Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent
-
@Hobbie I don’t know about the local and national laws for you, but I would probably trap the lot of them and take them to rescue before you have a colony.
If things where you are are not too different from here, you can very likely borrow a cat-trap from your vet. The clinic I worked at had a couple that we let clients borrow.
I am pretty sure that being in heat is a miserable experience for cats, and being desexed is a total relief for female kitties. Poor thing.
-
@Hobbie said in Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent:
All four cats are allowed total unrestricted/unobserved free roam
This is becoming increasingly illegal/restricted out here – to the point where the animals being captured aren’t sent to shelters.
If that’s not enough encouragement for your neighbours, there are often free/discounted desexing (along with worming, etc) programs being run by the RSPCA or, if in NSW or QLD, the Animal Welfare League.
-
@Pavel I even looked it up. There’s a few rules you have to adhere to in NSW if you want to let your cats roam without copping fines. Roaming cats MUST:
- Be registered with local council.
- Be microchipped.
- Be desexed by four months of age, or have a permit (renewed annually) allowing it.
- Wear a collar with identification when outside the property.
- Be kept away from wildlife protection areas.
I can’t comment on the first two, because who knows, but they’re probably in breach of the third (who buys these permits?!) and definitely in breach of the last two. More than once I’ve spotted the mum jumping the fence into the wildlife reserve to go chase a kangaroo or something.
@Gashlycrumb It’s put me in a pickle because it’s genuinely Not My Problem and I really shouldn’t be adding additional stress to my life. But, but, my brain won’t stop ticking this over.
I would 100% trap the lot of them except I’ve only seen the mum a few times, Minaturized Backyard Invader the once, and a third hiding in my agapanthus when I took the bins out the other day. Never buy agapanthus, they came with the house and they suck.
The other issue is, if I were to leave out traps to catch them, all the neighbour would have to do is look out the window and see them fully visible in my front yard. Even if they weren’t visible, they’re smart enough to put two-and-two together and know it was me because I got all these details about the cats through some pointed questions during the rescue of Minaturized Backyard Invader.
The best way to go forward is probably “Hey, desex your cats and keep them inside or the rangers will notice on their bi-weekly snooping sessions” next time I chat with them.
-
@Hobbie said in Real Life Struggles/Support/Vent:
There’s a few rules you have to adhere to in NSW if you want to let your cats roam without copping fines
Individual councils also have their own special rules (because they insist they’re real forms of government) so it may be worth checking those too.
-
@Hobbie I dunno, it seems like it’s one of those things that shouldn’t be your problem but is.
I had a similar issue, when there was a horse here. Cats love horses. Sometimes cats try to move in. I haze them (shout personal remarks, jump up and down, throw things. This works better if it’s a coyote or a cougar, that hasn’t already learned that humans are largely okay and has somewhere better to go) and it’s semi-effective. But once somebody elses’ barn cat decided to have kittens in our barn. Sometimes they’ll take the kittens back to their own ‘home’ barn somewhere in the neighborhood, once the kittens are grown enough to make excursions. I kept hoping for this to happen, but noooo. The mother just dissapeared (those coyotes do that) and I had two feral kittens to deal with, and before I could catch them one got the sniffles and died. The horse gave every appearance of blaming us for it and was sulky and uncooperative for days, and I caught the surviving kitten and am the owner of a now-grown cat who can’t be rehomed because he’ll claw the crap out of you for no evident reason from time to time.
ETA: This is a lot less common than it used to be, and it’s all because the humane society will give you a desexed otherwise-unadoptable feral cat for free for a barn cat.
-
@Gashlycrumb This situation is more clear-cut. If I trap these cats I am actively taking someone else’s pet with all the legal issues that come with it. They (apparently) sleep the night inside, they just spend all day outside. On the plus side, I don’t envision them deliberately getting into my backyard again now that one of them has had first-hand experience meeting the doggo.
Also there are gaps between our side fences that cats can easily use to escape their backyard. The neighbours know about them and don’t care.
Alas, even though it won’t formally become My Fault if god forbid something happens to a cat at the hands of my dog because she’s kept in an enclosed yard on our property, it’s definitely going to be made My Problem.
@Pavel I referenced the Inner West Council site to find my info. Out in the far west where I am there’s jack-all in the way of stuff besides “go look at legislation”. Mind you, the inner west thing basically just transposed the legislation so it still applies.
-
Written closing arguments are all submitted and now it is literally in the Judge’s hands. All we do is wait now.
-
@junipersky Best of luck and my greatest wishes for your family.
-
Hit by car.
Pavel Kulikovsky will return.He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
BE AN ADULT -
@Pavel Holy shit dude are you okay?
-
@Pavel Holy shit, here’s to a speedy recovery.
-
@Pavel Augh! That’s terrible; heal up soon!
-
Are you ok, friend?!?
