Need Advice Regarding Colony of Stray Cats

Background: my boyfriend, me and our dog just moved into a duplex in the city of Dallas. We live in a nice, clean house in a pretty diverse neighborhood (by diverse I mean there are some very nice, well kept houses and some houses that are total dumps).

There are 20 cats (give or take a few) that roam in the around our house. This is because our next door neighbor (dumpy house) feeds these cats. The area outside our house wreaks of cat urine. The cats are not mean (that I have seen) but they are dirty. It's gross. My dog goes nuts when we step outside because of all the smells.

Today I called Animal Control and these are my options: place a complaint about the neighbor (animal control pays her a visit and investigates and either determines that the cats are strays in which case they tell her not to feed them...or she says they are hers and they tell her to find safe homes for 15 of the cats) OR I can request humane animal traps, put them out myself, take the trapped cats to the shelter at which point the cats will be spayed, vaccinated and then returned to the neighborhood.

I"m totally frustrated. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? Any suggestions? I"m seriously not an animal hater but the sight of these hoards of cats is just gross to me.

I would let animal control handle it.  If you go out and trap them yourselves, you're just inviting a confrontation with your neighbor, and I don't see anything good coming from that.  You're not an animal hater, this is just not a safe environment for the cats or for other animals in the neighborhood.  Your neighbor probably has good intentions, but she is misguided.  Let the authorities try to educate her.

I had a similar situation when I bought my house.  I knocked on my neighbor's door and asked about the cats.  I was then told they had been dropped off and she fed them because she was an animal lover.  She couldn't afford to spay/neuter every drop off.  We trapped them together and took them in.  They came back spayed/neutered and were no longer stinking up the place.  I know very little about cats because I'm allergic to them and have never had one as a pet.  It seems they no longer mark their territory though because the odor is gone.  Not only that, but when they die, they are gone.  In the past seven years our numbers have dropped from about 20 down to 4.  YAY.  No kittens replacing them!  New unaltered animals that are dropped don't feel very welcome and often leave within hours.  Once spayed/neutered they stay close to home and their presence is enough to keep others from sticking around.

Be kind.  It's not the poor cats faults and God bless the neighbor for feeding them no matter what you think about how she keeps her house and yard.

P.S. I feed the stary and feral cats in my area and I would be very upset if a new neighbor called Animal Control on me or the animals.  They have as much right to be there as your dog does.

Original Post by ncurlee:

P.S. I feed the stary and feral cats in my area and I would be very upset if a new neighbor called Animal Control on me or the animals.  They have as much right to be there as your dog does.

You are doing neither the cats nor your neighborhood any service.

My dog is on a leash, cleaned up after, and is in our own house or yard - not roaming around unattended. It's not the same. I don't agree with you.

I think the precious cats I have saved, neutered and brought into my life would disagree. 

To be honest - I've been attacked and bitten so badly by a half-feral cat (ie one that was fed every once in a while by an owner that kept the cat outside) that I was shaking my leg trying to get the thing off.  I've never been attacked by a dog.  Animals need to be kept in their yards.  It is the law, in most places, for dogs as well as cats.

I like the spay/neuter possibility.  But I still have difficulty with animals roaming about.  It is not safe for them, and really, it's not safe for people or other pets.

there is a major difference between a stray cat who is spayed or neutered and one who is not.

i agree with augustnkate, i think your best option would be to speak with the neighbor and voice your concerns. offer to help if you can rather and the neighbor might be a bit more open to you.

i understand the instinct to take care of animals but if they are not spayed or neutered then the problem is just being perpetuated. clearly your neighbor is unable to take care of these cats in a meaningful way, and the cats deserve a better life than the one they currently have.

if your neighbor will not cooperate with you then you will have to involve animal control. i agree that this is not a healthy or safe situation. it's not really fair to you that you have to be the one to do something about it, but since no one else will take responsibility you do not have much of a choice.

Check to see if Alley Cat Allies are in your area. They do the trap/spay/release deal. We had a cat population in my area. One guy adopted two and took them when he moved. I had kinda adopted two. The male disappeared one day and never came back. The female I took to the vet and found out a neighbor down the street had already had her spayed. I got her shots. Unfortunately I couldn't get her to be an indoor kitty and she got run over by a car.

I also found out neighbor down the street from the vets had been trapping/spay/releasing the cats for a while. We had one Momma cat that we couldn't trap. Finally I had to use her babies a bate. I put them in the trap and of course she went in to save them and got trapped. We got her fixed. She kept feeding the babies and when they were big enough we found homes for them. Since then the population has been dying off. I still see on kitten we never found a home for, but he is a big cat now.

Southern CA has coyotes...

You think that's bad?  My friend's mother feeds the raccoons.  That's right, the wild raccoons.  She throws out cat food every day for them.  From what my friend has told me, there are about 20 or so now that come around.  Thank GOD  I don't live next to her, because I would have reported her.  My friend has tried talking sense into her mother, but she won't listen.  She says the neighbors hate it, but she refuses to stop.

I know raccoons are a bit different than cats, but stinky is stinky.  I'd say call animal control and let them do what they normally do. 

The thing about raccoons is that rabies tends to cycle through their population.  They're also like little bears.  Had a friend of a friend who was actually killed by one in a freak incident.  Raccoon somehow got in his kitchen, and up into a cabinet.  When friend of a friend went down there, the raccoon leapt, snagging the poor man's jugular.

Original Post by dnrothx:

The thing about raccoons is that rabies tends to cycle through their population.  They're also like little bears.  Had a friend of a friend who was actually killed by one in a freak incident.  Raccoon somehow got in his kitchen, and up into a cabinet.  When friend of a friend went down there, the raccoon leapt, snagging the poor man's jugular.

 yes.  And you start inviting them around, then they start digging in the neighbors trash and roaming the lawns at night, etc.

Original Post by puh8suwrux:

To be honest - I've been attacked and bitten so badly by a half-feral cat (ie one that was fed every once in a while by an owner that kept the cat outside) that I was shaking my leg trying to get the thing off.  I've never been attacked by a dog.  Animals need to be kept in their yards.  It is the law, in most places, for dogs as well as cats.

I like the spay/neuter possibility.  But I still have difficulty with animals roaming about.  It is not safe for them, and really, it's not safe for people or other pets.

I have never, ever been attacked by a cat.  However, I am attacked by dogs almost daily and have been bitten several times.

P.S.  Call animal control to take care of the cats. 

Original Post by trhawley:

I have never, ever been attacked by a cat.  However, I am attacked by dogs almost daily and have been bitten several times.

Trhawley, you must give off some kind of pheromone that makes dogs go psycho.  Or do you wear a belt made of steak?

Original Post by corvuscorax:

Original Post by trhawley:

I have never, ever been attacked by a cat.  However, I am attacked by dogs almost daily and have been bitten several times.

Trhawley, you must give off some kind of pheromone that makes dogs go psycho.  Or do you wear a belt made of steak?

 Word of advice:  Never, ever ask tom what kind of meat he carries around in his pants.

Buy a bb-gun. Problem solved.

Original Post by kay27:

Buy a bb-gun. Problem solved.

This I can't recommend.  My cat has pellets in her from somebody who had this idea.  Not cool.

However, as ignayshus pointed out, if the coyotes find your neighborhood the problem might take care of itself.  Ah, the great circle of life ...

I am in this VERY SAME SITUATION right now, only the neighbor feeding the cats is my mother in law!  The cats keep having kittens.  My dog goes ballistic every single time I take him out because we live on the lake & they have to cross our yard to get to the water to drink or catch fish or whatever they do down there.  I called animal control & they said we could either rent the humane traps & we could only set them during certain hours (their business hours) or we could pay them $65 per cat to have them come pick them up, spay or neuter them and bring them back.  First of all, we dont have the money to fix 15-20 cats and second of all I DONT WANT THEM BACK!!!