Feral Cat Problem

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We had a problem with some neighbors' "freerange" cats urinating on our patio roof. Bought and installed a thing called "the Scarecrow" from an on-line gadget company. It's a rainbird sprinkler connected to a battery-powered infrared motion sensor. Stopped the problem and we can move it from location to location as needed. Cats only need one or two good sprays as incentive to find a new person to bother.

When my wife's not around, I use a single shot .177 pump pellet gun with a Daisy laser sight, pumped an extra couple of times. ;)
 
Conservative, you are using the trap improperly. The bait should be placed behind the trigger so the animal has to step on the trigger to get at the bait. Never never put bait on the trigger itself, the animal will lick it off and not trip the trap.

Always use a single ended trap, not one with doors at each end. Place the bait in the very back of the trap and cover the trap with burlap or an old quilt so the animal cannot get at the bait through the mesh of the trap. Set the trigger as light as possible. this way the animal has to step on or over the trigger and will set it off.

Some animals become trap wise if they hae been trapped previously or have escaped a poorly set trap, that is why you should cover the trap to disguise it (also helps if you catch a skunk to have the trap covered, this will keep them quiet).

Geoff Ross
 
How about a semi-funny cat story. I had an infra-red motion detector/outside light system on my driveway. Am watching tv late one nite and notice that outside light tripping repeatedly. I go over and raise the blinds and there is a cat sitting on top of my company truck looking at the lights that are on. When the lights turns off, the cat turns to walk off. As it was only a few feet from the detector it activated the detector again and turned on the lights. The cat sat back down and sat looking at the lights again. Funny as heck I kept one eye on that cat for the next hour while I watched my movie, I never have figured out what he found facinating about the light turning on. He was still out there when I went to bed. :)
 
I had a problem with a family of feral cats that was taking up residence under my pier and beam house. Noisy, and when the toms came in to mate, could get smelly, too! (And noisier still.) I blocked off the underside of the foundation, but this was an old house with a busted footing, and they kept getting around me. I was renting, so I wasn't going to put all the work and money into repairing the footing. The cats had ribs showing, and would run like crazy whenever I came into the back yard where they were. They were a pair of adult cats and 5 adolescent cats. When I saw that one of the adolescents was pregnant, I took action. I opened my back window of my bedroom and placed pillows around the window, and put an open can of tuna in front of an old oak tree in the back yard, about 20 feet out the back door. The angle was high enough that even without the tree, the bullet would have gone down into the dirt. I got a couple of chairs and set my Remington bolt action .22 rimfire so that I had a perfect rest 8 feet inside the room to shoot the can of tuna. I then made lunch. I came back into the bedroom, looked out the window, and saw the cats coming to the tuna. I loaded a CB cap, held an inch over the head to offset for the scope at short range, and squeezed. One very compassionate euthenasia. Without even retrieving that expired cat, I was able to do it again. I then disposed of the remains, and did it again. Over a weekend, I removed the problem, and felt better for it.

All of this took place in the middle of a city limits. No one ever knew, although there were houses and apartments all around and a busy street just 60 feet away. The house absorbed the sound, and the tiny clap of the CB cap was pretty easy to attenuate, anyway.
 
A snare worked to remove a stray from under my house. I am talking about a new aircraft cable snare like what you get from a trapper supply. The cat would not go into my havahart for any reason so it had to go the hard way. I had to dispatch the cat it would not let me get it free from the snare to take it to the pound. Oh well
 
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