Problem with cat's

J.Ball

Hi there i'm looking for a bit of advice. The cat's in my estate have gone completely beyond a joke. I caught one spraying on my car door yesterday and they keep spraying everywhere.
They keep going for the wild birds in my garden's and a few day's ago a big tom cat attacked my rabbit out the back garden. The bunny was a bit shaken but fine what annoys me most about this is i was standing about 6 feet away from the bunny tidying the grass when he was attacked.
Most of the problem cat's come from one house. Do any of you guy's have advice on how to keep them away from the garden or if there anybody like a pound i could call. I'm really at the end of my rope here

Cherry Blossom

Have you made this person aware that their cats are causing problems?

Birdnuts

A good blast of a garden hose would probably sort the problem.

J.Ball

yeah it's been said to her by a couple of people. She doesn't seem to take any notice. I'm told cat's hate citrus i'll give that a shot.

lolo62

thats frustrating...poor bunny! the problem with cats is they are part wild so the owner has no control over what they do when they leave the house....id try and sort it out myself if i were you rather than fall out with your cat-loving neighbour!

my mam has two cats and theres a lot of cat politics going on over territory, which is usually what the spraying is about...she uses a water pistol to get rid of unwanted visitors

it might be better to not leave food (if you are feeding them) for the birds as it makes them easy targets in a cat neighbourhood unfortunately

people used to leave the green plastic bottles full of water in their gardens...i dont know if that actually works but ive heard it keeps cats away

another option might be one of those high pitch frequency devices but that might hurt bunnys ears too...

best of luck with it!

kildare.17hmr

If you havent said it to the neighbor yourself i would. I would ask her nicely to keep her "pets" in her own house and garden.This is my opinion and what i would do. I used to not be able to let my kids out the back with their rabbit because of the cats..

J.Ball

Going over probably seem's like the best option really. I'll give one more issue with the cat's before i do been pretty quiet today with them. The bunny wont go outside anymore just look's out the open door (he's a house bunny) so he's at least safe from the cat's.

kildare.17hmr

Most people just flat out refuse to believe their cats annoy the hell out of their neighbours. In saying that there are alot of people posting here who are the opposate and have enclosures or cat proof gardens, responsible cat owners.

Let us know how ya get on with the neighbour!

lestat21

You should probably report this issue to the local SPCA. If they're hunting birds and rabbits they could be underfed by their owner. Many elderly people have animals they cant properly take care of. Theyre often very happy to part with the animals when theyre reassured that theyre going to a good home. Also people in the SPCA are very political in how they approach these issues.

I'd guess that the main problem is that these animals havent been neuteured and arent getting enough food from their owner. My mam has 5 cats (some of them semi feral) and no bother at all with the neighbours. Because theyre well fed and dont fight or hunt as much once theyve gotten the snip.

maringo

Cats will be cats and like to roam about freely. Its very risky leaving your pet rabbit running free as even a magpie will go after it. I suggest you keep it in a run for safety. I have two gorgeous cats myself but much as I would like to keep them inside the house they sometimes do roam about both mine and my neighbours gardens. Fortunately my great neighbours love animals.

Ophiopogon

maringo wrote: »

Cats will be cats and like to roam about freely. Its very risky leaving your pet rabbit running free as even a magpie will go after it. I suggest you keep it in a run for safety. I have two gorgeous cats myself but much as I would like to keep them inside the house they sometimes do roam about both mine and my neighbours gardens. Fortunately my great neighbours love animals.

Personally I think that is a really crap attitude. I know this argument always ends up going round in circle but still it's MY garden I don't need nor want YOUR pets in it.

It;s not that hard to keep your cat from roaming. The Op was in the garden in the rabbit, it was their garden, their rabbit, they shouldn't have to worry about some else's pet.

zef

lestat21 wrote: »

You should probably report this issue to the local SPCA. If they're hunting birds and rabbits they could be underfed by their owner. Many elderly people have animals they cant properly take care of. Theyre often very happy to part with the animals when theyre reassured that theyre going to a good home. Also people in the SPCA are very political in how they approach these issues.

I'd guess that the main problem is that these animals havent been neuteured and arent getting enough food from their owner. My mam has 5 cats (some of them semi feral) and no bother at all with the neighbours. Because theyre well fed and dont fight or hunt as much once theyve gotten the snip.

All cats have the natural urge to hunt , it does not mean they are underfed!

angelfire9

zef wrote: »

All cats have the natural urge to hunt , it does not mean they are underfed!

Case in point our cat is neutered & probably too well fed (chubby kitty) and he brought me in a starling this morning which he caught and played with for 20 minutes in the kitchen before dropping it at my feet
(In my defence I thought it was his toy fish that is the same colour and size)

Point is all cats hunt my fella does it for entertainment not for food!

J.Ball

maringo wrote: »

Cats will be cats and like to roam about freely. Its very risky leaving your pet rabbit running free as even a magpie will go after it. I suggest you keep it in a run for safety. I have two gorgeous cats myself but much as I would like to keep them inside the house they sometimes do roam about both mine and my neighbours gardens. Fortunately my great neighbours love animals.

First of all i love animals very very much i just don't want somebody else's pet spraying on my car door handle and the rest of my property this could make me and my family pretty sick. Dice (the bunny) is a house rabbit and doesn't have a run in the garden so he's let out for a little while everyday for a bit of a dig and a play in the grass. He should be aloud play in his own garden without fear of death. He's always supervised before i'm told off. The bird's in the garden even the magpies don't bother him at all.

kylith

maringo wrote: »

Cats will be cats and like to roam about freely. Its very risky leaving your pet rabbit running free as even a magpie will go after it. I suggest you keep it in a run for safety. I have two gorgeous cats myself but much as I would like to keep them inside the house they sometimes do roam about both mine and my neighbours gardens. Fortunately my great neighbours love animals.

Hang on, she should keep her own animal penned up, even in her own garden, but your pets are allowed to wander, willy-nilly, all over other peoples gardens? How do you figure that?

Shanao

kylith wrote: »

Hang on, she should keep her own animal penned up, even in her own garden, but your pets are allowed to wander, willy-nilly, all over other peoples gardens? How do you figure that?

Unfortunately this is the attitude people have with cats. "I dont want your dog coming into my garden, but my cat isn't domesticated, he's still half-wild so he can go where he wants". So are my monitor lizards but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want me letting them wander about your garden.

paddyandy

Try convincing a Cat about what it should and should not do .If you can keep a cat in a garden then you might try making a career in politics .

Shanao

Have you not heard of catproofing a garden or building a catrun? Whoohoo, now I can go start my career in politics. Couldn't be any worse than the rest of them

Ophiopogon

paddyandy wrote: »

Try convincing a Cat about what it should and should not do .If you can keep a cat in a garden then you might try making a career in politics .

I should run for president then as my cat was only allowed in our open garden and in the 14 years I had her that's a far as she went.

lestat21

angelfire9 wrote: »

Case in point our cat is neutered & probably too well fed (chubby kitty) and he brought me in a starling this morning which he caught and played with for 20 minutes in the kitchen before dropping it at my feet
(In my defence I thought it was his toy fish that is the same colour and size)

Point is all cats hunt my fella does it for entertainment not for food!

Eeeeww Im so glad my cats dont do that.... Maybe theyre just too old...

Cherry Blossom

The kids brought my dog in from her run one Friday and left the gate/door open. My 5 year old niece went outside the next morning and ran back into the house screaming having discovered the remains of one of her birds that she feeds religiously every day plastered across the inside of the dog kennel. So we had a funeral, telling her cats will be cats is not going to be much consolation to a 5 year old tbh, nor would it be much consolation to the OPs kids if one gets its paws on their rabbit.

Is it worth my while cat proofing the garden when the resident cat seems to have no desire to be outside? I'm starting to think is, my neighbours have no inclination to securely contain their dogs never mind their cats and I don't see any other way around the problem that will work long term unfortunately. The birds are not the only problem, I'm regularly picking up the remains of rodents that I find in the garden and in the drive lately. Its impossible to be sure I haven't missed one that kids or the dog will find instead, that's not even getting into the srip of grass at the front of my house being used as a public toilet.

I've given up arguing the point at this stage. Its been said before and I'll say it again now, cats have no business running wild in this country, they are not an indigenous species. If it was any other species (snake, insect, mink, dog, horse etc.) you would be expected to report it to the appropriate government department (either the dept. of agriculture or dept of the environment) and they'd be rounded up. Its infuriating to say the least that the only way pet cats are legislated for is as wildlife - which they are not.

angry kitten

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

The kids brought my dog in from her run one Friday and left the gate/door open. My 5 year old niece went outside the next morning and ran back into the house screaming having discovered the remains of one of her birds that she feeds religiously every day plastered across the inside of the dog kennel. So we had a funeral, telling her cats will be cats is not going to be much consolation to a 5 year old tbh, nor would it be much consolation to the OPs kids if one gets its paws on their rabbit. Is it worth my while cat proofing the garden when the resident cat seems to have no desire to be outside? I'm starting to think is, my neighbous have no inclination to securley contain their dogs never mind their cats and I don't see any other way around the problem that will work long term unfortunately. The birds are not the only problem, Im regurly picking up the remains of rodents that i find in the garden and in the drive lately. Its impossible to be sure I havent missed one that kids or the dog will find instead, thats not even getting into the stip of grass at the front of my house being used as a public toilet. Ive given up arguing the point at this stage. Its been said before and i'll say it again now, cats have no business running wild in this country, they are not an indigenous species. If it was any other species (snake, insect, mink, dog, horse etc.) you would be expected to report it to the appropriate government deptartment (either the dept. of agriculture or dept of the environment) and they'd be rounded up. Its infuriating to say the least that the only way pet cats are legislated for is as wildlife - which they are not.

As a cat owner I can understand where your coming from. I hate it when my cats kill anything, which they rarely do. I'd be more concerned about the numbers of dogs running the street unsupervised. I'd be more worried about kids being attacked by dogs.

Cats are predators and I'd rather see a dead rodent in my garden than a live one running around my house or an infestation of rats in my neighbourhood. Legislation in Ireland treats cats as vermin. Unfortunately another example of Ireland's 3rd world mentality towards animals. When all's said and done we can't place all the blame on animals, as pet owners we all have a responsibility for our animals and as human beings maybe if we all showed each other a little more consideration we'd be living in a better world.