Ferals/Strays increasing outside our house

[BellaBlue82]

Hi all,
I just wanted to post to get some thoughts and opinions on what to do here.

We live in a small city which can have an animal issue at times. In the past, I'd set up housing in the winter for the local few (and I mean few, one or two) strays that I had historically seen in our area. Sadly, I had to stop about 5 years back because of our girl cat. She has an auto immune disease and is super sensitive to any other animals around outside. But it was an easy enough fix, a neighbor few blocks down took the outdoor house I built so that was that. It wasn't much of an issue until recently.

After installing outdoor cameras this summer (for other reasons) I noticed a major uptick in ferals/strays/outdoor cats roaming around our property starting in the fall. They look mostly well taken care of, so if any are feral/stray one of my neighbors is at least feeding them. But they're causing stress for Sadie which has me on edge for her well being. The main thing is they try to nest on our front and back porches, and come up to the windows. There's six different ones I've ID'ed so far.

I remove all our furniture in the winter, but we all know that doesn't stop cats lol. Are there any suggestions to at least keep them from coming onto the porches and up to the windows so they don't stress Sadie out?

I appreciate any suggestions you all may have!
Bella

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. There are other options I am sure, but maybe the simplest one would be to buy chicken wire and lay it down over the porch flooring - you could tack it down with a few nails if the flooring is wood - to help keep it in place. Most cats are not all that crazy about stepping on it.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, is she mainly stressing when she sees them? if other deterrants don't work, can you put temporary translucent window coverings across the bottom half of the windows?

whew, finally found this, took a while lol. Game misconduct is referring to spraying the fence line in this case;

i have used peppermint oils mixed with water in one of those 1 or 2 gallon weed sprayers to good effect even vinegar works. you must apply it several times a week . if you use the vinegar mix make sure to clean out the sprayer after it will destroy the rubber seals inside it that allow you to pump in the air pressure to spray

 

[BellaBlue82]

Thanks to both of you for these! I have tried using cinnamon to "dust" around the steps, it didn't work much. I have pump sprayers and chicken wire so I might try both of these. I have covers on the back windows, but Sadie still knows when they're out there... Lol. We call her our guard cat! She works in shifts and gets paid in freeze dried chicken treats.
I'm willing to try anything to at least help limit how frequently they're on the porches. I tried putting food all the way in the back yard near our shed, but I honestly don't know if it's hindering or helping. I'll add these two options to see if they help.

 

[Furballsmom]

Let us know how things go