Quick. Just got a call from my wife. Need suggestions regarding a BAD KITTY

[Xithras]

Short version of a long story: For the last year or so we've had a huge problem around my house, in my flowerbeds, and in my veggie garden with a cat digging up plants, pooping everywhere, and generally making a huge nuisance of himself at night. The cat has killed a number of large plants in my garden, and destroyed more than $120 worth of flowers last spring. I was 90% sure that it was my neighbors cat doing all the damage, but my neighbor INSISTS that her cat doesn't dig or poop, rarely gets out, and doesn't leave her property when it does...and then went off on a long screaming rant at me for even suggesting it "without evidence". It's enough of a problem that I recently spent $110 on two motion detecting water guns to protect my veggie garden, but the cat simply figured out their range and started tearing up other places instead, including the large flowerbed in my front yard.

Three days ago I was offered an inexpensive cat trap, and placed it squarely in the middle of the oft-violated flowerbed. My wife, 20 minutes ago, found a cat inside of the trap, fighting like crazy to get out. It was, as we suspected, our neighbors cat.

So, we now have her cat in the cage and are debating about what to do with it. We came up with a couple of options in our conversation, but couldn't settle on one.

Should we....

[ceile]

1. Cat Repellent

Try something like this:
http://www.treehelp.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=LG-8000

[maxsolomon]

9. +1.

also, plant ground covers in the beds.
and get your own cat - ours keeps intruders out of his territory.

[Crystal Clarity]

10. I second the cat repellent idea

It's not the cat's fault that he/she has a mean old lady as an owner. Maybe the poor kitty doesn't like her either and prefers to hang out at your place? :shrug:

If it were me, I'd let the cat go and try the repellent as long (as long as it is not harmful to the cat or your plants)

[Xithras]

17. I've tried repellents.

I've tried three different kinds, including chemical and dried predator urine. They do work, but they smell bad and you constantly have to reapply them.

I ended up getting two of THESE for my garden:


It's a motion sensor connected to an impact sprinker. Kitty wanders in, trips the motion sensor, and gets blasted by a spray of water. It's incredibly effective, and hilarious to watch. I have two of them guarding my veggies, and after seeing them in action, my dad bought a couple to keep the deer out of his flowers in Oregon. They work flawlessly there too. You can pick them up on Amazon for a bit over $40

The problem, of course, is that they cover a fairly small area (20 foot range), and it's prohibitively expensive to cover the whole property with them. My mailman wouldn't appreciate it much either.

Within a week of getting it, the cat figured out where its limits were, and just kept itself out of range or started using my OTHER flowerbeds as its litterbox instead. It didn't solve the problem, but just shifted it to a slightly less damaging area.

[realisticphish]

2. well

I would go over there non-confrontationally at first. Say, I'm sorry, but we were trying to catch the cat that was digging up our flower beds, and caught your cat. I know you said it never gets out, but...

I don't know :shrug:

I guess it depends on your relationship with your neighbor otherwise

[Xithras]

5. I've never got along with this neighbor

She's an old rightwinger who I've had plenty of confrontations with before, including twice where I've caught her ripping Democratic campaign signs down from my front fence. She's also a gossip, and has apparently told a couple of my other neighbors to keep their kids away from my house because we're "a bunch of perverts" (she discovered that my wife was openly bisexual and absolutely flipped out...calling my wife a "faggot" straight to her face). There is no real neighborly relationship to salvage, and we just take comfort in the fact that she's old as dirt and will probably be dead soon.

[Brickbat]

3. Take the cat to a shelter, and inform the neighbor that you trapped a cat in your garden but figured

it couldn't have possibly been hers since it doesn't dig, poop, or leave her property, so you turned it over to the shelter.

[mnhtnbb]

13. Given the history, I agree with this option.

[flvegan]

4. In the interest of keeping good neighbors good...

Leave the cat in the cage, in the flowerbed (so long as kitty is safe and not too much time passes). Go get your neighbor, bring her over to see the cat, in the cage, in the flowerbed. Ask the neighbor to please keep kitty out of your yard, then return said kitty.

See if the problem occurs again, but hang on to the trap.

If the problems cease, she learned her lesson. If the problem occurs again, replace the trap in the garden. When kitty is caught, call animal control to come out to see the cat, let animal control deal with your neighbor.

Happy neighbors, no dead kitty at the shelter, safe flowerbed.

[Xithras]

6. Leaving it in the flowerbed isn't much of an option.

The temps are already in the 90's, it's supposed to hit 102 today, and my wife said the neighbors car isn't there (which usually means she isn't either). I may be upset with Bad Kitty's owner, but I don't want to harm the cat. My wife, who I should also mention is ALLERGIC to cats, is going to move it into the garage to get it out of the sunlight (if she hasn't already done so).

[flvegan]

7. Agreed.

That's far too hot if your neighbor isn't home. A move to a shaded area is best. I hope the neighbor is home soon so kitty can get back inside and get a drink.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Or if you don't want to deal with Bad Owner, photograph the cat in the cage

then let it go and reset the trap. If you're lucky the scare you put in it today will be enough for a while.

I'm sorry but any cat owner who thinks the cat 1)doesn't ever leave the yard, 2) doesn't dig, and 3) doesn't defecate outside is delusional.

[Rosie1223]

11. Contact Orrex

He's the Resident Lounge Bad Cat Expert.

[MrsBrady]

12. just be as friendly as possible.

say: listen, I'm sorry if I accused your cat of digging in my garden.
So..I got a cat trap, and now I have a cat in the trap. Could you please help me figure out what to do with this cat?
'Cause I'm not so good with cats, and I don't know what to do. Could you please come over for a minute to help me?

She will see that it is her cat. You were not accusing her THIS TIME, and was asking for her help. DO NOT be sarcastic in any way.
This could begin to solve the problem.

Playing dumb, being nice can work.

[Kali]

14. call animal control and turn the cat in the cage over to them

don't tell them until they come to get it that it belongs next door - let them deal with the idiot neighbor

[warrior1]

15. Put a note on the cat's collar

with a picture of the cat in the cage. Simply say "AHA!!!!"

[Xithras]

16. (UPDATE) So, this didn't end well. I should have seen this coming.

Soo... The little old crazy bigoted Republican cat lady apparently got home a while ago and immediately started looking around for her cat. My wife had moved the cat into the garage to get it out of the heat, and even gave it a big bowl of water, a can of tuna, and turned our big garage fan on to keep it comfortable. The neighbor came walking over to my property, where she apparently looked into my garage and saw the cat still stuck in the cage. She barged into the garage, BROKE the cage while getting her cat out, and took the cat home.

Then she called the POLICE, accusing us of stealing her cat.

The police officer, to his credit, simply seemed annoyed at being called out over a cat. He warned us that, in the future, a trapped cat either needs to be turned over to animal control immediately, or needs to be set free. It's apparently illegal to trap someones pet cat and hold it "hostage", even if you trap it on your own property. On the upside, after explaining why the cat had been trapped, he told us, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER, that we should leave the trap out, and immediately call animal control if we trap it again. Our curmudgeonly neighbor started to protest at that point, but he just looked at her and said, "If they don't want the animal on their property, then its legally a nuisance animal. Wild animals have to be trapped and released elsewhere. Domesticated animals have to be trapped and turned over to animal control. That's the law. If you don't like it, keep the cat inside."

My neighbor turned in a huff and stormed back into her house at that point. The cop just got into his car and left.

And so ends my stint as a catnapper :evilgrin:

[kimi]

18. Actually, I think that ended pretty well

Cat's alive, neighbor got the message, cop agreed with you, it seems, and you know what to do next time.

Worse thing seems to be that the cage is broken. Might want to fix that, it may be needed in the future. Good luck!

[Xithras]

20. I'll need a welder to fix the cage

She apparently couldn't figure the cage out and used a broomhandle to pry it open. The bent door is easy to fix, but she broke the hinge loose from the cage on one side. That will need to be welded back on. It's pretty cheap metal, so I'm not sure how fixable it is (it's a really cheap trap).

I guess, from that perspective, it did end well. I was just hoping that it could be ended without actually having a face to face confrontation with the neighbor. I hate dealing with her.

[flvegan]

21. In other news, your neighbor sucks.

It may have worked out though. Time will tell.

[grace0418]

25. Well, once you get the cage fixed you now have a valid excuse for calling animal

control the next time it happens. Of course, it doesn't help the fact that she's cost you a couple hundred bucks but at least it should stop the cat from doing further damage.

Poor kitty, he doesn't know any better and clearly doesn't get enough love and attention from her. Does she have kids? I imagine her being one of those mothers with the annoying bully for a son but insisting "MY little Johnny would NEVER do something like that! How dare you accuse him!"

[LiberalAndProud]

19. So the cop votes for #4. Now you know.

I suspect it will be a few days before you see neighbor cat again, but it will be back.

I'm sorry you have a mean neighbor.

[Curmudgeoness]

22. My sister actually trapped a neighbor's cat and took it to the

shelter. Did not inform the neighbor. Oh well, the cat just went missing. Sadly, they found it. The next time (oh yes, there was a next time), they took it to a shelter further away. Problem solved.

This sounds terrible, but they had the same problem as you with the neighbor not believing them---and this cat kept coming into their yard and fighting their cat, so they were really pissed.

[snagglepuss]

23. A pet is considered property so keeping the cat or giving it away is a

crime. I just saw that yesterday on Judge Judy. Very surprising. Given that keeping or disposing is a crime why not take a photo of the cat in the cage and ask the neighbour to pay for damages. If she she doesn't agree, then sue.

[quakerboy]

24. What about abandoned property

I mean, If someone parks their car in my driveway, Its gonna be towed. If a teen walks by my place and decides to leave a T-shirt on the lawn(true story) Its gonna end up tossed in the recycle bin. If someone leaves their cat on my property without my permission, there's gotta be some room for me to deal with it, yes?