OK, serious question, and I’m not asking this just to get a rise out of the cat people. I have a real problem I need to solve.

There are a couple of neighborhood cats that have taken to pissing and humping and fighting in my back yard. They like to hang out under the back steps, right next to my bedroom window, and it’s starting to smell like cat piss and they are waking me and my wife up at night. I have started opening the back door and throwing rocks and stuff at them, but they haven’t gotten the point. I assume it’s illegal to deal with the problem the old fashioned way, so I have to resort to other measures. Is there any kind of cat repellant out there? Do I just need to borrow a friend’s mean dog for a while? Any suggestions?


Comments

  1. Okay, a catch and release actually released cats into the same location after they have been spayed and neutered, it’s very complicated and takes the help of the whole neighborhoods. It’ll stop the humping, not the fighting, but even if you get rid of these kitties, more will come back (hence why they developed trap and release programs).

  2. 1. Seal up the access to under the steps, and throughly clean anywhere they have already pissed. Anti-Icky-Poo has a stupid name but really works well.

    2. Water is a great cat repellent. Once they can’t get under the steps, you should have a clear shot at them from the window. Once you douse them a few times, they will learn to stay away.

    3. There a training program for TNR starting very soon: http://www.animalalliancenyc.org/nycfci/events.php

    4. The canisters of fox urine repellent definitely work – I have used that in the past. It smells FOUL, though.

  3. And don’t forget the upside of having a few, well behaved cats around- less rats and mice. When I lived on Schermerhorn someone call Animal control on a feral cat colony that someone on the street took care of. Not long after the street was overrun with rats fleeing nearby construction. They even got into the houses- my upstairs neighbor woke up one night to find a rat sitting on the edge of his bed. I didn’t know men could scream that loudly.

  4. Google cat repellent; you can buy pellets or a spray (usually fake coyote piss or something like that) that deters cats. You can also try planting rosemary or another strong smelling plant in a container — there are some plants that put off odors that cat’s don’t like.

    Our place was unoccupied for a year, and several neighborhood cats decided to start using the yard as a litterbox. We put out containers of rosemary and lavender, and it’s reduced the cat poop problem significantly. But, we also have a dog so just the smell of dog pee in the yard might be deterring the cats.

  5. The water scarecrow really worked for me, both for squirrels and feral cats. Also, the neighbors behind us did trap, neuter, release of 9 cats. One stayed in my yard, and he runs the rest of the neighborhood cats off the property. I no longer have the annual litter of kittens under my shed. He also catches a lot of mice, which was great when we had a construction project next door. Once they are fixed, they don’t do the yowl-y serenades or fight as much. It’s a lot easier to deal with controlling one cat vs. the hordes there used to be before the TNR.

    I use the water scarecrow to keep all cats and squirrels out of the bulk of the back garden and have a sonic thing called “Cat Stop” to keep him from using the front yard for his business. I really thought the sonic thing wouldn’t work but it seems to. I also lay down really chunky mulch very thickly- they don’t like that as much as digging in cedar mulch. In the mulch, I mix in orange peels, which they don’t seem to like. i’ve tried cat repellant granules and that doesn’t seem to work.

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