What to do about "cat grabbing" neighbours?

[Azz]

Hi Heather (and welcome to the forum

Some brill advice there! And I never knew about the cat curfews (good idea I think).

I was just wondering if you had any pictures of the way your garden is cat-proofed as we are also thinking of doing the same

cheers
Azz

[Heather Sharada Birmans]

Hi Azz,
Well cats are not popular with a lot of people in Australia and a big hilight has been made regarding the cats contribution to the permanent loss of some of Australias rare tiny mammals. Cats are killers and mine love to hunt - even in my cat proof back yard which is not that big several birds met their demise this last 12 months. However I might tolerate the occassional bird loss but it does not mean my neighbours have to.

We have a 6 foot high paling fence but it does not have to be palings. The main thing is that the top of it should be a bit floppy and folded inwards - like this -

Cats need to get their paws over the top of the fence in order to pull themselves upwards. You can get a similar effect if you just put bracings inwards and floppy chicken wire - if it feels unstable the cat is unlikely to jump on it.

There are some very good web sites on cat fencing - just type in cat fencing and let your search engine dig them up for you.

We have a very nice Australian Forum site and on the home page there is a link to a section dedicated to enclosures. This is the link to the home page - http://www.cat-world.com.au - while you are there you might like to visit and join the forums there as well.

[Tama]

That is a wonderful enclosure

I've seen the chicken wire method at 45 degrees, it does the job but in all honesty *whispers* it doesnt look very good

I'd just get worried about someone elses' cat comming 'in' tho

[Azz]

Thanks Heather, I will check it out as I'd really like to let Cheetah out, but the garden will have to wait until we finish the interior of the house first! (we're renovating an old house!)

I agree with Tina - I prefer your style of enclosure as it looks more like it's part of the garden.

Wonder if you need planning permission for it here in the UK?

[Heather Sharada Birmans]

Well the plaited top of the fence is an addition and the wire is only on my side and not visible to the neighbours. I did have two marauding ferals come in but borrowed a cat trap and caught them and surrendered them to the pound - neither wore a collar and they looked big and muscle bound strays - it was sad but I cannot risk having my kids catch diseases after all the expense that I have gone too to keep them safe.

One of the ferals bit me and I was infected - had to have antibiotics - not good. Also I have a friend who lives in Kensal Rise in London and she has indoor/outdoor cats and they all have HIV from cat fights - she lost one to Aids last year....so loose cats need to be carefully looked after. Mine are all locked up at night and my boys have their own fully enclosed gardens - if you would like to see these enclosures I will post pics of their gardens.

There is also an English Cat Breeder with Birmans and she has an electric wire up at the top of her fence - has solved all her problems - will look for that and post when I am back at my computer.

[Azz]

Would love to see the garden pics

It's a shame about your friends cats with hiv, it's such a worry - I'm glad we keep Cheetah in.

Did you take anything like 'Repleat' after your course of Antibitics? It's supposed to help replenish all the good stuff that the Antibios kill off.

[Heather Sharada Birmans]

Ha ha...I should have known better than to go to Casualty Department - they filled me with Anti tet shot and started the antibiotics - I became quite unwell....why i should have known better is that I am a Homoeopath and don't take chemicals usually. After a few days I took some homoeopathic remedies and things improved quite quickly but it was a serious infection - the arm was twice it's normal size and the hand was like a balloon.

Homoeopathic Hypericum in potency - usually a 30c is the equivalent of Anti-tet.

[Azz]

Hey that's brilliant! (that you are a homoeopath and not that you got infected!

lol - I'll be bothering you/asking you questions all the time now. No seriously, I think there are far too many people who have been taken in by 'conventional' medicine. A friend of mine is a (spell-check-please...) kinnesiologist and helped me a while ago. I am always telling everyone about the dangers of overused chems in food such as MSG! It makes me angry the way food companies are allowed to palm a bunch of chemicals off as 'food'!!

Anyway enough of the rant! How did you get on with your lilac tabby point yesterday?

[Heather Sharada Birmans]

Candy Cat was fine - have posted pics of her in the other forum.

[jen.s.f]

Had the same problem with one of my neighbours years ago, in the end I bought them a kitten (told them I had found it as a stray and it didn't get on with my cat) saying we were thinking of moving and telling them how much I knew they would miss my cat. Told them a few weeks later we had decided not to move after all as we liked the neighbours so much and would they mind feeding our cat if we went on holiday if we did the same for them. No problems after that, and the bonus was our cat wouldn't go in their house once they had a cat of their own!!