# Stray Cat problem



## Brower

I have a problem with a stray cat getting into my poolhouse. I have tried havaheart traps but he doesnt go in. He's been taking squirrel remains and everytime he sees me he runs and doesnt stop. I also am trying to make snare traps(not to kill him just scare the crap out of him so he doesnt go back) he has broken a few of those...
Heres some pics of the pool house, trap and backyard...








^ Thinking of digging a hole and doing it that way, and the reason he's breaking it was because it was old stuff i just bought this stuff and i can tie it to a tree branch and hang a 25lb weight from it so its strong enought as long as he doesnt bite thru it



















My last resort is to use this:


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## mike.

dont shoot the cat, call up some authorities to get rid of it


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## Remington 7400

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Problem solved. :sniper:


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## Brower

My dad says what mike said but im leaning toward....MEOW?. . .THWOP...and then a shovel


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## Bore.224

Rem 7400 That was the best post this websight has ever seen :lol:


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## predator hunter

use a walk in trap and bait it with sardines then release in a neighbor hood near by or tie a rope to the cage and throw it in the lake. :sniper:


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## mike.

dont kill cats, cats are cool i have 3 and would never shoot a cat.. rabbits and any other type of animal can go lol


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## Plainsman

I would do away with feral non indigenous species (including wild horses) if I had my way. I'm not even that fond of corn buzzards. Cats and dogs are ok in your yard ( I like them too), but not out in the wild. The cats are really tough on birds. This has been documented extensively in England and in Michigan.

The cool thing I like about feral cats is body temperature, but we have to be carefull that this subject doesn't get caried away like it has a couple of times in the past. We don't want to give ammo to the bunny huggers. My feelings are more from a biological standpoint with concern for native species.


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## Brower

but i live next to an grade school....so i cant use anything bigger than my beeman in .22 cal.


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## Cleankill47

I've had to engage in the depopulation of certain feral species fom my neighborhood when they became a problem or developed a disease, so here is my take on things. (I actually wish I had taken a few more of the wild felines around here, one or more of them gave two of my cats feline leukemia, which is a virus, and one of them has already passed)

Make sure he's not wearing a collar!

First off, no more shoddy snares. When used _properly_, they were almost all designed to kill quickly and painlessly. Not using them for this purpose, and with less-than-satisfactory materials, will only cause more problems for the target animal, as well as make them even more wary of their surroundings.

Second, try using a bigger trap. Using a box trap, or any live-catch trap, will allow you to easily take the fuzzy feline to the nearest pound, animal shelter, or distant neighbor's house.

If, and only if, trapping doesn't work, or if you suspect disease, then you should proceed with the last resort:

Set some irresistable bait every day for a few days. Let him eat it, don't even be near it. If you can watch from a window in your house, fine, but don't let him know you see him. Then, after setting the bait the fourth time or so, get hidden or ghillied up as close to the baiting site as possible with your Beeman (domed pellets or crow magnums will work well), take the most comfortable position you can, and wait.

Make sure you have your scope set for the distance from your hide to the bait site, that will avoid wounding shots. One of the easiest ways to do this is to establish where you will be baiting, find where you will make your hide, and measure the distance from one to the other. Then, _somewhere else_, set up a target and re-zero your rifle at the same distance.

While waiting, it's most important not to let him see your barrel (or you) move, and second most important not to make any noise. Pay special attention to the movement part, since that is the cat's second-most acute sense. If they can spot a vole moving in the grass in my backyard from my bedroom window, they can certainly see a person with a rifle trying to get more comfortable 15 yards away.

When making the shot, make sure he is standing still and comfortable, preferably sitting or laying down and eating, and take a head shot, from the side, about half an inch in front of the ear.

That should be about the end of it. This is where the shovel comes in _real_ handy.

:sniper:


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## mike.

dont kill it, theres a stray cat around my house, but its the friendliest cat ive seen, she now stays around my house and in my garage. shes been here for a year or two now and isnt a problem at all. she must have been a pet that strayed away from its house but she knows how to hunt. well she had a few litter of kittens, we kept one of the kitttens and i gave the rest to my exco-worker who now works at a pet store that just opened. well the one kitten is now 8 or 9 months old. the mom doesnt stay around as much now. she leaves for days on end, probably found a new home but she comes back once in a while. the kitten is pretty big now and he sleeps in my garage.. so dont kill the cat, give it to a shelter because some kid may be able to befriend it


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## predator hunter

If you live in the country like me 90% of your cats are wild. I caught one one time and my mom thought it was a house cat and it nearly bit her finger off it just went right threw her finger. so if you take them to an animal shelter if its a wild cat they will just put it down. They told us to go ahead and kill the wild cats because they carry disease and can be harmful. Like I said they just put them down at an animal shelter. No hard feelings.


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## mike.

i live in the country, most wild cats run before you can get near them, but this one must have been a prior pet to someone that was dropped off or escaped since its so friendly. shes a great hunter so she must have been wild for a while. seriously, this cat is friendlier then my indoor cat since she likes everyone that pets her and my indoor cat only likes our family and not strangers


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## Cleankill47

Mike,

I see the point you are driving at, I myself have two wild-cats-turned-housecats, but this thread is specifically for problem-causing feral cats. By all means, don't shoot your outside cat. I have about five myself that stay outside my house, one that's indoor/outdoor, and three who are indoor who live next door with my grandparents. I don't even scope them. But you better believe I'll draw a bead on a new guy in a heartbeat if he's beating up on my girls. :evil:

:sniper:

P.S.-Mike,

As a matter of fact, my all-time favorite cat, a full-blooded Mancun, (named Kit-Kat) was found wild almost two years ago. I found her down the street from me in the woods, and when she saw me, I dropped to one knee and called. She came to me like I'd raised her. She ate for almost a full half-hour, and turned indoor/outdoor in less than a week.

She was killed July 22nd of this year, hit by a car almost right in front of my house. I'll miss her.


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## mike.

well thats good to see that you help stray cats. sorry to hear about your cat that passed away


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## buckseye

To me the only good cat is a wild cat, they live outdoors where they belong :lol:

Anybody in the Minot Towner area that has extra cats I know of a farm that will take all of them they can get. I suppose trapped wild cats would be best but they will have to live in an old barn so no pets probably. I wonder if the humane society would give him 20-30 or so if they had them.


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## ohio

i would just make sure the cat is wild and shoot him. wild cats are not good for the enviroment because they are not a natural being if you get what i mean. just pake sure he isnt someone's fluffy!!!


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## xsnipax

i dont entirely agree on the shooting cat thing, you never know if it is someones pet even if it is out of town it could quite possibly be a farmers cat and is it right to shoot a farmers cat even tho they might have 5-20 cats? i shoot things that are wild or diseased, i wouldnt in my right state of mine ever shoot a cat that i doubted as being completly wild or unless it was diseased. because like whoever said that they are not natural predators and eventualy they will put a big impact on natural habitat.


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## Cleankill47

xsnipax,

Actually, the problem with semi-wild cats is that they _are_ natural predators. They hunt and kill to eat, which is okay, but if they get fed on a regular basis, they'll still kill for fun, and that makes them kill more often because they don't have to, it's just their instincts...


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## xsnipax

ya they are part of the feline family obviously their natural predators but what i meant to say was their not in their natural habitat where they once were a natural predator....ive read somewhere on the net before that their is an island(s?) that is/are terribly infested with feral cats and they are putting terrible devastation on the seabird populations, so in some circumstances depending on population per square mile (or something like that) i wouldnt feel wrong at all "putting one down" but yet i dont think i would risk the chance of injuring a cat by trying to kill it with my pellet gun, it would be a .22 lr affair. Their population is pretty high around my area and the DNR are already getting pretty damned scared, they have already had a vote on wether shooting feral cats should be permitted and listed as unprotected small game in Brown County here in Wisconsin, but was denied but only by a small percent if im remembering right.


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## Brower

Last nite i guess i had some late company. I looked out on my back porch this mourning to find the stray cat track along with squirrel and also a dog. No one besides my neighbor has a dog like this size(about coyote size) and i find the track coming from her yard but her dogs have eletric fence collars on and i dont think they would come over anyways.
So here the pictures...and this dog actually went into my pool area and layed down on the cover.



















Now actually that i think of it i think my neighbor is on vacation...


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## Young'in

shoot the damn thing.


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## Cleankill47

Brower, ain't no coyote track I've ever seen that spanned four inches. That's a dog, and by the track, looks like it's got an owner, or just escaped from one.... Just keep an eye on him....


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## OBSESSED

HERES A TIP...QUIT FEEDING IT DEAD SQUIRRELS...


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## Remington 7400

^

:rollin:


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## Brower

Found the dog last night in my garage and quickly slamed the door and call Animal Control. Just got a call from them saying the it has escaped many times from its owner who lives 2 miles behind my woods. Also found more cat tracks but this time had a lil blood in them.


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## mike.

lmao, poor cat


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## squirrel sniper101

lol i guess the cat has been wondering around someone eleses house too

:sniper:


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## BigDDL

I've had to get rid of several cats that were causing problems. The best method for trapping them was to use a common foothold trap. Simply open a can of tuna/cat food, place it on the ground and place the trap directly on top of it. This has worked almost flawlessly for close to 20 or so felines. You will want to pad the jaws with a short length of soft tubing or hose, or even many layers of duct tape so that if the wrong animal get caught that it won't be harmed. I would advise a thick sack or something suitable to cover the animal with if you plan to release it. I've used a mover's blanket. Being caught in a trap tends to put them in a bad mood, no matter how "tame" they are.


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## imajeep

after reading this post, i laughed so hard a poop fell out! :lol:


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## squirrel sniper101

ewwwwww
imajeep thats not normal you might want to get that checked out by a doctor
thats just gross and please no need to metion that in a publik forum


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## Remington 7400

:laugh:


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## HERSHEY_VOLS_22

Get you 2 clay more mines and lat them around the squirrel. Or you could call animal control, or your could shoot it


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## Brower

All taken care of...
animal control came and caught the cat in one of them BIGG havaheart traps(i dont have a heart LOL)
and turns out the cat had a litter of kittens back in the woods hence it was taken the squirrel hinds and guts

they were easy to get, and all were givin to owners after a short time and shots


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## bigboresonly

We live in the "Y" of two roads, and it is a favorite dumping ground for cats. I have probably shot enough cats in the 16 years I've lived there, to heap a commercial wheel barrow up. The Toms usually come around, and fight our fixed female cats, and put fang holes in their legs and such. I really like my 223 for them, although, I have shot them with a 12 gauge double and a 22 mag. They are tough to kill, and it takes a pretty good bit of power to put them straight down. I came out of the house one evening, because I heard two cats fighting, and I figured it was attacking one of our cats. It turned out to be two strays fighting. I hit one with the right barrel of the 12, and the other I shot on the dead run before it got out of the yard. Defintely my best shot ever, since I'm horrible at shooting moving targets. I guess it sounds cruel and all that, but I live out in the country, and there is no place to take them, because I've tried that route. They just gas them anyway, so you may as well get a little target practice.


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## squirrelsniper91

i'm with bigboresonly


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## coyote_buster

yeah, i had to put down a dog once, a freind from yankton sd thought i was sick minded, when you live forty miles away from one of those lost pet places you dont bother trying, especially since it was an ugly dog that wouldve been put down a week later cause noone wouldve wanted it
:sniper: 
^thats how i roll


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## squirrelshooter97

just wondering bigboresonly why are you usin a 223 and a 22 mag if u are a "bigboreonly" guy LOL just wondering


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## bigboresonly

Good question! My big bores are all muzzleloaders, which I can't talk the cats into waiting for. However, I am just a couple days from getting a Richland 711 double 10 gauge. It's a 10 gauge 3 1/2" magnum, and I can see a lot of long range squirrels in it's future. Before I replaced the front porch, I had bullet holes all over it from shooting various *****, possums and cats. With the new porch, I can't just sneak out the back door and bust from around the corner of the house, so I have to reach for the sneaky bastards. I used to even have holes in the front door screens from shooting varments through it when the house was dark, and I knew they'd run if the door cracked open. That was before the remodeling, so my wife let me get by with it. Cats are always open season at my house. I had one that kept fighting my cats, and I totally enjoyed blowing it's flea collar off! I take care of my cats, have them fixed and all that, so I don't have tolerance for those who don't. Oh, and my wife is just as good shooting them as I am! She has the record for the biggest tom. It was bigger than a bob cat.


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## squirrelshooter97

HAHA yeah i get ya, wonder what a muzzleloader would do to a cat? lol


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## bigboresonly

I have an original single barrel 6 gauge fowler, that will handle about as much shot as want to put to your shoulder. I usually use 3 1/2 oz. of shot and 240 grains of powder. I would love to see what it would do to a cat! Cat's all over, are getting to be a severe problem. They're great hunters, and around here, they have just about decimated the rabbit population, and I'm sure that they are also hard on wild birds. We've always had a couple cats around the house that take care of mice & chipmunks. When the big Tom's come to visit, they have left our cats bloody and fanged. I have "operated" on our cats several times by having to shave the area, and pull ***** hair wads out of the bottom of a fang hole. If you've never done this, you'll find out that unless you wrap them real tight in a towel, that you'd be better off trying to try to clean out a wood chipper while it's running! Luckily, cats heal up quick once you've taken care of the wound. If your cat ends up winning the fight, you usually end up with losing cat urine and manure all over your porch. So all this combined doesn't make it hard to be a stray cat hater. Granted, it's not their fault having to be born and then dropped somewhere because the owner wouldn't have their cats fixed. But, since you're not allowed to shoot the owner, the cat has to pay the price.


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## squirrelshooter97

haha if only there were no laws on shooting people the cats could live
lol jk but i wish i had cats around for target practice. all i have is expensive dogs that the neighbors would raise hell about.


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