@ Terri : I am so sorry that these methods don't work, but they are actually the best I can come up with based on research and life experience. Good luck with the cat situation though!

@ Terri : If you have a single cat problem you can trap and take to a no kill shelter or many will come to you and with your permission to be on your property they will trap and remove your issue. You may feel this suggestion is counter productive, but if you or someone else is going to trap it makes it very much easier and quicker if you feed it and the same time and the same place everyday for a couple weeks, but even a few days would help, but I would encourage you to think of the 2 weeks of feeding as an insurance policy that the cat is trapped on try 1, so you dont end up with a cat that caught on to the plan - leaves just until the people trying to trap leave...then the cat comes back immediately leading you to call for help again - frustrated because you thought you were free or the trapper doesn't come because they doubt the cats presence. I don't remember all your details of the cat issue, but another thing I have had people do is call the animal control/humane society and speak to th tnr director, ask if there is a colony manager near you and if so - I have been given a shelter or asked to make the nuisance cat a shelter by a neighbor that provided the supplies and we worked together to get the cat to use the house then slowly moved it to the colony - it doesn't work for blocks, but it does on the same block.

@ bobi : That sounds horrible. Poor puppy :(

@ bobi : Sounds like your neighbor is part of a trap neuter release program that makes people commit to feeding if they want them altered, vacinated, wormed (obviously can return), treated for parasites and ear tipped and that makes the cats protected and they aren't your neighbors pets anymore than someone feeding birds owns them - if the number is growing I would say not to just call anyone at the animal control, but get the person that certifies colony managers and express your concerns. Most people in the tnr program I know treat the cats when they show any signs of issues (losing weight, eating more) and most programs require the manager to report those issues, I hope this helps you. I also want you to know with tens of millions of feral cats the problem of cats in neighborhoods isn't going away- especially since many shelters don't kill feral cats anymore - if there isn't a colony manager they have a horrible program called shelter- neuter- release that has the shelter dump cats outside without any colony manager looking for health issues, watching for unaltered cats, not feeding or sheltering so it increases the damage of cats in trash, digging under or breaking things to have shelter and increases fights over resources - although fights within a colony of altered and not starving cats are rare.

@ Jenn : I will try to find out more about the abandoned TNR program in complex. I have heard that vaccinating and de-worming is not always done in the program either.

@ Dina : Hi Dina. Hope that works :)

@ Dina : I would put expanded metal on the outside of the screen if the damage is low, if the plant damage is from digging I would put the same in the top of the pot of the plant with a bit of soil on top so it's unseen. I would also let animal control know since his cat is his responsibly as is the damage, but if it's a feral cat then prevention is key.

@ PhillipGoodman : Are you simply using ground pepper from the pantry? I need help, too!

@ Cruz : I completely agree!! It is with irresponsible pet owners that this problem began, and it is the irresponsible people that feed feral cats that are perpetuating the problem!! Instead of feeding them, they should be getting them spayed and neutered to at the very least stop the population of feral cats from growing!!!

@ Jennifer : It isn't irresponsible to feed the feral cats, I work with the trap nuter release (tnr) program in my area - in order to get the cats fixed, shots, wormed, treated for parasites and the rest of the check up along with the ear tip to say this one has been fixed and vacinated - it is REQUIRED that the colony manager feeds, waters, and provides shelters. When I was in high school we had a neighbor murder the cats but said he was taking them to the humane society - we had tons more cats then, even though he killed tons and so did the humane society since it was before tnr started here. I have all 8 (instead of the easily 50+ cats we had before) cats that are feral, with shots and fixed - but I have had 10 girls fixed and although we have a "short" kitten season here each would have 4-6 kittens 5-6 times a year so 20-36 EACH per year so 200-360 new cats a year - killing doesn't work, proper colony management does! I go above what my program wants and I check the temperament with the cat stressed and in the trap, so if the cat acts tame then - it's always been tame. I get them placed in no kill rescue groups and I take any kittens (its been 4 years since kittens and 5 years since I started with tnr) and I tame them and get them placed too. Not feeding asks for damage from hungry cats, cat fights over food or territory and other issues. This is also not usually a bad owner problem since in the US we have documented 15 million cats in tnr, and obviously no one can get every cat on every block, so the ferals existing already continue to have more cats - personally I feed canned food once a week or so since that makes everyone of them come - and for 30 minutes I sit on the porch and see them come, eat, and leave so if a new not ear tipped cat comes it is found quickly and altered just as quickly. Irresponsible cat borders and poor colony management along with irresponsible owners that chose indoor/outdoor cats and don't have them altered, I don't believe indoor/outdoor cats are anymore reasonable than indoor/outdoor dogs that aren't contained. Just fyi - I don't even really like cats (my dogs brought me motherless day old kittens that I took 3 allergy meds to deal with, but I bottle raised and got 3 placed- but the last one stuck, he believes he is one of the dogs and uses my potty since I don't do litter), but if I wasn't tired of dozens of kittens starting to show up and double every couple months starting in March until the weather changes - I wouldn't be part of tnr at all.

@ Cruz : Owners are not likely your issue...not with tens of millions of feral cats that if not in a trap neuter release program with a competent colony manager have crazy numbers of kittens each year are most likely your problem - yes there are still bad pet parents and horders, but feral or wild cats will be there either way.

@ Cruz : I have a crazy cat lady up the block from me. She insists on feeding them, and then they come to my house to take a shit. Well, the way I figure it is, if the cats stay off my property as they should, no problem. But once they trespass in my yard, they are trapped and taken far, far away. I'm sick of digging in shit while gardening, and picking up dead birds before mowing the lawn. I've tried talking to her. People like that don't listen...

@ Mika : I so understand you feelings..Now I'm both you AND kind of a crazy cat person. I got stuck with some ferals when a person feeding them across the street moved...and left a TNR program with no oversight. I want the cats out of my yard too..but realize they need to eat and have water...Maybe your crazy cat person doesn't know what else to do? Could an SPCA person talk to her..about proper colony management? Maybe she could provide a sand box for them..some shelter..Maybe she needs her yard fenced off..Maybe the neighbors could fund raise ..I don't know, just thinking.. and trying to figure out solutions myself.

@ Katrina : Usually if it is an owned pet cat animal control will help, the owner is responsible for damage their "property" causes to your property - it may seem counter productive, but I would look up feral cat poblems and see what someone like alley cat allies would recommend - if I recall one way to keep cats off cars was a carpet runner upside down (pointy side up), or providing a shelter first near the car and moved slowly move it somehere convient - it only seems the car for the heat of the motor (so this is an obvious indication of neglect by the owner - mention that to animal welfare/control...but I feel due to the large numbers of feral cats - there maybe additional culprits!) if your neighbor gets educated by the animal control and becomes an indoor cat - yet problems continue - hopefully this info and looking for ways to help with feral cats will give you ideas too since everything is geared towards keeping the neighborhood happy by keeping the feral cats needs met so they don't do annoying things to meet their needs themselves.

@ Sarah : You don't have to take them in, I would first look at no kill shelters for help and if that isn't an option, then the humane society... But with millions of feral cats, it's likely going to be an issue for everyone just like squirrels, rabbits, skunks, porcupines and other wild animals - I have fenced a part of my side yard with cheap rolled fence, cut one pickett to be a cat door (they can climb it, but the door prevents that and it keeps them from damaging my wooden fence, I give them a little shelter, donated food, and get them trapped for free medical care and being fixed - now not only do they leave everything else alone on my property, but my neighbors are SOOO appericiative!

@ Jennifer : If you read about the feral cat vacuum effect - you will see since the tens of millions of stray and feral cats will never be killed at the same time or even at the same speed they reproduce. You seem to have tnr colony managers that aren't doing their job correctly and if it were me I would be on the phone with the humane society - tnr manager. Please also know that most places no longer euthanize for anything other than suffering, so the cats are then "snr'd" so shelter, neutered and returned - it raises the live release rates, but has no colony manager watching the cats and reporting issues (like signs and symptoms of parasites and/or worms and getting it fixed) - competent colony managers are needed to have effective colonies. Killing doesn't work....it was the old way and just on my block a man killed with 6 humane traps he built all the time - before tnr started.... Since he dropped the cats in a 55 gallon drum of water - I don't understand building humane traps, but whatever. Since tnr hadn't started the humane society was murdering like crazy too... So just on my block in high school we had WELL OVER 50 cats at all times! I started the 5 years ago - I had all the cats altured - I ended up with 10 females (left after placing tame cats and taming kittens to get placed too) that formally had 4-6 kittens 5-6 times a year - so 20-36 EACH year so the 10 had 200-360 EACH year and this doesn't include the 4 to 5 month old kittens that began reproducing too...just the 10 females. I now have 8 healthy, spayed female cats and all males are neutered too, so there are 14 total now. When they are fixed they are vaccinated and don't spread dieses but I am a competent and diligent colony manager - that does more than get them fixed and return since I get the tame cats homes. In the US we have tens of millions of feral cats, so if a million where killed by 2020 or even 2017, there would still be and increase in the number of feral cats - dispite the useless murders. Proper tnr works.

@ Jenn : Excuse me, but when you don't know the owner and it won't go in a trap or eat poison and jumps on my new car and craps in my yard, YES THE CAT IS THE PROBLEM.

@ Dave : So what do you recommend then Jenn, kill the owners.

@ Jenn : Cats are indeed the problem, people are the reason for the problem

@ Dave : Do you expect feral cats (unowned cats, wildlife squirrels, birds, rabbits, skunks and many other wild animals) and other wildlife to avoid your car too, or just the owned tame pet cats? Either way, people weren't here in houses weren't here first...animals where...people displaced them, we live together - I hope you get treated the way you treat other beings.... I hope you get caught with the poison and face the appropriate punishment... Feral cats came to be and to thrive through irresponsible owners, that lost or abandoned cats and normal reproduction and wild cats where never tame in the first place - but either way people made feral cats and displaced wild cats - people did it...the cats are just being cats....

@ Jenn : Yes..get to the owners! Call the humane society to come and spay the cats and talk to the owners.

@ Kristie : Try upside down carpet runners (pokey side up) on hour window sils... If you look up cat fencing (I can't recall the name), but it shows their product that is a fence angled in on top preventing cats in the yard from getting out, but also other cats from getting in - usually if you can make him feel teritorial secure you are done - my cat from hell did an episode on it!

@ Realife : Stupidity should be treated like infestation too. Then we could take care of people like you.

@ Sociopath : @Sociopath: Wow, you're pretty much an idiot yourself. Only you have to power to do us all a favor then.

@ Realife : So because many cats self domesticated an increadibly long time ago the wild cats decents that didn't and the genetically identical feral cats should be murdered? Fyi....humane society's went the kill them route for decades and decades - guess what? It doesn't work! They breed fast and lots - but responsible tnr programs work... I don't like the SNR programs without colony managers watching health, but the humane society's are altering, vaccinating, ear tipping and dumping out cats - feral or not! If you were a responsible cat owner...how is your cat getting access to the outdoor cats? The walls and doors usually prevent that.

@ Realife : Unfortunately, many states do not acknowledge any kind of animal control or snr programs. When my pets are getting sick, and innocent kids and adults getting sick from these untreated animals, it is a public health issue, killing or not. A one time trap and one time dose of parasite medicine will only delay the issue temporarily. Most people I know cannot afford to be catching all these cats and fixing them and releasing them. I understand the mechanics and the why, but all these hoity toities getting irate about the mention of eliminating the problem, sometimes, when there is no food or water and these cats are starving, sometimes, in poor rural America, it is more humane to euthanize than manage. My kids don't deserve to get sick from a useless neighbor who refuses to care for animals and is contributing to the bigger problem. I can't hurt them, or the cats, as much as sometimes I want to, but honestly, my children's lives are more important that a feral cat's life at this point. If someone can't understand that, then deal. Cats messing my yard up so my kids can't play outside, getting sick from them, yeah...it's definitely a tough dilemma for all sides involved.

@ Marie B : so true