Our cat is allowed to free roam. However I live in a pretty wooded area on a dead end road, not in town or anything. My cat at 14 yrs old is no fool, there is no way I could bring myself to keep him inside. He would rather be locked outside then inside. We have received no calls or complains about his wanderings. His only issue outside is that he does attack dogs that come into our yard or if they are walking on the street and come too close to any family member or any of our Daycare kids. Thats his only really bad spot. Seriously, we have sign that states we have an attack cat on the mailbox. Its not a common occurrence, we almost always catch him by his scruff or pin him and scold him when he tries to go after a dog.
I understand the dangers of letting pets outdoors. This same cat has been shot by someone with a BB gun. Was a expensive vet visit and he was down for around a week. He still has all those BBs in him, we were concerned about letting him back out again. But he insisted and drove us crazy with his wanting to go outside. He definitely stays closer to home now. We also have had some incidents where he has gotten sick from going in and out on a hot day while we have the AC on inside. We now try to keep him in during hot days and he's never been allowed out after dusk.
Know the damages a cat can do, especially to bird life. I do scold my cats when ever I find them with a bird kill. If a dog can be taught to leave certain animals alone I feel it can be done with a cat as well. We also do not attract anything except hummingbirds. I do not mind him killing mice, voles, and the rare bunny. If he brings me something alive and relatively uninjured I will let it go.
I do have issue with dogs free roaming. The vast majority of cats will run from strangers and are often not seen free roaming. Dogs wander around in the open, often run up to strangers, and do stupid things like chase cars. A dog should either been trained to stay on its property or should have a physical/electric fence. Most free roaming dogs around here do not pose a threat, however they are a liability for our daycare, which is one of the many reasons we have a fence. Worst dog incident we had was one of the kids let the neighbors loose dog in the house once. Its a sweet dog, but it scared the #@!! out of me when a large dog randomly appeared in my house. Thank god the cat wasn't around either! Free roaming dogs are not common around here. I usually know whose they are and its pretty obvious its an escapee when its dragging a really long chain behind it.
As for a your issue either run the cat off the property or invest in a cheap airsoft gun. I love my cats I would rather not have harm befall them, however I do not baby them. They can stay inside if they want. The world is tough. If one of my cats is being slow crossing the road or stops and stands in the middle I will throw gravel at it
. That may seem cruel, but it is a learning experience. I would rather have them be hit by rocks then by a car. This is why I would suggest an airsoft gun, it won't cause much harm to the cat but will scare it. I assume you are aware of the difference between a BB gun and a airsoft gun, BB gun would never be acceptable to use.
and will not leave. if i had no soul that heathen cat would have a sore rump by now as im tired of it intruding on my (parents) property.
