Recently I experienced a bit of a problem with one or two neighbourhood
cats which were engaged in a literal pissing match, partly involving my
back yard. A new, pure white[1] cat had recently arrived, and was trying
to establish territory by scent marking; the residents were resisting by
similar methods.
Faced with a back yard reeking of cat pee, I at first tried scent
deterrents, making my back yard at first reek of Jeyes Fluid, then of
garlic essence. Neither worked for long, and nor did lemongrass oil, or
citrus oil (though the yard smelled quite nice). Then I tried putting
one of these devices out, a couple of feet away from where a cat jumping
down into the yard would land.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Innotek-Ssscat-Cat-Spray-Deterrent/dp/B000RIA95G
The yard is monitored by a CCTV camera, so I was able to see the
result. A couple of close encounters with a horrible hissing monster in
the dark was enough; the pissing match has been postponed indefinitely.
So, might I suggest deploying one of these things near where you'd
prefer the cat not to go? All it does is hisses loudly and unexpectedly
close to the cat, which is apparently a hell of a shock for a feline,
though it is otherwise harmless. They soon learn to avoid it, though,
and it is less intrusive than scent deterrents.
[1] Cats in my neighbourhood have a sadly limited lifespan, mostly due
to traffic. A pure white individual, even a widely ranging one, would
likely live longer due to being more visible to traffic.
New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:
In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.
We were told that Leo (or sometimes
'Buttons') was supposed to have been kept in for up to five weeks before we let
him out. However, he has so far escaped seven or eight times and always came
back. So yesterday we gave up the unequal struggle; we bought him a collar with
a name tag, and a bell to warn birds, and let him out. It was obviously the
right decision because he has been popping in and out ever since, and is much
calmer.