he looks right at you when he is doing it. I have even sprayed him with water to try to get him to stop but that doesnt work. It has gotten to the point where i feel like i could either open the front door and put him out and let him fend for himself or strangle him or have him put down. Now dont get me wrong, i love animals, my love of animals turned me into a vegetarian 21 yrs ago, but this cat just has me at my wits end and if he hasnt calmed down after 4 yrs i doubt he ever will. He also bites and i dont mean play bites, i mean he will grab what ever part of you is near him and he will bite and not let go until you smack him on the head. Is there any remedy for this extremely bad behavior?..i have all but given up.

Ter73, I think what you have is a very spoiled cat. I suggest watching "The Dog Whisperer" and adapting it to cats. My cat tried some of those tricks when she was young. I'd never had a cat before, only dogs, so I treated her like a dog. When he does something bad, say "No!" loudly, and follow it up with a loud slap on furniture/wall near him. If he's not neutered, get that done. Remember, you have rights, too. He's not your boss and he has no right to abuse you!
That's my 2 cents. I'm sure more knowledgeable cat people will have better advice.