Not very sympathetic; due to the potential of other wild critters or even inconsiderate trespassers, potentially causing the same problem, even if the cat had not been the first one to accomplish the carnage.

Still, I agree that cat owners should be held responsible for the damaging acts, which their wandering cats do to other people's property.

It seems as if a camera set up to document such events could be quite useful for more times than just stray cat invasions.

Sorry to hear about the setback. Things like that are no fun.

I'm not a cat person and can sympathize with your feelings. Outdoor cats IMHO are for the most part a pain in the rear. My neighbor allows hers to roam and I occasionally find feathers in my yard where they have done what comes natural to them. I had to quit feeding the birds here because of that.

randy

Cityboygonecountry: I understand your frustration and do sympathize with it. However, I hope you aren't serious about harming the cat, both for the cat's sake and for your own. If you harm the cat, you could face animal cruelty charges, and you'd be surprised at how aggressively some cities and counties pursue stiff penalties in such cases.

And I agree with everything Katrina said. Living in a very rural location, I have a lot of similar problems that occur from time to time....sometimes it is a feral cat, but just as often it is a raccoon, possum, squirrel, ringtailed cat, fox, rabbit, vole, bobcat, etc. Sometimes it is one of my own cats.

Randy, I am sorry you had to quit feeding the birds on your property because of your neighbor's cats. I have a lot of cats....some are ours and some are the neighbors' cats who come over here to hang out and play with our cats.

I do feed the birds and find that the cats here pretty much leave the birds alone (surprisingly). Maybe I am overfeeding our cats because they just aren't that interested in the wild birds. Or, maybe my free-range chickens and guineas have taught my cats to leave birds alone? I don't know.

As long as cats are allowed to freely roam, such problems will occur. And there are no simple solutions.

Dawn

No, I'm not really going to hang the cat. I have a soft spot for animals, no matter how difficult some of them can be to get along with. If I killed a cat I would be feeling guilty about it for years.

But still, it makes me so mad!!!

Posted by katrina1
Not very sympathetic; due to the potential of other wild critters or even inconsiderate trespassers, potentially causing the same problem, even if the cat had not been the first one to accomplish the carnage.

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What else am I supposed to do? I don't have a greenhouse and I don't have room in my living room for starting seeds. I have to put them outside.

Is there anywhere else you can put your flats, rather than on top of a porch railing? That seems a little precarious to me anyway, what with our famous Okie winds. If you set your flats on the ground, they will be fine. I put mine on the ground and never have had a problem with them. I winter sow, so I have containers all around outdoors from January to present.

I have squirrels who like to dig things up, and most of the time, I just laugh at the little rats! Gotta keep a good sense of humor when gardening, or I'd cry all the time. LOL!

Susan

I'm not worried about them falling off the railing. It's a very wide railing and even the cat didn't knock them off of it. What the cat did was knock the pots over, spilling them. It looked as though he was trying to walk over them, and not very gingerly. I don't think putting them on the ground is going to prevent anything from walking on them. In fact, it will just provide an opportunity for those who can't climb to walk on them too.

Speaking of greenhouses, it was sad to see how many people suffered from their's being destroyed from the heavy ice and snow events, which parts of Oklahoma received this last winter.

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In my neighborhood, children cause much more problems in my landscape than the stray cats. Of course the stray cats in our area are far out numbered when compared to the number of our local children. The bad thing about the children being the worst offenders, in my opinion, is that children, especially teenagers usually have the mental capacity to understand it is wrong to destroy other's property, but too often, it seems, they choose to do it anyway.

It goes without saying that cats, dogs, and/or small, wild animals are only doing what comes natural to them, with no capacity to choose different actions unless previously motivated by consistantly happening offensive, to them, consequences; suffered the instant they do the destructive deed. Come to think of it; maybe that is the same thing children and all of us, need to help us make better choices.

It is good to read that cityboygonecountry is mature enough to see past his reasonable, anger and resist killing the cat.

I hope, cityboygonecountry, that you find a solution which works well for your needs. I am confident that you can out smart that cat and most other destructive wild animals which may invade your hard earned gardening and landscaping projects.

CityBoy - I totally sympathize with you. I am not a cat lover, worthless creatures IMHO.

Don't know if this is feesible for your space, but maybe raising the flats off the ground with milk crates, or building a simple chicken wire cage around them would help keep the darn critters out.

I managed to discourage a cat from using my front flower bed as a litter box by putting one of those frogs out, that croak when you walk by. You know, a motion sensor type thing.

I don't like cats for the same reason. If I wanted a cat on my property I would get one.

Moni

Well, I love my cats, but they are indoor cats. I'm too scared to let them run loose. I let my George out with me because he is my gardening buddy, but he comes back in with me. I am a cat lover! I HATE DOGS! Dogs have done the worst damage in my yard. They walk through my beds and tear up plants, and have even damaged some beyond repair. They poop in the yard, and they scare me if I'm outside they just walk into the yard and start barking.

Many dogs are wild now in the city and run in packs. Much scarier to me than cats that run when you see them. Dogs don't do that. Most of them aren't spayed or neutered either and they come thru the yard dragging ropes and chains. Why can't people confine them?

Cats daintily walk thru the plants, but dogs stomp, sit, roll, DIG, and generally do much damage to my beautiful plants. Wouldn't have one if you paid me.

So, we all have our opinions. I do have a possum that is always knocking over my bird bath.

Susan

I love dogs and cats and have plenty of both, especially since a lot of people dump their unwanted pets "out in the country" as if the pets will somehow miraculously survive on their own. (They won't.) Everyone I know who lives in the country has taken in as many of these abandoned pets as they can afford to feed, and there are still plenty more that turn feral and roam wild.

Feral cats are often taken in and 'tamed' or given a 'job' as a barn cat where they are about half tame and half wild. Feral dogs tend to run in packs and kill calves, young horses, kids (the goat kind, not the human kind) and poultry. Those dogs tend to end up on the wrong side of a gun as farmers/ranchers can't afford to lose their young stock.

My younger dogs will tend to trample stuff if I let them run loose in the garden, but my older dogs know better and tend to walk only in the pathways between the raised beds.

My cats like to hang out and visit in the garden, but with 14.5 acres to roam on, they really don't spend a lot of time there. I have scattered catnip around here and there and the cats enjoy it. I have one semi-feral cat who comes to visit about every 4th day. He loves the catmint 'Six Hills Giant' and rolls on it repeatedly and just crushes it into oblivion. As near as we can tell, he visits 5 or 6 families and we all feed him, but he hasn't ever chosen one place to live. He's like a gypsy.

My vote for most destructive animal? The wild pigs (javelinas). They will tear up any and every living thing you have growing on your property. Furthermore, they tend to roam in groups and will attack and can even kill humans. They scare me.

Dawn

cityboygonecountry..
I read all these postings and I am so glad I did. It gave me a little bit of chuckle on this dark gloomy cool day. I totally understand your pain. I have had cats for many years and endured havoc from my own as well as from neighborhood cats many times.
Cats are frustrating creatures to be sure. I have to battle my sweet big Siamese trying to use my large flower pots as litter boxes and going in my flower beds...even the garden when it is first getting started in spring. So I sympathize.
I have heard and also have tried it....MOTH balls! It works.
You could replant your flats and then just sprinkle a few moth balls around your pots or even just around the edges or somehow have some moth balls around your flats of seedlings. It appears to me that cats really hate that smell and I don't blame them one bit. I would stay away from anything with a moth ball odor myself. lol.
Try that and see if it helps any.
Good luck!
G. M.

If I can chime in, here's a trick that will scare the hell out of an encroaching dog or cat without hurting them in any way.

Put five or six nickels or pennies into an empty aluminum can and shake it violently at the cat if you happen to see it where it doesn't belong again. There's something about the noise that makes dogs and cats think twice about what they're doing. They come to associate their actions with that sound.

I used to do this to my dog when he would bark inside the house. He's very well-behaved today.