HELP!!!! RANDOM CAT WONT LEAVE ME ALONE AND MY DOG WANTS TO KILL IT

[LeakFox]

hello, I live in place my own yard and it is not fenced except for on one side. My dog is a 1-year old pitbull/lab mix and when he goes in the yard he is on a long leash so he can run around freely, but can't go past the sidewalk. In my neighborhood, there are a lot of cats roaming around and it's usually not an issue, but lately, there's been one cat in particular that keeps returning to my yard. I have NEVER fed this cat, the first time I saw it I petted it for a little, but other than that I have had 0 interaction with it. almost every day for the past week or 2 I've been noticing dead rats in my yard. at first, I didn't think anything of it, but one morning when I took my dog outside he chased the cat and I didn't see it at first. There's been a few times where the cat has been in the yard and I wasn't aware and let my dog out and he's come very close to catching it. on top of that, my dog has found the dead rats before me and also tries to eat that, which I don't appreciate. The cat will even cry outside my door as my dog is going insane barking at it. There was even one time I didn't know it was in the yard and it tried coming into my house when i opened the sliding glass door (thankfully my dog was in the crate or else he definitely would have killed it). then one day while I was at work, my roommate texted me saying she watched a random girl feed the cat directly in front of our house on the sidewalk. I'm pretty sure this is why the cat keeps coming back and leaving dead rats. Unfortunately, my roommate didn't do anything and I wasn't there or else I would have yelled at this girl (not a child, I live in a college town she is at least 20 and should know better) and called her an idiot for feeding a random cat in front of someone else's yard. I haven't seen her since and the cat keeps coming back. please help me get rid of this cat, I don't want my dog it kill it for obvious reasons. it's tormenting my dog every day and now it takes my dog like 10 minutes just to pee because he frantically sniffs around the yard looking for the cat now. Also, it's incredibly annoying, disgusting, unsanitary, and unsafe for my dog to have to pick up dead rats every day. please help me find a solution, I'm at my wit's end and if nothing works I will resort to shooting it with a bb gun or let my dog take care of it.

 

[mani]

Hi LeakFox and welcome to TCS.
Firstly, it's a bad idea to threaten horrible outcomes to cats anywhere, much less on a site full of cat-lovers.
And it's not the cat's fault.. you've already said, and s/he sounds really tame. S/he's leaving you gifts.. cats do that.
That said, if I have a stray cat visiting, I put them in a carrier and take them to the vet to check for a microchip (unless the cat has a collar with info, which makes it that much easier). Another option is to do a door knock, or put up posters seeing if s/he has an owner.
If it seems she's a stray, then she needs to go to a no-kill shelter.
Do you know what sex the cat is and whether they've been neutered/spayed?

 

[LeakFox]

Hi LeakFox and welcome to TCS.
Firstly, it's a bad idea to threaten horrible outcomes to cats anywhere, much less on a site full of cat-lovers.
And it's not the cat's fault.. you've already said, and s/he sounds really tame. S/he's leaving you gifts.. cats do that.
That said, if I have a stray cat visiting, I put them in a carrier and take them to the vet to check for a microchip (unless the cat has a collar with info, which makes it that much easier). Another option is to do a door knock, or put up posters seeing if s/he has an owner.
If it seems she's a stray, then she needs to go to a no-kill shelter.
Do you know what sex the cat is and whether they've been neutered/spayed?

I believe its a young female and spayed. also, I'm not threatening this cat's well-being, just being completely honest, if it keeps coming in a pitbull's yard, it will end up dead. that's just the reality of the situation and I'm not in control of it. also sorry, but I'm really not willing to put in that much effort for this cat that isn't mine and I don't care about in the slightest. I'm not taking hours out of my day to go buy a cat carrier, find and catch the cat, drive it to a vet, and have to wait there. even if they do return it to the owner, it's just going to continue coming back to my yard. if it has an owner it's definitely an outside cat. and if it has an owner, but isn't microchipped (it likely is not, like I said this is a college town and most college students aren't going to microchip their cat), then I basically just stole someone else's cat and took it to the pound. I just need a way to make it not want to come back to my yard ever again.

 

[mani]

Possibly that's the case with microchips where you are.. I'm from Australia where all pets are meant to be chipped by law.

If you're not prepared to find the owner, I really don't know what you can do apart from ensuring that whoever is feeding the cat nearby, stops immediately. Do you know anyone else in the area who likes cats and might encourage this one away from your place? It seems really important that you do find a solution as shooting cats is not only cruel, but illegal and setting your dog onto her is a truely appalling outcome.

 

[fionasmom]

If you are in the US and have Nextdoor, post about the cat and see if anyone can come to get it. If you don't have Nextdoor, look it up and join. Basically post what you did here, make it sound more neighborly and less accusatory, but make it clear that you are not a cat person and don't want to have to help the cat personally.

I have owned German shepherds for decades, along with cats. It is your job to control your dog. Not to be mean, but most people, even those who are dog lovers, believe that pits are aggressive killers and they have been subjected to breed bans or immediately put down at shelters. Personally, I do not share that opinion and have even rescued pits when I worked dog rescue. If your dog suddenly turns into a cat killer, you are risking giving your dog the reputation of being dangerous which will probably snowball. If it kills an outdoor pet cat, you will be in the gray area of 1) should the cat owner have kept the cat inside or 2) do you have a vicious dog.

I am also going to suggest that if you are finding an inordinate number of rats, someone may be using rat bait which would poison your dog, so you do want to watch that.