I have lived by the intersection of Colonial Rd and Helene for over 7 years now and we have never really had a problem with stray cats roaming around. Lately, there has been a surge of stray cats lingering around mine and my neighbors houses. I want to find out how we can get rid of these cats. The cats are using my yard and my neighbors yards as litter boxes. This has got to stop!!! I have dogs that are facinated by the droppings of these cats...since my yard is so big I can never seem to find the evidence before they do. It has made my dogs very sick to where I have had to take them to the emergency room for severe intestinal problems. These cats are carrying around diseases and dangerous bacteria in their gut. Anybody that has dogs, please be on the look out for droppings in your yard, it could save you a very expensive vet bill. And to anyone that is feeding these cats, please stop. Please take them to the shelter or the humane society so they can get medical treatment and be property adopted. Obviously someone in the neighborhood is feeding them or they wouldn't still be around. If anyone has a way that we can get these cats removed without it costing a fortune please let me know. I have called Animal Services with the City of Memphis and they said that they do not pick up cats, but if you can catch them you can bring them in. I don't know what to do and I would appreciate some input from my neighbors.
Thanks.

keeping animals away

A friend of mine told me about this mixture and it works. Mix up some hot water and chili powder and some hot sauce and put in a hose end sprayer.
It wont hurt your plants and it only takes one sniff or lick from a cat or dog to decide your yard is not the place to be.

By neighbor

Stray Animals

Have you tried contacting the ASPCA or guardian angels pet rescue? At the very least, they could put out live traps so the cats could be spayed and neutered- and maybe find homes for those that are tame enough. There are also several reports of rats in that area so maybe the cats are attracted because of the rats.
I beleive the recent surge could be people moving and leaving their pets behind & dumping animals out . Both are illegal by the way- aside from being cruel and heartless.
On the dog and cat feces issue, are they eating the cat feces? If so, there is a product Drs. Foster & Smith sells to stop dogs from craving cat feces.
The only way to really stop the stray issue is to punish the people dumping them out.

By annoymous