Have you ever had a problem with a neighbor’s cats? How was it resolved? Or was it?
For a book on cats, a friend and I are looking for reports about issues related to cats allowed to run free. Please tell us your story. What was the problem? Did any property damage occur (to your yard, your home, your car, or whatnot)? Did any personal injury result (to you, your kids, your friends, or your pets)? This includes illness induced by an interaction or by the situation. Did any legal action ensue? Were you able to resolve the problem with steps that were within the law?
We’re looking for solutions to kitty issues that are a) reasonably neighbor-friendly and b) reasonably cat-friendly. We’re interested in defining the problem and learning what lengths people are pushed to by way of defending their property from roaming cats. We’re also interested in problems that were never satisfactorily resolved, and why.
If you wish, share your story in the comments section below.
For greater privacy, you can come to the Plain & Simple website and share your story on our “Contact” page: http://plainandsimplepress.com/contact/
Aw, I want to contribute except all our encounters with cats allowed to run free were tame. As kids, we used to “capture” them, play with them and then let them on their way. As a teen, I worked with people who did catch, neuter, and release of feral cats. We had to be very careful handling them to avoid bites and scratches as most of them were really scared but there wasn’t ever any drama there. As adults, we had strays cruising the neighborhood, and adopt us temporarily but oddly enough, those have never been a real issue either. They don’t leave us messes to clean, they don’t rile the dogs (though Seamus is VERY interested in them) like the house cats used to on purpose, and they’re generally sort of like little kitty ghosts dipping in and out of the premises.
Actually, I should probably just be grateful we have no good stories 😉
Hee HEEE! and how!
I’ve been a cat person most of my life, and will admit to a period where XDH and I let three cats roam loose. One neighbor complained that they were using a flowerbed in his front entryway as a catbox and it stank to high heaven. I shrugged him off, suggesting he put mothballs in it to keep the cats out. (Works, by the way, but probably stinks worse than cat pee, which is quite a lot…) Callous brat that I was.
Having had many cats and many dogs — and having nearly died from a reaction to drugs given to treat cat scratch fever — I would say that even though dogs can be very destructive, cats are far more so than dogs. A dog bite, of course, can do a lot more harm than a cat bite…but neither is something you want to have happen to you or your neighbors. Best bet for both cats and dogs is to keep them confined to your property.