I think he is out of his MIND

Take the cats. Don't take any food. Let them eat mice, moles, etc.

If it's country, they'll feed the coyotes, etc. Natural attrition.

Don't say anything to your hubby about your plan.

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Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible

They will Not like being moved,they will probably leave your new home. We have way too many from one stray that showed up. Now they are haveing more. I feel your pain.

Sorry cat people.....if I could snap my fingers and cause the domestic cat to go extinct I would. They are native to NOWHERE. They do not eat just mice and moles, they decimate the songbird populations wherever they become established. Unlike dogs they are perfectly capable of reproducing in the wild.

If you want to keep one or two FIXED barn cats to take care of mice.....ok. I know one neighbor that has a cat around me and that's ok too. If one day I saw a moving truck.....then more cats.....then less birds at my feeder. I would give the neighbors one anonymous warning and then start SSS. And those of you who know me also know I rarely if ever advocate SSS.......but cats in my view are an invasive species. They sit on the same shelf as starlings, house sparrows and kudzu.

OP, you are in a pickle because although you seem responsible (three fixed cats), your actions (feeding and housing unfixed strays) has allowed those cats to procreate. Now you are responsible for those as well. If you are willing to go through the time and trouble to get them all fixed.....God bless you. Your other options are take them with you (as said they will probably go full feral and wander off) or leave them behind (they will still wander off).

I would ask you to consider this. What will happen to the cats as they spread out and move onto other property? Defecate in other gardens, hang out around others bird feeders. They will get shot. If they're lucky it will be a clean kill. More likely it will be with a pellet or .22 (slow agonizing death)

If you can't get them spayed find a shelter where they will be humanely euthanized. At least you know they won't suffer. If your husband steps back and looks at the situation objectively I think he will see the logic.

Cats get dumped or roam in this farming area all the time. They always do 2 things: Cause trouble for the folks living here (killing chickens, etc), and they end up shot. I've seen feral cats killing my hens or raiding the chicks or coop at night more times than I can count, besides the damage they do to all the redbirds and other birds that I set birdhouses out for every year.

If you take them to a shelter they can join the hundreds already there looking for new homes, which will more than likely live out their days there. You can drop them off somewhere, to be a nuisance to somebody and eventually be killed, or you can spay all of them and find good homes. Either way good luck. Better off to have not 'adopted' all those cats in the first place.

We have one cat. Don't want more than 1. I've shot 2 strays in the last 6 months and didn't get a chance at the 3rd. Showed up at church last sunday and someone had dumped 2 mixed dog pups there assuming someone from church would adopt them. They got left there in the parking lot after church was over as no one else wanted someone's 'oops' dogs. Do your community a favor; any cat you don't keep, shoot. They multiply quicker than rats and go feral in a short time creating a big nuisance and a threat to household poultry and pets. The only thing worse IMO than someone who dumps animals is someone who thinks all animals have a right to live and should never be disposed of. The local 'no-kill' shelter is full of mangy, snarling, agressive animals that should be killed, not kept until they 'find homes for them.' There are right and proper times to reduce the population.

If you choose to 'fix' and keep them, that's great. If not, either find good homes or .22 them, don't let your problem become someone else's. My opinion and not necessarily that of others on this board

By MOOMAN in reference to cats being proliferous and invasive:
They sit on the same shelf as starlings, house sparrows and kudzu.

Spoken as a true southerner AMEN!!

There are free spay and neuter programs almost everywhere these days. I'm planning on catching a few here myself and taking them in to get fixed as soon as I can.

I don't mind their mousing habits, but I don't like anything else about them. So I've decided, if they're spayed and neutered, a few can hang around. Otherwise, it's to the pound with them.

Sounds like the number of cats is well passed the number you need. You have to keep things in proportion. A cat or two, both fixed, is plenty.

Did the pregnant cats get that way under your watch?

Dropped cats is a problem because thoughtless folks won't spend the money to get them fixed and can't stand to shoot them. You decided to make a home for them, so you make that choice, to the Vet and lighten your wallet or shove them in a pail, shoot them, knock them on the head with a hammer, I don't care, you chose.

The rural life often comes with difficult choices. Perhaps the cat issue is just the tip of the iceberg and there are plenty of other unresolved homesteading realities not yet fairly addressed?

I feel for you WHOCARES but if you end up moving the cats always remember there are other folks out there like your husband. I was just contracted to pickup and move about 30 pet house cats over 1300 miles for a family that was relocating. It cost them a little over $5000 for the move, just for the cats. They love them and can not stand to see an animal abused or put down. Luckily their pocket book is as big as their heart.

Cats cannot really live very well or long "in the wild" off rodents. That is why they seek out humans despite the fact that other non-caring humans dumped them to fend for themselves when the next cute kitten or puppy came into their lives.
I have two farm cats that are spayed and neutered and vaccinated. They are worth their weight in field mice and etc. They have a self feeder and waterer as well as a cat condo and such in the garage. Many many cats find their way through my cat door and eat their food and you can tell that they were once someone's suppose beloved pet. I re-home them. My two have a good relationship and I do not need another so I find the poor dumpees homes. Last year it was 10, one cat had to have 5 kittens. I had her spayed and re-homed her too.

If you want cats gone from the world be prepared to be up to your ankles in rats and mice carrying diseases. I would rather keep cats who are friendly and loving and have no zoonotic disease that I know of. Rodents have lots that they would be willing to share with cat haters


Whocares put ads on craigs and in your feed stores for free barn/farm cats and kittens. If you can make the kittens friendly they will go faster. I would not just leave them to mulitple and maybe fend for themselves but I would not take them either. I would try to re-home as many as possible and the rest drop off at an animal shelter on the way to your new place.
Here are some low cost spay and neuter places. I got them from googling " Low cost spay and neuter Kansas" Maybe they also know where you can take any that do not get adopted.

http://www.snkc.net/

http://www.nmhpkc.org/index.php?PAGE_ID=3

http://www.lovethatcat.com/spayneuter.html

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Put them in a box, write "With love and kisses" and send it them to Oggie.

Gee could I just be boiled in oil right now??? Oggie would kill me and you for the suggestion...

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My Motto in life is: Sometimes we change our lives and sometimes Life changes us.

Get them fixed. Maybe you can find a vet who will cut you a deal, given the circumstances.

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Marvelous Madame
Be kind to others. You do not know what burdens they are carrying.

Perish the thought. I wouldn't kill either one of you just because you are woefully misguided. That would be evil.

And I do pity your dilemma. You're sitting on a toxic waste dump of evil. The cats are merely the vessels that contain it.

Would it be moral to simply cut and run, leaving the evil for someone else to deal with? Should you taint your new land, driving away much of what is good? There are many issues.

Shooting the cats isn't the answer. The evil would leak out. If you put them down another way and bury them there's a chance that the evil will seep down into the ground water, poisoning the wells.

You already pretty much know that trying to contain and mitigate all the evil all by yourselves might be something you can't afford.

I fear that I have no good answers. I'll present it to the research committee.

In the meantime, I think that you need to probe a bit deeper and ask, "Why does my husband feel the need to flirt with all this evil?" Maybe he craves the excitement it might bring. Perhaps, if you tried to be a bit more of a bad girl from time to time, he might change his ways.

At least some critters will eat kudzu (our goats love it... wish we could get it started good).

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Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

Hmmm... I would not dream of spending $1,000 on a cat - we have none here on the farm and IMO, I think anyone who has more than one cat.... well, that's even one too many.... Again, don't flame me - just my opinion.....

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WOW - I sure am glad I don't live near you. Where is it so others can avoid those Vet Costs.

"The cheapest price around here for dogs (smaller) is 175.00 and cats are well over 100.00. I would take a couple of yours for my mice if I could get them fixed for a better price!!!!! That and if you were closer."

I wonder what help delivering sheep would cost?? WOWZERS - I need a Vet Degree.

I have to agree with Fordy. Cats are a happy meal to coyotes. We have never had cats here on the farm. Coyotes get them as fast as people dropped them off. They think they will live happly everafter here in the country, but they die a horrible death. Wish we could have a couple of barn cats but we never will.

the OP says they are moving, is someone buying your old place? have you asked them if they want some cats? people around here do that (explaining hwowhorrendous the mice are without a cat or two) and usually people pass on the cats. The two cats at the next door neighbor are on their third family!

We took in a litter of cats that someone dumped. We've lost one so far(he may have moved on down the road a few miles). OUr county does fix feral cats for free, they provide a trap. Course it may be a circus for awhile--a neighbor caught a skunk first...

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That's why you have so many.

Cats will breed to fit the food supply. If you're not feeding them, and they're hunting, they'll regulate their own population. The biggest problem with cat over-population is simply the kind-hearted folks who feed them.

Feed your PETS and make sure that they're fixed. Do not feed feral cats and, unless you have a huge rodent population, you won't have a cat population problem.

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I've seen the village, and I don't want it raising my children.

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I feel for you Whocares! I too take all strays that come my way & the ones I even come across when I'm out. But have rehomed many of these animals on Freecycle, Craigslist & via our local Wal-mart parking lot.

My suggestion would be to convince hubby to.... 1.at least find homes for the cats you can in order to reduce your population, especially the pending kittens (easier to give away). 2. stop feeding your barn cats or at least reduce the food. Having that many cats, you should not have a rodent problem! I currently have 4 of which only 3 but more likey only 2 are hunting and I never have a rodent problem. They are fed once a day a minimal amount of food. My old momma cat is fixed now, but prior to that my cat population was holding steady at about 5 pretty much of it's own accord. Usually the males would take off on their own eventually & we'd find homes for the others.

I just bought a little one acre place, that came with a momma kitty & three kittens, so thought O'boy here we go! But to my suprise, my senior male has decided he likes his new home & no other cats except his family the 3 others are allowed. He has run every cat off of this little piece of land and keeps them out. I see them sitting around the fences, but they won't come back in due to fear of him. I've also found my paticular cats are not a problem w/ the birds. They lay around the trees & the feeders & rarely give a second glance at the birds. That's not to say cats aren't bird killers, because my daughter had one that kills every bird it can, just for sport. Guess my cats are weird!?

Back to your problem, just those 2 steps above should improve your situation & less food will improve both your rodent population & your cat numbers. I would also fix what females you can. Fixing the males will not stop the population growth. Other males will come from miles away to breed an in heat female, but fixing the females will have your males searching else where for females & usually rehoming themselves in the process.

Good luck too you, RandeeJo