Help desperately needed

Lois Reay wrote:
This morning I received a phone call from a woman who is desperately
in need of help, I did what I could do to try and solve her problem
and then said I would go to my ng to see if I could get further
advice - I just know that someone will have the answer.

Here is the problem the woman has a 3 year old Siamese cat which is
going over the back fence and upsetting an 18 year old cat, the
owners of the 18 year old are understandably getting very annoyed, I
don't think that the 3yr old is actually beating up the old cat but
is terrorising it to such an extent that it has started soiling
inside the house.

I did point out to the lady that the soiling could have something to
do with the cats age and could have a medical condition - but I also
think that the old cat should be able to live out the rest of it's
life in peace.

This lady wants any tips on how to keep her cat on her side of the
fence - I did suggest leaving the hose sprinkler on (the 3yr old
doesn't like water) Keeping the 3yr old confined to the house during
the day is not am option (she is locked in at night)

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Lois

--
http://zeotropeburmese.kiwiwebhost.net.nz

Okay, the cat is inside at night.... what makes her think it won't make the
adjustment to being inside during the day, too? There are plenty of folks
on this group who have managed to tame ferals who were never inside at all
into being indoor cats.

Aside from (as others have said) expensive fencing and the sprinklers or
squirt gun things, I don't know what else to suggest.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
. ..
Okay, the cat is inside at night.... what makes her think it won't make
the
adjustment to being inside during the day, too? There are plenty of folks
on this group who have managed to tame ferals who were never inside at all
into being indoor cats.

Aside from (as others have said) expensive fencing and the sprinklers or
squirt gun things, I don't know what else to suggest.

Jill

Thanks Jill,
I will pass on all the information to the lady when she phones me in the
morning, it will then be up to her which way she wants to go, and I do agree
keeping the Siamese inside would cure the problem.

Lois

We have a motion activated sprinkler which we can lend to those who are
frustrated by our outside cats bugging inside cats. They're available at
most high-end cat stores.

We've tried everything to keep them in the yard, including cat proofing the
fence and the invisible pet fence system. Our cat is half siamese and
unstoppable. I suspect that Siamese is not stoppable. If the owners of the
other cat are amenable, the sprinkler solution might help - providing you're
not somewhere where its snowing. If its too cold for a sprinkler, I'll
think some more.

Susan M
Otis and Chester


"Lois Reay" wrote in message
news
This morning I received a phone call from a woman who is desperately in
need
of help, I did what I could do to try and solve her problem and then said
I
would go to my ng to see if I could get further advice - I just know that
someone will have the answer.

Here is the problem the woman has a 3 year old Siamese cat which is going
over the back fence and upsetting an 18 year old cat, the owners of the 18
year old are understandably getting very annoyed, I don't think that the
3yr
old is actually beating up the old cat but is terrorising it to such an
extent that it has started soiling inside the house.

I did point out to the lady that the soiling could have something to do
with
the cats age and could have a medical condition - but I also think that
the
old cat should be able to live out the rest of it's life in peace.

This lady wants any tips on how to keep her cat on her side of the fence -
I
did suggest leaving the hose sprinkler on (the 3yr old doesn't like water)
Keeping the 3yr old confined to the house during the day is not am option
(she is locked in at night)

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Lois

--
http://zeotropeburmese.kiwiwebhost.net.nz
--
Burmese are like potato chips, you can't just have one.

"Zorin the Lynx" wrote in message
...

Can the cat simply be kept inside the house? Letting cats roam
unsupervised outside is dangerous to their well-being anyway, regardless
of the neighbors.

Cats can live a perfectly happy life indoors; mine does, and so do those
of many people here!

Mine goes berserk and we tried for his first eighteen months to keep him in.
*most* cats can do it and our second one can. Otis pawed at the door until
his paws bled. He yowled constantly. He developed a stress-related bladder
condition. He started squatting in the middle of the carpet and peeing like
a dog. *most* cats can but I'm afraid that there are outliers and Siamese
are often in the group. Otis is half Siamese.

Susan M
Otis and CHester

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I don't see why the cat can't be kept inside - all four of mine do and are
perfectly happy, and Victor has *SEVEN* that all stay inside happily. As
long as they have enough toys, scratching posts, and litter boxes, there's
really no reason for them to be outside with all the dangers they
encounter
(not to mention the dangers they sometimes cause as is the case here).

Please see my post above. Not *all* cats can do it.

Susan M
Otis and CHester

"Susan M" smawdsley remove @shaw.ca wrote in message
news:Uh5vd.474794$Pl.34438@pd7tw1no...
We have a motion activated sprinkler which we can lend to those who are
frustrated by our outside cats bugging inside cats. They're available at
most high-end cat stores.

Sorry - I shared a bottle of Bailey's while doing Christmas baking with a
friend of mine today. It should be, high end *Garden* stores - not cat
stores. Cats are creatures of habit. Once they stop visiting because of
the sprinkler, they tend to leave it out of their daily rotation. Boy cats
particularly seem to have a route that they travel a couple of times every
day out of habit. Add a sprinkler, and the house drops off the route
usually for a very long time.

Susan M
Otis and CHester

"Jeanne Hedge" wrote in message
news
On 12 Dec 2004 19:46:51 GMT, itty (Sherry ) wrote:

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Lois

I don't know, Lois, unless she can afford that cat-proof fencing. There's
a
website for it I used to have the link but can't find it. It's going to be
hard, especially since the young cat is making a habit out of annoying the
older one. Anyway, good luck to your friend.

Does anyone know if those "invisible fence" systems work with cats?

I don't have a whole hour unfortunately, to tell the story. One day I will,
because its pretty d*rn funny, if you don't count the fact that we threw
away $1100 on the thing. You get your money back for one year after
installation. Otis, with the aid of prozac, stayed in for one year and one
week, then started running away. A young male Siamese is not likely to be
helped by the fence. There are scads of people who have the fence for
female and older male or just calm male cats, that love it. Training is
really hard and that's the funny and, in Chester's case, the upsetting part
of the story. You have to leash the cats to train them. They run in the
direction that they are facing when they get the shock so you have to have
them on a leash to teach them to run back into the yard. There are flags as
visual markers and there are audible warnings so that they just don't get a
shock for no visible reason. Sounds cruel, but Otis quickly figured out
what the visual cues and auditory cues meant and had fewer than five shocks.
I figured it was betting that not "having him put down" but, to be honest
"killing him" because my neighbours didn't like him hanging our in their
yard. I had no other option because he is an insane cat. It worked like
a dream until he decided just to run through anyway. Like I said, it was
one week after the money back guarantee.

Susan M
Otis and Chester

"Susan M" smawdsley remove @shaw.ca wrote in message
news:au5vd.474833$Pl.108635@pd7tw1no...

I figured it was betting that not "having him put down" but, to be honest

Yikes - that Baileys really affected me. It should say, it was better than
not "having him put down" ... I should explain that - we have a cat
by-law here. Otis, who is my little kitty soulmate and wild cat, *had* to
go outside. I had a neighbour that complained so that put me in the wrong.
Because of his bladder issues and desperate primal need to go outside, I
didn't feel that I could re-home him. I couldn't keep him in because he got
so sick and peed everywhere out of pain and frustration. My only other
option, rather than taking him to a farm with an expected 2 week life
expectancy, was this darn fence combined with Prozac. Of course I didn't
make the choice to have him expercience some shocks with warning lightly or
with a happy heart - I really felt that it was a life or death situation for
him. And it was.

I guess that I get a little upset about this. It's sort of like when we had
our first child, who screamed 24/7 for 18 months, never napped, and only
slept if latched onto me. I had a friend tell me that, if I just relaxed
a little bit, my daughter would stop screaming. I was wondering which came
first, me being a little tense or my daughter screaming 24/7 - let alone
nursing while chewing with teeth to calm herself. It was hell and we had a
outlier child. I know this because my son, for whom we did nothing
different, is a total sleep angel who is always happy and would tell us when
he was tired and needed to go to bed. My daughter is still a Siamese-type
outlier on scale of hard to easy kids. My son remains Persian on the scale.
Sleep training worked with my son but we gave up after three hours of crying
and barfing for my daughter. She was really upset and *really* needed to be
with us. She has been diagnosed with anxiety issues now (social anxiety and
selective mutism - from which is she making a stunning recovery) that were
likely the cause of her behaviour then. So, much as I chaffed at hearing
that all kids respond to sleep training (meaning letting them cry until they
go to sleep) and could sleep on their own then, I chaff I hearing that all
cats can stay inside.

So, I'm off topic. I've kept my mouth firmly sealed on this lovely ng since
I'm so hyper conscious of the gracious way in which this ng has avoided
flame wars on the topic. So, I'm hear to say, don't hate me because I let
my cat out. My vet told me that I had gone further in trying to deal with
Otis' elimination issues than any of his other clients would have. He said
that most people would have asked that their cat be put down. I die a
thousand deaths every time I let them out. I am ridiculously responsible
about the times that he is out because we *do* live near a natural area,
albeit accross a big high fence, where there are coyotes at night. Otis and
I talked about it, I told him to be safe, and I feel that its what I must do
for him. No more bloody paws, no more Prozac, no more food supplements, no
more ruined carpets.

As you can see, I specialise in outliers - my daughter and my cat - and I
can relate to them because I am one myself. Kind of quirky but ultimately,
I think, pretty sensitive and thoughtful :-)

Susan M
Otis and Chester
.... who will likely have a tiney hangover tomorrow AM

"Susan M" smawdsley remove @shaw.ca wrote in message
news:kj5vd.498051$%k.132936@pd7tw2no...
"Zorin the Lynx" wrote in message
...

Can the cat simply be kept inside the house? Letting cats roam
unsupervised outside is dangerous to their well-being anyway, regardless
of the neighbors.

Cats can live a perfectly happy life indoors; mine does, and so do those
of many people here!

Mine goes berserk and we tried for his first eighteen months to keep him
in. *most* cats can do it and our second one can. Otis pawed at the door
until his paws bled. He yowled constantly. He developed a stress-related
bladder condition. He started squatting in the middle of the carpet and
peeing like a dog. *most* cats can but I'm afraid that there are outliers
and Siamese are often in the group. Otis is half Siamese.

I'm certain that if we had tried for much longer to keep Molly in, she would
have managed to escape and never return. She has made it clear that one
condition of sharing her precious self with us is being allowed out. We
gave in when it was clear she was getting to the point of declaring all out
war. Being feral and knowing she could feed herself just made her more
determined. Now that she knows out is allowed she is quite happy to stay in
quite a bit. Especially as the weather has gone nasty. And she stays
pretty close.

Jo

"Lois Reay" wrote in message
news

This lady wants any tips on how to keep her cat on her side of the fence -
I
did suggest leaving the hose sprinkler on (the 3yr old doesn't like water)
Keeping the 3yr old confined to the house during the day is not am option
(she is locked in at night)

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Lois



Here are some sites that show a variety of methods to modify fences to keep
cats in (or out) ---

Design for do-it-yourself barrier to mount on top of fence (to keep cats
in):

http://www.lisaviolet.com/cathouse/backyard.html

Outdoor fence enclosure (several views):

http://www.just4cats.com/

http://www.just4cats.com/post1.html

http://www.just4cats.com/page7.html

A guide to inexpensive do-it-yourself fencing:

http://www.feralcat.com/fence.html

Cat fence-in containment system:

http://www.catfencein.com/

http://www.fabcats.org

(includes an information sheet you can download)

"Friendly Fence": web site says it is virtually invisible

www.friendlyfence.com

Other ideas for outdoor fencing for cats:

http://www.just4cats.com/page7.html

http://www.cat-world.com.au/cat-worldenclosures.htm

http://www.lisaviolet.com/cathouse/backyard.html

KittyKlips - addition to existing wood fence to prevent cats from climbing
[note: but would not prevent cats on "other" side of fence from getting in]:

http://kittyklips.com/details.htm

MaryL