Thread: When neighborhood strays become a problem

Thank you for sharing, Ingrid. Pit bulls are wonderful dogs and get a bad reputation for no reason. Our neighbors across the street have two pit bulls that play with the kids and are the least aggressive dogs I've ever seen. Actually we are one of only three families on the street that don't own a dog (a fact pointed out by police after our second break in). The people next to us have a huge German boxer, the others directly across have a huge and vicious Chow, then the even more enormous Great Dane that lives next to the pit bulls. With all these big dogs around you'd think cats would steer clear but the feral/stray colony is quite large.
We have considered a protection dog for us humans LOL, and our cats have adjusted well to my mom's small dogs when they visit. Even Sampson doesn't bat an eye when the Boxer strolls by on his walk, barking and jumping. Besides the time commitment a dog requires I am wary of them, being bitten by one of my parents' English springer spaniels as a child. I've gotten better but I would really need to spend time working with large dogs to overcome my fear of them. :-/ My best friend has two Huskies that love to jump and wrestle, and they will "play bite" which is more like rubbing their mouth all over you LOL, but it still freaks me out.

Mandy, in regard to protection against break-ins, I've read that the police recommend small, yappy dogs which will make thieves look for a quieter house to burgle. I read of one horrible case where burglars broke in and stabbed the two German Shepherds in the house to death.

I once had a large, black stray cat in the yard and I also happened to be outside in a place where he didn't see me. He was focusing so hard on the dogs next door that he didn't see or hear me approach. I picked up a rock to throw near him and accidentally hit him on his side, and I could hear the rock connecting with his body. I don't think he ever came back but to this day I regret the fact that I hurt this animal.

We have three feral cats who are eking out a miserable existence here in the hills where the drought has made mice, roof rats and almost every other prey disappear. We've tried to scare them off because we feed some of the wild bunnies here, but they cannot be deterred. Twice we've found bunny intestines on our doorstep as a "gift", which is a very strange thing for feral cats to do, but there are no domestic cats in the neighborhood that leave their property.