# Loose Cats



## poodlecrazy#1 (Jul 2, 2013)

Nope cats are to wild for AC to try to round up around here. They won't even pick them up unless someone calls and requests it. 
Personally I don't believe in indoor only cats. As long as they are altered,microchipped, and vaccinated my cats are welcome to come and go as they please. I can go weeks without seeing my boy cat at times. I call him my Tom Cat that is not actually a Tom Cat because he acts like one, but was neutered at like 3 months old. He will protect the yard as well, fighting off any strays that come around. My older girl is actually sticking around more lately because I think she might be loosing her sight. And my Mama kitty sticks to the backyard mostly. I'm just not as much of a cat person as I am a dog person so I let them take care of themselves for the most part. They seem to prefer it that way. I have never managed to keep an inside only kitty. The one that I tried to keep indoors only snuck out one day had no outside skills and got snatched by a coyote ?. I prefer to let them learn those skills for when they eventually want to go outside.


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## ericwd9 (Jun 13, 2014)

*Pets at large.*

Is it _*right *_to allow your carnivore pet to spend its time killing birds and small animals in your neighborhood? Should it roam on the property of others who might not tolerate cats or their behavior? The idea that domestic cats help with rodent extermination has been proved a fallacy. In point of fact, cats carry more disease to humans than rats. Local government bodies throughout the first world have legislated to have cats under the same control as any other pet. If you let your cat roam, you are breaking the law, period. Though laws can be made by governing bodies, enforcement is usually more difficult. Should anyone break the laws made by their community with impunity. _*No, *_to do so is antisocial and contributes to the degradation of our society.

Aside from any laws, my own view is that, A free person should be allowed to keep any pet animal they wish provided that they keep that animal healthy and happy. That they keep the animal safe. and that they keep us all safe from it. Lions, tigers, gorillas, dogs and p*ssy cats included.
Eric:angel2:


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

I don't know, I have one cat that lives outside and two who are inside only.

In one night my outside cat killed 8 gophers. Left them all on the front porch. The immediate neighbors were all having gopher problems. There is no longer a problem. 

I had another neighbor many years ago with a mouse in her house. She tried traps, all kinds, and called out a professional exterminator. None was successful. She then allowed my cat into her house overnight. When she woke up in the morning, the mouse was beheaded and in her front entryway. 

In these cases the cat helped with the rodent population, lol.


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## ericwd9 (Jun 13, 2014)

N2Mischief said:


> I don't know, I have one cat that lives outside and two who are inside only.
> 
> In one night my outside cat killed 8 gophers. Left them all on the front porch. The immediate neighbors were all having gopher problems. There is no longer a problem.
> 
> ...


You should hire the cat out! sounds like the exterminator!
Eric


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

No licensing of cats, that I am aware of. In my neighborhood a 'lost cat' poster means a coyote kill. When we moved to this neighborhood, I noticed feral cats would sometimes come in my yard. I don't see them any more.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

In New York you actually don't own, but instead harbor, cats (at least I think that is still how the law reads). Also in New York if an animal attacks another animal then the "dangerous" animal provisions can be implemented. There is no assertive enforcement of these laws though, at least not in my area. 

Across the street from me the woman harbors many unaltered cats. Her colony is always replenishing itself. I've seen a number of them hit by cars, somebody poisoned a bunch of them a few years ago, many look sick and injured at times. If you talk to her about her cats she will tell you they aren't hers, yet on her property is where they live for the most part. I am sure she has food and water out in the back yard for them. One neighbor had all the shrubs removed from the front of her house and replaced them with rocks to discourage the cats from using her foundation beds as a litter box. They regularly attempt to hunt my chickens and they are totally torturous to my dogs who have to endure seeing them on our lawn and front steps. I have trapped and released a couple of them to discourage them from coming into the yard to no avail. Any I trap in the future are going to the town shelter where I will tell them to euthanize them because they are trying to kill my chickens. They have, of course, killed a number of birds at my feeders as well.

When I had cats they were strictly indoor girls. When they went outside it was in my arms or in a carrier. They died at ages of between 14 and 16 years old. The average lifespan for a feral cat is about 3 years old. I think that sums up why cats should be indoors or under owner control when not. None of them ever acquired a taste for walking on a leash.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

I have a problem with cats, and get on the roof of my car and lay, paw prints all over the place. My neighbor had an soft roof and the cats used as a scratching pad, and tore it up. I think any animal dogs or cats should be confined to the owners property. These cats come to the front door and aggregate my dogs so I have the close the door as the storm door is all glass. They have tore up bird nest in my planters setting high up on a pedestal and used my flower beds as a litter box next to the front door and it smells


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## kmart (Apr 28, 2015)

This is my take: 

If you live out in the country, with no neighbors to bother, fine. If you don't care whether your cat lives or dies, let them roam. I don't care. 

If you're my neighbor, and your cat pees on my house and car, poops in my yard, attacks my leashed kitties for no reason, follows me around and hisses at me, kills things and leaves them for ME to clean up, and then dies from being hit by a car? Not okay. It is NOT okay to let your cats roam if you live in town because it's so inconsiderate and dangerous. I don't have the problems with wild animals that I do with cats, and my neighbors say the same.

Harsh? Probably. But I am sick of all the cats in my neighborhood destroying my stuff. Their owners obviously don't care if they live or die, and they should all be impounded, neutered/spayed, and adopted or euthanized if not adoptable. (Unless it's obviously a case of sneaking out. Which happens.) It would sure be nice if there was a cat sanctuary here, but there isn't. 

Interesting wording on "harboring cats." That seems pretty accurate for some cat owners!


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## kayla_baxter (Jul 17, 2015)

I'll spray cats in my yard with a strong hose. If a cat was destroying my property it would be trapped and taken to a shelter 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## TrixieTreasure (May 24, 2015)

Ours is a city of 50,000 people. As far as I know, there is nothing done about loose cats. Fortunately, I'm out in the country now for the past 14 years. 
When I lived in town, I had problems with cats digging around in my flower bed, and ruining my flowers and veggies with their digging and spraying. 

My cats are strictly indoors only. Always have been, but this one time, back in the 1980's, I did let my girl outside in our backyard on our patio where she could get some sun. I knew she wouldn't go anywhere, but I just wanted to be extra cautious, so I had her on a lead. All of a sudden, I heard this horrible noise. I was just 3 feet away from my girl, and a stray cat came into our FENCED backyard and jumped on my cat and starting fighting with her. I quickly broke up the fight, but my cat got scratched up pretty bad on her head and ear. Rushed her to the vet, and she was fine, but I had a pretty big vet bill. Really burned me because I felt like I couldn't even allow my cat outside in the backyard of my own property without the fear of another cat coming over the fence! I was so furious that I even wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper. Nothing ever came of it but I felt much better to at least share my frustration with people.

Now, living out in the country, I have three strays that have come around and stayed. My husband told me NOT to feed them, and then they will just go along their way, but of course I didn't listen to him. After once you feed them, they stick around. I don't consider them *my* cats, but I do feel some responsibility toward them in case they get sick. Otherwise, my girls, Gracie ( 9), Lacie (5), and my little naughty girl, who thinks she can do no wrong, lol, Abby ( 3), are strictly indoors only. They've never gone outside. And they never will.


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

Here, once you feed a stray cat, you are considered the owner. I found this out many years ago when a stray cat had a litter of kittens in my yard. Of course I fed her, she was nursing a litter. When the kittens were around 7 weeks old I found the mother cat dead in my garage. Don't know what happened, she didn't seem sick. 

Anyways, I called humane to come take the body of the mother cat. When they got there they asked if she was mine and I told them no, she was a feral stray. They asked if I fed her and I said I had because she was nursing kittens. They then wanted money to pay to take the body. Said she was mine because I fed her.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

N2Mischief that is just awful, here you are not letting them stave, and then they want to charge you for taking the body. In one year I turned 11 cats over the the human society. A mom and 6 kittens, someone dumped them off. A cat who followed me into my house (neighbors cat) I did not know it. And a clients house who I had listed left to declawed cats out and a dog was chasing them. Needless to say I bring them home, each time I call the human society and gave a 50.00 dollar donation for them to pick them up.


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## TrixieTreasure (May 24, 2015)

N2Mischief, I'm so sorry that happened to you. Seems very unfair because you were only wanting to help mother and babies. Over the last 10 years, we've had a couple of strays come up missing. They were there one day and the next day they weren't. We looked but never could find them. We just figured they either went on their way, or they had died. One thing that we're fortunate about is, I own this property, and it's out in the country, so I can bury pets here without going against the law. Can't do that in town, or places where you don't own the property.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

When I was taking the garbage to the curb this evening I realized there was a cat in amongst the foundation plantings from the neighbor across the streets poorly managed cat colony. I chased it off, but it was slow to go. The dogs all alerted to something near the driveway but inside the yard after dinner. I suspect it was that same cat since I have seen that one in the yard recently. I am sure it wants to get my chickens. That one will be taken to the town shelter if I can catch it. This kind of stuff is unfair to all parties. It is stressful to my dogs, potentially deadly to my birds and means a short life for this cat. At least it will have a humane departure rather than starving, freezing, being poisoned or run over. Don't get me wrong I loved having cats and would still have one or two indoor kitties if BF wasn't horribly allergic (asthmatic) to them.


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