I would put up a sign of my own that says "Cat trapper and D*** Proud Of It. I reserve the right to trap any cat using my property as a bathroom. Take care of your pets or I'll do it for you." Then get that trap back out and trap away. I love cats but some people are too irresponsible to deserve them.

Had to laugh at your "fresh" piles.

We live in the middle of 4 fenced acres so we don't have the strays. I can not imagine letting my kitties out. Reggie weighs 20 lbs and is a big scarity cat. Emmy weigh 12.6 and loves everyone. But we do have two outside dogs so we have our share of "piles".

I don't mind cats, but I can never eat a whole one. Want me to send you this sign from Down Under?? Saw it on a Ute ?SUV last week. hehehe

Yes! I too would check with authorities on that camera pointed at you.

For about as much as the trap cost, you can get a repeller that will send away any such animals from your yard. They work like the pest repellers you plug in your house for mice or bugs. The outdoor ones can be set for larger animals and just stick in the ground.

moth balls in the garden are supposed to help keep them away too.

Sorry about the whole situation. Feuds with neighbors are never a good thing and rarely make life pleasant any way you look at it.

Yep...I agree....can make for a really stressful time.

Perhaps when things quiet down a little you may be able to speak to your neighbour and come to a solution that works for both of you. A work colleague had a similar problem and they put a curved fence topper (really light) on the top of the dividing fence. The curve should be on the side where the animals are climbing from.

LOL!!! That is great.
I believe cats should be the same as dogs...need to be on a leash if outside. I have cats and they stay inside. We have strays that come around once in a while and it drives me nuts. I don't want another animal in my yard leaving a mess. I have kids that play in my yard. I would have done the same and trapped it too!!! As for the neighbor, I wouldn't let it bother you. Keep trapping his cat!!! I'm mean and if I had a neighbor that put up a sign like that, I'd be putting one up too.

Oh Dear, Did y'all know that cats positivly hate citrus? Spray one with diluted orange juice. spray or paint the garage or fence, or where they sleep with orange oil. J

Ugh, it's not nice to have a situation with neighbors like that. "Our" cats are indoors-only, but they all came from outside at one point. My soap business is called "Wildhaven" in part because I feel that our property should be a haven for the wild - including feral cats, which we feed and have shelter for - if they hang around, they get fixed and vaccinated - and eventually work they're way inside. I feel bad for the strays, but at the same time, the neighbor should realize that not everyone feels the same. At least you didn't shoot it! (thank you ;))

and...Once i lived where we had thick paper garbage cans because of a biting fly problem..
there were two dogs who would bite holes in the bottoms of them and scatter the garbage on my carport...
SO for a week I put chicken skins bones, ect. in an aluminum foil pan beside the bag..one day I laced the scraps with extreme HOT sauce. (Mclehenny's) The dog gobbled it up, and went howling home.
After that the dog just passed my place, with its nose in
the air, and never stopped in my yard again.
Wonder if it would work the same way with cats and hot sauce and catnip laced hamburger.? (The catnip is to make sure they ate some...) J

Why not say a litle prayer for him, and ignore the entire situation. But continue to trap cats that don't belong on your property

I can understand the need to deter the destructive pe(s)t but luckily the chicken bones didn't splinter and kill the poor thing. JMHO

I am a responsible pet owner. My cats are 80% of the time in-doors; my cats of past have even come in to use the litter box (guess they were spoiled). My dogs live in a fenced yard and we will within a day or two be gating our 2.5 acres so they roam "free". As a cat owner who lets the pet outside, youf neighbor can't guarantee, as others have said, where they are going to "go". I love animals but wouldn't tolerate another's pet that is destructive. Sorry your neighbor is being such a a**; just remember those who are guilty usually try to point attention away from themselves (the arrow on the sign). IMHO the best way is to just go about as you normally do, being responsible for your pets and your property.

well, I guess i knew somebody was going to say that about the chicken bones, but the dogs ate the chicken bones when they bit holes in the garbage bag. ..Didn't dogs ancestors eat rabbits and birds? Like me eating a peppermint stick,they crunched up the bones. J

That I think was a cruel thing to do, after all it's not the dogs fault their humans are not looking after them?

Please re read her post...She said the dogs bit holes in the garbage bags. She did not deliberately feed chicken bones to the dogs. She laced it with hot sauce to send them away.

Check your city ordinances. There is probably not only one against the sign, but one against him allowing his cats to run free. If it bugs you enough, you can always look at a civil suit or play his game and put up a sign of your own pointed at his yard telling your side of the story! Good luck!

Me, I would have probably just kept the cat!! hee hee

Call the police that is harassement. He should be taking care of his cats & not worry about what you do He is not a responsible pet owner!!

This man is being very unreasonable. See what you can do to get him to take his sign down and camera. Call the Police and the City. You should not have to live like you did something wrong.

I have a cat that never ever goes outside. I love him too much to have something happen to him. I have only had Dukie for 1 year. Never had cats before, only dogs.

I have had strays use my yard for a litter box. My family and friends have had the same and it always under the living room windows. Why??? I have used moth balls, but they stink up the front porch. I changed 2 years ago to Cayenne Pepper, I have to put it on several times a year. No more cats using my front yard for their litter box. Good Luck!!! HUGS to you.

I truly feel for you, I'm sure you didn't "purposly" trap your neighbors cat, rather one that was using your yard as a litter box. Unfortunately, as long as cat owners allow their cats to go outside, there is a chance that bad things will happen to them. I'm a volunteer with a rescue group and a foster mom and I can't tell you the number of times I have taken in a kitty that has obviously had a loving home. Thankfully we are a no-kill shelter so all the ones I have fostered are now in their forever homes, but none ever found their way back to their original home. Like some of the others who have responded, I would contact your local police department and make a report of harassment. Best of luck.

This is NOT the solution! At least with trapping and then taking the animal to a shelter, hopefully a no-kill one, they at least have a chance of finding a family who will love andtake care of them responsibly. We require all the kitties we adopt out to be inside cats only. Shooting them is absolutely inhumane. This reply moved me to tears.

Shelter volunteer and foster mom

Thanks, luv...I did not know who the owners were..that dog must have lived at least a half a mile away as I heard the howls as they diminished in the distance ...
The hot sauce didn't do any damage to the dog but it was convinced that my garbage was mighty unpleasant, and never bothered it again.
It must have eaten a ton of chicken bones it got through the holes it bit in my tough paper garbage bags over time.
I asked an animal scientist...
He said birds and rabbits and mice are natural diet for the dogs ancestors..they are full of bones..He said look at the teeth in a dogs head and said that dogs are not stupid, and they can crush bones much better than we can. J

LOL, my dogs (and cats) will steal chicken bones any chance they can get! Off the counter, off of a plate, from the bottom of the garbage... They like meat, any form or fashion!

Thanks again Melinda!
I appreciate you defending me!
By the way I look like your avitar too!
I'm 81, and now live in a little town called Port Lavaca TX. Jeannie

Jeannie, I'm sorry if you thought my reply was directed to you. It wasn't. Stray animals getting into our garbage is a real problem and you have a right to try to stop it. After having one of our dogs die by having a chicken bone puncture his throat, I'm not sure I would feed anything chicken bones but it, the dog, was obviously used to eating them. Chicken bones tend to splinter very easily as compared to many other bones so they, and most fowl, are not recommended to be fed to dogs. Cats will eat differently than a dog will so they don't have as much of a problem with fowl bones. You solved your problem to the best of your ability. My response was to the person who said to take out a gun and just shoot the strays (cats). I don't believe shooting an animal is ever a good or humane solution.

Our first kitten resisted every effort we made to get him to stop chewing on the furniture. We were at the end of our rope so we finally tried hot sauce on the wood. It wasn't the really, really hot stuff but only what I could tolerate which really isn't very hot. Apparently however, it was enough to make him stop. He sure had a mind of his own though.

Hopefully Wonderwoman can come to some sort of peaceful solution with her neighbor. I wish her the best.

about bones - I understand that it is cooked bones that cause the problem - something dogs and cats do not encounter in the wild.
I read this on another forum where a lady was having a problem with neighbor walking his dog to do doo-doo on lady's lawn. Apparently if you get some bacon fat (liquid) and pour it over the doo-doo, the dog will eat it and then later (hopefully in his own home) throw it up.
And please don't say this is cruel, you KNOW dogs eat stuff like this all the time... ;)

Look, I am an animal lover too.
I am sorry you lost a pet.
Actually, I wanted the dog to stop eating my garbage both because I hated cleaning up the mess and I was worried about it eating too many bones. I confess I baited the aluminum pan with chicken skin and bones...but the bones were wingtips only. I made it tasty with lots of gravy, meat scraps and things like that to see if the dog would eat that,and go on its way and it did, leaving the bag alone. But that wasn't practical. So I sprinkled some extra firey hot sauce on my scraps, and because it didn't taste it in time, it went howling home in misery.
The next day when it came to my neighborhood it passed my house, not even looking into my carport. Because my
neighbors were still suffering from holes bitten in their garbage bags by the same dog, i gave them the rest of the hot sauce...
I knew the person who owned the other dog, who denied its guilt. So, one day I wrote a note that said: " I am tired of your dog getting in my garbage bag - so next time it happens, I will put him in it!" petted the dog, and slipped the note into his collar. No more problem, BUT sometime later, I was at a party...and she was telling some of the people there about "this really mean and evil person who lived in the neighborhood who want's to kill my dog" I interupted her to say " but you are talking about me - I was the one who wrote the note, because I was tired of your dog breaking into my garbage bag." She said: " but you love dogs!" "...and you aren't mean either."
I said I only wanted you to know about the mischief it was getting into, and wanted you to keep it in your fenced yard.
And everybody laughed! J

Guess this will teach me to keep my thoughts to myself! I will take responsibility for what I say and who I say it too but once again, I never said anything was cruel, mean or anything else about putting the hot sauce on the garbage or that you weren't an animal lover. You did what you had to do to keep the dog out of the garbage, that's great. I'm glad it worked. And dogs will do what dogs do, including eating their own poop. What I DID say was that it was cruel to suggest getting out a gun to shoot an animal and I referenced the comment to which I was refering my comment to. Done. No more. I'm out of here.

I am a rescuer/foster for felines (of over 14 years). What you did was right, period. His response was out of line and hateful.

His video should be plenty of proof as to the identity of the littering cat(s). Although it is likely the camera is a fake and only has a red light that works. Otherwise he must be made of money to afford such devices or a techy.

IF I were your neighbor (and this is truly hypothetical - as my pets are fully "contained" on my property) and I was worried about my neighbor trapping my cat, I would be eager to share pics of my cats with the trapping neighbor so they knew which ones were mine.

And as for you . . . keep (humanely) trapping the cats that trespass and if you want to be kind to your neighbor, take the trapped cat to him each time and say, "Found this guy in my trap while I was seeking out neighborhood strays." But no apology needed. After a few days of returning his cats, he might need a new strategy as his cats are obviously not reading the sign that clearly says they should stay out of the cat nappers yard (read sarcasm).

He (and his cat) are lucky I am not their neighbor. I would have taken the trapped cat to a feral TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release) program affiliated veterinarian for surgery and ear notching! Imagine his surprise when his cat returns home a day later and has it’s belly shaved and unique ear!

Love this!


In my neighborhood they don't trap cats. They poison them with antifreeze. You at least were humane!

I think you behaved appropriately. Especially after he assured you his cats wouldn't be in your yard. In all seriousness I would continue to trap and ignore his childish behavior.

House pets belong in the house.

She did deliberately feed them in a foil pan, then laced the food with hot sauce and hurt the dogs. I know they made a mess of her garbage cans, but that is no reason to be cruel. She would have been better of tracing the owners down and complain.

i've had cats all my life, they NEVER go outside unlewss they are on a leash, or in a hugh cage. i open my windows for themto see out in the nice weather. they have their own bathroom,
i will not let my cat out for frea somethning will happento them.

Not trying to stir up trouble, but I think that is a matter of opinion. Nobody is any bigger animal lover than I am but enough is enough when someone else's animal causes you grief. What is mean is the owner to just let their dogs run loose. I have 3 large dogs, who live in the house. When they are out to do their business or whatever, they stay home and do not wander. I do not have a fenced in yard, but they know where their boundaries are.

I know what peoples house pets can do when they run wild. If you've ever had to put up with peoples *house pets* bringing down a 500 pound calf and disemboweling it, you would change your mind. We had this problem several years ago when a subdivision sprang up near us. We had 5 calves killed by *house pets* in a 2 week period. Like I said, enough is enough. People still need to take responsibility for their animals.

Sorry PatriceJ, I'm not trying to stir up trouble, but I'm a farm gal who unfortunately understands the realities of life.

Put your own sign up in your yard
TIRED OF HIS CATS USING MY YARD FOR A LITTER BOX

Even if he doesn't take his down, from embarassment, this will let all your neighbors know who the real problem is.

Oh don't forget the arrow!

Sorry, didn't mean to upset anyone, have had my own share of problems with other peoples pets, have always been able to get it sorted. Perhaps I've just been luckier then some. I'm just one of those silly people that feeds strays and try and find homes for them. Can't stand cruelty to animals. But that's me. I've also had my pet sheep Ernie killed by a someone's pet, but dogs do what dogs do and it's the owners fault, not the dog's. I fully understand that farm people have a different point of view, after all your lively hood is at stake. Can we just agree to disagree? Kind regards, Dea (naive city gran)

Did the guy get his cat back? That would be my first question. Cats are free spirits, they aren't required to be on leashes, so the guy shouldn't have told you his cats didn't come to your yard. They can.

Just remember it's not the cat's fault. I think I'd be ticked off too that you didn't at least check to see if the cat was his before bringing it to the police. Then you would have proven that the cats come into your yard because you trapped one and I would have then let it go into the care of it's owner.

When I was a kid, my cat used to frequent my neighbor's sandbox for their kid (who was my best friend). We share our surroundings with all the critters. Deal with it.