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Old May 23rd, 2009, 05:42 PM
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Any advice on midnight cat burglars?

Okay, so it doesn't actually steal anything... in fact, it does quite the opposite. Three times now, our downstairs neighbour's cat has come into our house in the middle of the night. We leave most of our windows open during the night, and all but one has a screen. Unfortunately the unscreened window is unscreenable, and it is a key window in terms of making sure our house is not the temperature of hell during the summer. So this cat has entered through this window, usually between midnight and three am (oh what a fun wake up call that is!) it terrorizes our two cats (one is a wimp and freaks out, making crying and wailing sounds and trying her best to get away and hide, the other is a bit more adventurous and tries to stand his ground, but this cat is easily 5 pounds heavier and has no interest in our cat's efforts), and freaks out our dog. Last night, Layla freaked, barking like crazy, going nuts running everywhere. I folowed Lay, and found the cat in our laundry room, eating our cats' food. When it heard/saw me coming it promptly ran to the other end of the room and made a nice big poo on the ground (and I mean BIG). I opened all of our doors, and was finally able to get it out, but my god, it can't keep going on like this.
Our neighbour is less than willing to help, saying "well it's an outdoor cat, I can't control what it does." What can you do with that?!?!?
Any ideas??
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Old May 23rd, 2009, 07:02 PM
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Animal control....humane trap and give it to a rescue...hopefully someone who will care for it and actually WANT a cat will adopt it...

OR...you could adopt it and call it an indoor cat now

...just curious, how do you keep your cats from going out through the window?
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Old May 23rd, 2009, 08:18 PM
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And how come you haven't ended up with a raccoon or possum in your house yet? Only a matter of time and a raccoon or possum would be a lot more trouble to get out. I'd find a way to screen all the windows.

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Old May 23rd, 2009, 10:44 PM
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<--- what you should be doing <--- what you are doing lol ~ I would be afraid that something else more undesireable would get in and really cause some trouble. Living in Ottawa I know the meaning of hell heat in the summer, but for the sake of your sanity, and that of your other animals, I would find a way to block entry while still letting air in - perhaps you could find bars of some sort? Good luck!
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Old May 24th, 2009, 08:40 AM
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We've been working on finding a way to screen it or block it. We have even hired a window guy to come in, but he just shook his head. The window leads out to our balcony. and we are on the second floor. Our cats sometimes sit on the balcony, but neither leaves... they're just like that I guess And no, nothing else has ever come in.
Thanks for the advice though.
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Old May 24th, 2009, 09:24 AM
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How about a window air conditioner? You can get varying sizes of them fairly inexpensively. It would kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Keep the cat out, poor thing is probably hungry, and keep your place cooler.
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Old May 24th, 2009, 03:45 PM
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Puppyluv,I tell you,if a strange cat would ever come in to my house all hell would break lose,there must be a way you can stop this from happening.
I feel for the neighbors cat,she obviously don't care,but there is no way you can let this go on.
A window a/c is a great idea
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Old May 24th, 2009, 09:38 PM
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I think finding a way to screen or the AC are the best ideas. BUT if you really can't do either of those, have you tried the typical methods of keeping cats off counters/tables? i.e. sticky tape on the window sil? lemons/oranges? aluminum foil? my cats avoid citrus like the plague, so a few fresh cut lemons strategically placed usually keep my cats out of certain areas (and add a fresh lemony smell to my house!) what about a stake-out? get yourself a supersoaker water gun, and wait.... as soon as you see it, blast it (or near it, to just scare it, not harm it) what about mounting a fake dog in the window?

How do you not have a ton of bugs in your house w/ no screen on a window? even the littlest tear in a screen here results in mosquitos, black flies, noseeums, etc... all coming in.
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Old May 28th, 2009, 05:03 PM
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Thanks for all of the advice! I'm a fan of the air conditioner idea, but my man rolled his eyes at me. He ended up recruiting a carpenter-friend of his to make a screen that has a wood frame which can be used to keep the window open, rather than being in front of the window. (It's a guillotine style window). Hopefully that will be the end of it. Fortunately it's been chilly lately (did I seriously just say that cold weather is fortunate?!?!) so the window's been closed, and we haven't had any visitors. But I still see the cat outside at all hours... I'm a tad concerned. The last time he was here he left a poop that was covered in mucousy blood. We left a note for the neighbours noting our concern, but it doesn't look like she's done much.:sad:
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