how do I catch this cat??!

[kitbit]

We have a stray tomcat that is hanging around near our house. Cute little puss, but he keeps fighting with our 2 elderly girls who are quite frankly too lardy to run away so we have had several trips to the vet to sort out nasty bites, infections etc. Not to mention that he sprays every night, usually on the front door, so the whole living room stinks every morning.

There are no RSPCA or other animal friendly type helpful people here (Spain) so I think the only thing we can do is try and catch him and take him somewhere else (there is a hill nearby with lots of open space, mice, etc and a friendly lady who feeds the local strays). We've tried everything else to stop him coming around - dousing with water, chasing away hissing etc but nothing works.

Anyone got any other ideas? Anyone know how we could even try and catch him? dh has visions of a Wily Coyote style stakeout using a box propped up with a catapult shaped stick with a bit of string, and a bowl of food underneath. hmm If anyone has any thoughts my two girls would be so grateful. Adopting him isn't an option either - he's too wild, and would only continue spraying and fighting.

I think there are a few independant rescue places depending where you are in Spain of course..have you googled?

humane cat trap?

here's a link for a spanish animal welfare site (with links for more)

thanks very much, hugely appreciated! I'm off to have a look right now

thank you x

Yep, you can just TNR him. Has the lady that looks after the strays gotten them all neutered?

sorry, missed this post! What's TNR?

No, I don't think she has, they are too wild to catch I believe. I think she has taken one or two of the younger females to the local sanctuary for spaying though, the ones she could persuade to come close enough.

update: couldn't find an organisation close enough to help, so went to the vet who tapped his nose and returned 2 mins later...with a box trap! We are going to have a go at catching him this Sunday, then take him to the vet to have him "fixed" before letting him go up on the hill. Let's hope it works.

TNR means trap neuter and return/release, so what you are doing anyway! Good luck.

oh dear there isn't much point in providing a home for cats if they are just going to keep multiplying, is there anyway you could help her with getting them neutered? or are there any rescues that could? It's not that difficult to catch them using traps, feral colonies of 60+ cats have been TNR'd before fairly easily.

CountryGirl she doesn't provide a home for them, she puts food down outside as do quite a few people I believe. Most of the colonies hereabouts have at least one kindly soul who leaves food. Neutering - I only know about this one lady who I think has done a few.

At least she is helping them as best she can, I know neutering can be expensive. Some people will put down poison etc for cats In reality though, there isn't much point neutering some of the cats unless all of them get done, seeing as if you get say, 6 cats neutered, and one of the unneutered cats gives birth to a litter of 6 kittens your back to square one.

Jeyes Fluid - dilute it and spray it in the garden and where he normally sprays, that should work. Seriously.

COuntryGirl I agree, however the 6 that have been neutered won't be producing any litters, so looking at it positively that's 36 less cats each breeding season! Every little bit counts and not everyone can go and catch 40 odd cats at a time and so the whole lot. As for the poison - that's what most households do in this region, one family at the end of our road managed to kill the 6 other cats living in this road last year, it was only because ours are pampered english ponceypusses and don't like raw fish that they didn't catch them as well. Nice.

(off to see if I can find Jeyes fluid in case the cattrap doesn't work, thanks!)

I suppose but unfortunately it won't take too long for there to be a ton of cats again.

I think it was worked out before if 1 x cat has 6 x kittens, 6 x 6 = 36, 36 x 6 = 216, 216 x 6 = 1,296. So you can see how quickly it ads up

Isn't there any vouchers or discount she could avail of at the vets?

I know how crappy animal welfare is in these countries, even here in Ireland and in the UK it's pretty bad! When I was on holidays in Portugal there were stray dogs everywhere and nobody helping them. (that I know of)

ummmm, yes I know how bad it is and I'm totally aware that one cat will not stop the problem, however it is not always possible to get involved to the extent that you suggest, and sadly although I do care about the cat problem, I don't have the time and I do have other priorities higher on the list demanding time and finance. In an ideal world yes, there would be agencies dealing with them but there simply aren't, like the wild rabbit population in UK, they are simply a fact of life here. Volunteer organisations are left to deal with it, mostly run by British expats.

It's kind of like me suggesting you go rabbit trapping and try to control the amount of bunnies in the british hedgerows, it simply isn't possible! But even just one makes a difference, as you say, possibly over a thousand very quickly.

meant to add, no, there isn't a discount service or similar, only the volunteer orgs who rely on donations. Unless you find a friendly and helpful vet like ours who has said he will do this one male cat as a freebie but I suspect that's as a favour to us as we are good regulars

Every little bit helps as tesco says
It's a shame vets aren't more charitable.