A few less cats in the neighborhood

We've had cat problems around here for a while.  A guy down the street feeds a bunch of them on his front porch.  His entire yard smells like cat pee.  But he is quite a ways down the street, and the cats mostly stayed over there.  But occasionally we would see them sneaking around our house.  A streak of black shooting out of our garage if it was left open too long.  Or a blur through the back yard.

Then one night I was watching TV downstairs, and heard the dog door flap rattle.  Weird, because the dog was upstairs.  Maybe just the wind.  But then a few minutes later, I heard it rattle again.  And watched as a little black paw sloooooowly reached through the flap and into our house.  At that point I think I said something out loud, and the paw disappeared quickly, along with the evil cat it was attached to.

I heard the doggie door flap a few more times over the next few weeks, and managed to catch a few more glimpses of the cat trying to sneak into the house.  Then one day I got a text from Paige at work.  "You will never believe what I found in the pantry."

 

 

That's right... a kitten in our pantry.  Pretty clear now why a cat was trying to sneak into our house.  Paige gave the kitten away to some lady in our neighborhood who had lost her cat, and said she would take a kitten.

A week later, I heard the flap rattle again.  This time I knew what it was, and what it was after.  I sat perfectly still on the couch, and watched again as the paw reached through the door.  Followed by the entire cat.  It came in through the door, and walked under the kitchen table right to the pantry.  I jumped up and stuck a tupperware in front of the dog door, the only thing I could find.  Meanwhile the cat went ballistic.  It jumped on our kitchen counter, hissed at me, hid behind the couch, tore around the living room, and made a couple of breaks for the blocked off dog door.  I was trying frantically to think how on earth I could catch this crazy cat.  Then it made a break for the door again, and managed to squirm between the tupperware and the wall and out the dog door.  I did manage to get a picture of the black streak running through our living room.

It's on now cat.

 

Of course, the first night, I only managed to catch our dumb dog.  She is useless at keeping a cat out of our house, and then gets caught in the trap the first night.  Serves her right.

 

Of course, the kids had to give it a try too.
 

 

 

After about a week of setting the trap, I finally had success!  A black cat, and what appears to be a sibling kitten to the one in our pantry.

 

 

I spent a long night considering various ways to dispose of a cat and kitten.  Unclear on the legality of my preferred methods, the next morning I made a trip to the Humane Society.  Unfortunately they charge to drop off feral cats, $20 for the first cat and $75 for every cat after that.  Their preferred solution is that you trap the cats, have them sterilized, and then release them back into their native environment.  Uhhhh, yeah, I don't think so.  So fully prepared to pay $95 (!!!!) to dispose of 2 cats I brought them there.

Luckily they determined they were not feral, by poking them with a ball point pen and seeing if they attacked it.  And non-feral cats are free to drop off.  So two cats down.

The trap went back out, as there was still a grey cat lurking around our house, occasionally seen streaking out of our garage.  A few more nights with the trap and...

Bingo!

This one unfortunately was feral, so I had to pay $20 for the Humane Society to take it.  Grrrrrr.

But we haven't seen a cat lurking around our house since.  Except for the neighbors cat from across the street.

It will be fair game though, if it starts thinking it can saunter in our back door and drop off kittens...