These stray cats are really annoying me...

Okay so in my area we moved here about 3 years ago and theres been these stray cats ever since. I'm pretty sure they hang around in the area in a construction yard right next door to my house. We've had to put a fence up on our gate under our steps because the cats would go inside and break our garbage up to eat.

Since moving here theres a woman whos been feeding them for about a year and a half now since she works in the building right next door to where we live. Every day she puts out food and water bowls for these cats. So the cats pretty much feel like the building next door is their territory.

My mom has even gotten into an argument with the woman who feeds them because my mother put down moth balls cause of the smell to try and keep the cats away but the woman got annoyed and said we were trying to kill and poison them. That was not my mothers intention at all.

Hell I can't even go check my mail some times because these cats linger under the cars in our driveway for shade or to wait for the food. And each time I go for the mail I get hissed at and they raise their claws at me which I do not like at all cause I do not want to be attacked by these things.

I am considering calling Animal Control to see if they can do something but am afraid my mother will get in trouble for the whole moth ball incident if my neighbor sees Animal Control and tells them what my mom did. I dont know what to do right now but its getting frustrating with these cats.

1- I hope the woman feeding the cats is neutering them... if she isn't, she shouldn't feed them at all.... as they will start to mate and that can be a real problem.
2- If your mom's intention is not to poison the cats, what is her intention exactly by putting the mothballs out? As a cat deterrent? Sorry, but that's a And I don't know if you noticed, but this is the Cat Site.... So.... As a cat lover, I must say, if your mom is out there harming cats.... and if she does get in trouble.... well, it is her doing IMHO.
Moth balls are dangerous to cats as it can cause liver damage, if the cat eats it, it can be deadly. Your mom can also kill a neighborhood pet by accident. It is also poisonous to wildlife. There are other safer methods to deter cats.

Believe it or not AC told us to use mothballs around our garbage.

Are they being fixed?  Are there moms with kittens/really torn up boys/lots of loud fighting? Any missing ear tips or have a notch in them that is not cat fight related looking?

If they are not being fixed Animal control will at some point be involved if you call or not.  May take some time but if the place gets overrun with cats someone will have them out and at that point unless there is a TNR in place they will be held and euthanized if wild or unadoptable for behavior.

If they are fixed then either she needs to feed them more or keep bowl full all day.  Are you sure its cats getting in your garbage?  can you get a better can/bungee cords for the top of the lids?

There are cat repellents but I have no experience with them so can't recomend anything.
 

I know this is a cat site, reason I came here is I guess for advice on what to do about these cats. I'm not sure if I should call animal control see if they can trap them & get rid of them or what. Also when my mother used the moth balls it was because she assumed the smell would be something they are not attracted to and would stay away, she did not know it was poisonous neither did I. The woman who feeds them is not neutering them she just shows up every morning for work, takes out a few plastic throwaway bowls & fills them up with food & water for the cats.

As for the trash that's taken care of it's just the cats lingering around in the driveway. Our house and the house next door is where the woman works both the driveways are next to each other and they STINK of cat piss/**** and it's a nusiance to get my mail in the morning. I even bring a bottle of water with me each time I go down cause I get hissed at when I walk to my mailbox so if they hiss at me I squirt a bit of water and they run off.

As for fighting I'm not sure if there are marks on them or if they have missing ear tips. Although about 3 times a week I hear them fighting not sure if it's over the food outside or what cause I'm in doors and I don't normally go shoo them away unless they are very noisey.

Aw, I'm so sorry! Sounds like a a really annoying situation for you and your mom, and a really sad situation for the cats.

Your mom will not get in trouble for putting out mothballs. Yes, they are potentially dangerous to the cats, but unlike other substances, the cats are not ATTRACTED to them, and don't want to eat them. And she did not put them IN the food. The INTENT was not to poison them, but to deter them.

There are several different possibilities here, and it depends upon where you live:

1) You call animal control. They will trap the cats, remove them, and they will be killed, because they are not adoptable.
2) You call animal control. They will do nothing. They may speak to your neighbor about not feeding them. This will most likely not deter her. They may refer you to an organization that will help - or not.
3) You call animal control. If your area has TNR policy, they will trap the cats, have them spayed/neutered, and return them.
4) You call animal control. They will suggest you trap the cats and take them to .... whatever shelter, where they will most likely be killed.

What happens really depends on local laws, budgets, outlook of animal control or the animal control officer(s), etc.

The REAL problem here is that this woman is feeding them but NOT preventing them from breeding. It also seems the cats are living at a construction site, on one side of you, and being fed at a building on the other side of you?

Here is the humane option that I think may make everyone happy, if I understand the situation correctly.

1) Google to see if there are feral cat (TNR groups) (TNR = Trap, Neuter, Return) in your area that may be willing to help. The goal here is to get the cats sterilized and vaccinated so they cannot reproduce. This will reduce the fighting, the spraying, etc.

BTW, if you are willing to share the name of your city or county and state, or just the zip code, I'm happy to help search for feral cat programs. You can also PM me the information.

2) IF there is a TNR group that might help, they will need to coordinate with the person feeding the cats, as she'll become responsible for the long term feeding of the cats. BUT she should stop feeding them at her building. She should feed them at the construction site where they are sheltering. This will mean the cats do not need to cross your property for the food. If this means she needs to leave for work 10 minutes earlier, hopefully she will not mind the inconvenience because it means the cats remain alive and cared for.

If there is not a TNR group that can help, then you have the animal control choices above, or you can ask the woman to help you with TNRing the cats, and transport, and with costs (if there are not free spay/neuter programs in your area) of getting them sterilized. There are usually low-cost options in urban/suburban areas, which sounds like your situation. That's a lot to ask of you/your mom, as you have no particular interest in these cats. But I put it out there as an option.

FYI, that's how my husband and I got involved in TNR. Cats were raiding the garbage, and where we live (even though there's all kinds of wildlife, so it was the most ridiculous thing ever) you couldn't put tops on your garbage cans. :dk: Anyway, kittens turned up (of course). We called animal control, only to find out there really is no animal control here. If a bear is problem, they'll come shoot it or something, but that's about it. Even for a potentially rabid raccoon, you have to call a trapper and pay to have it removed yourself. Anyway, no animal control option. So we called rescues and shelters. They were either rude, mean, wanted some ridiculous amount of money for each cat brought in, were full and couldn't help, or never got back to us. We had to figure out what to do on our own.

We didn't want to kill them, but we could tell that if we didn't do something, the situation would only get worse unless the cats died at an amazing rate. So we researched options, and decided the best thing to do was start trapping them, getting them sterilized and vaccinated, and then releasing them where we trapped them. Sometimes that is all people do - they do not provide ongoing food and care, as the food just attracts them. We decided to continue providing food, we wanted to attract other cats so we could get them all sterilized. As cats and kittens showed up, we pulled the kittens, got them adopted out, and sterilized and released the older cats. If we hadn't fallen in love with cats, I don't know that we would have kept feeding them. But we did.

Oh - just thought of another potential option. You can present the woman feeding them with information from leading rescue organizations on WHY she should stop feeding the cats if she is not going to trap and sterilize them. I can provide links to stuff you can print out for her. Perhaps you can simply get her to stop feeding the cats. Of course, I doubt that works; people think they're caring by feeding them, and even when presented with reasons NOT to feed the cats if they're not going to take the time to sterilize them, they don't stop feeding them. .

AND if I understood the situation correctly, and they're having to cross your property to get the food from where they shelter, you could simply ask her, if she is going to insist on feeding the cats, to feed them at the construction site. :dk: It might behoove you to locate the property owner or manager of her building FIRST, and if she doesn't agree to feeding the cats on the construction site instead of her building, let her know you're going to contact the property owner or manager of the building where she works to let them know about the feeding: they most likely do not want her feeding them there. :dk:

Really, if I understand the situation correctly, all she needs to do is change where she puts the food out. :dk: Of course, caring about a humane solution for them, I'd like to see the cats trapped and sterilized by SOMEONE. :heart2:

Well the place next to me isn't exactly a construction site so to speak where they are actively building work it's more of a place of business that has a big driveway with various equipment & such around the place. I do notice the cats tend to roam the area in the neighborhood mostly in the yards I guess to look for food when this woman leaves for the weekend. I'm going to look into trap & neuter though I prefer to get them out of the neighborhood and will make that clear to animal control when I give them a call to see what they can do. And the woman she wouldn't have access to the construction business place as it's fenced off and she wouldn't be able to get inside.