I head what I thought was a cat. I kept looking for it but the only thing I found were the squirls in the tree. It sounded like a wounded cat.
Had relatives up north that had a pet squirl in the house but I get a bit upset when they chew up the soffic and facia(sp).
My family member has some flying squirls hanging out too. Has pic of group of 4 on the tree. They live in town.
I used to be able to feed mine. Now I think they are mad at me for closing up the roof area.
Cannot remember if I mentioned I think we lost one in the chimney the other night. Could hear him trying to crawl out and bricks falling. Then a bunch of bricks fell and didn't hear him anymore. rip buddy. I like when they lay on the limb with their feet backwards like a dog or cat.

frogger, I had a family of squirrels move into my roof, but I've lived all over the world in caves and tents (studying nature), so I really don't mind them being there. However, they taught me some valuable things.

During the cat-eradication I was on the high-alert lookout for any signs of cat.

I started to notice that squirrels issue a predator warning-call that starts out with a "chuck ... chuck ... chuck ... chuck ..." followed by a mimicry of the predator's voice they spotted. They can mimic the sound of a hawk so eerily realistically that even I have mistaken a squirrel call for the actual hawk they spotted. For a cat they will make a strangled "meow" or "meeuw" sound at the end of their chucking sequence. The cat being a recent introduction they haven't quite learned its voice yet, but do their best to sound like a cat.

There's good reason for them doing this. If they can alert all others squirrels then those also mimic the warning call. They are also undoing any stealth tactic that their predator might be using. AND they might even attract an enemy of their enemy. (As they had learned to use me for this purpose.) This is not unlike the complex language they're started to unravel in Prairie Dog communities. (Squirrels being a close relative.)

I no longer think of squirrels as "tree rats" as so many do. They are an integral part of the defense-mechanism of any wildlife community. All other birds and wildlife will similarly react to their predator warning calls. All taking cover when the squirrels sound the alarm. Think of them as the woodland's predator-snitches.

Whenever I would hear a squirrel on my outdoor surveillance system making a cat-warning call, I would grab the rifle and head outside. I could even tell which direction the cat went by following where these warning-calls were spreading through the woods as they relayed the message.

I'm sharing this information for anyone who might similarly need all the help they can get to eradicate cats. Learn the voice of your squirrels, they'll actually help you (and you, they). As well as to shed some light on the unique and complex interrelatedness of nature that few are aware of.

I don't mind having squirrels in my roof, not at all now.

Though (true story) ... last winter, about an hour before sun-up one morning, I heard a squirrel making a cat-warning call. Befuddled for several reasons. All the cats had been gone for a long time. It was still pitch-dark out, squirrels are not out and about then. And the sound wasn't coming from my outdoor surveillance system. Nonetheless, I grabbed the gun and turned on the outdoor floods to go out and check. Nope, no sign of any cat! I finally tracked down the sound to a squirrel in the roof right above where I had been sitting. It was having a nightmare about cats. (no lie!) Great, I may no longer have cats, but now I have squirrels having nightmares about them!

Maybe I should regret having learned squirrel-speak. :-)

fedtaxer- l;ol

woodman- I love kuitties but if this is what it takes it is your own business and I may have done the same.
I shott bb gun at squirl that was chewing up my soffits and making a home in it. I don't think he listened well though cause I missed him. I like the squirls but stay out of my house!

woodman- city may be different than in the country as you mentioned.
Hawks seems to be all over in the city right now looking for food. I was driving down Rugar last weekend and counted 14 of them in the sky in just one area. Many other little "flocks"(?) of them too. Group of 10 further up the road. Then all over everyplace else.

Woodsman just an FYI- the drug used to kill prisoners is KCl, Potassium Chloride. The drug used to put animals down is Sodium Pentobarbitol. They act different. KCl stops the heart. Sodium Pentobarbitol ceases all brain activity immediately.
By posting that, you might scare someone into not putting down their suffering animal!

I ran across a "cat colony" once. What lunacy! The cats were all in horrible shape, and these sad pathetic little houses that no cat would ever go in-

I agree with the pronouncement of rural people being more careful wih their cats. And yes, people out in the country that take care of their cats will not, CAN NOT take in more animals or they will be drowned. S.S.S. is the general law of the land out here. I can't do it- can't being myself to shoot a cat- but we dont have any extras out here either.

Don't poke -- it can be vicious when it comes out from under the porch, can't it?

Wow. Never mind.

Here's some important information to help you understand "cat-lovers". Something I discovered when "cat-lovers" (an oxymoronic label if there ever was one) were using cats to overtake my land, eventually even by moving my property markers when using their cats had failed -- failed because I got the legal go-ahead to shoot their cats. (An expensive many $1000 lesson for these property-thieves, surveyors are not cheap.) I often wondered why they kept releasing new cats onto my land even long AFTER they already knew that all their cats were being shot to death, they were told this is what was going to happen, and was happening. Clearly something else was motivating these people. How many do you know that keep releasing cats after seeing many of them become road-kill, harmed by cat and animal attacks, die of diseases, killed by environmental poisons, etc.? (Like every last TNR-advocate for starters.) They don't care about cats, not in the least!

"Human Territorial Behavior By Expendable Proxy":

I have come to the conclusion that "cat-lovers" and cat-owners letting destructive invasive-species roam free, and those that defend the rights of cats to overtake private and public property and wildlife areas, are only (cowardly) using cats as a proxy for their OWN territorial behavior. Like inner-city youth that will disrespectfully and inconsiderately use loud music to stake-out territory for themselves. Whether this behavior is done consciously or subconsciously the underlying motive is the same. As long as they can have one of their cats defecate in another's yard or destroy their property, animals, and wildlife; and the land-owner not have any recourse; the cat-owner/caretaker owns that territory. It's time to put a stop to them using their "cute kitty" excuse for usurping and stealing others' property. If they want territory they can buy it like anyone else. Instead they're using underhanded and manipulative means--putting (and sacrificing) live animals in the path of their envy and greed. "Cat-lovers" only really want your yard, garden, or forest while making all others and all other animals suffer for what they can't have. Bottom line--they want to control you and your property. That's _ALL_ that "cat-lovers" are really after. It's why they don't care at all if their cat nor any other animals, nor even other humans, get harmed by their goals and (lack of) values in life.

Cat-advocates in Florida are even trying to get a court to let them use shopping-centers and hotels as places where they can keep their cat colonies (to act as speed-bumps, car-accidents, and health-violation-lawsuits waiting to happen I presume). We can now add "Shopping Centers" and "Hotels" to the kinds of property that they want to steal from the owners and control.

They can't be stopped from their behavior. They psychotically believe they are doing "god's work" for themselves. So you must destroy their MAN-MADE INVASIVE-SPECIES cats. It's the ONLY solution.

SSS = Shoot, Shovel, & Shut-Up. Legal anywhere.
TDSS = Trap, Drown, Shovel, & Shut-Up. Also legal for those who can't use firearms or any air-rifles.

Death by hypoxia, loss of oxygen, is even more humane than death by lethal injection. People who have survived lethal-injection describe how they were aware of the whole unending heart-attack. Ask anyone who has survived drowning what it was like after they got over the discomfort of holding their breath. They die in a complete state of euphoria, not even aware that they are facing death. Hypoxia is the source of the phrase "Rapture of the Deep".

Many new air-rifles even come with built-in sound-suppressor designs in them. Ones with ballistics speeds of 700-1200fps and pointed vermin pellets are often advised for use on cats in populated areas. While legal to use air-rifles in most cities, it's still best to not draw attention from psychotic cat-lovers. Having those in your life is far worse than the cats themselves.

Cat-lovers are only using their cats to control your life and hijack your community, your properties, and even your lawmakers. That's ALL that they are after. They don't give one damn about the cats. That's why they let them roam free. So they can get ran over by cars, lap-up antifreeze in someone's garage, eat some rat-poison under someone's steps, get attacked by other cats or animals, die of diseases, etc. They don't really care about those cats at all. Proved 100%. So why should you? Shoot 'em. Put them out of their misery in a way that's far more humane than how they'll die by using TNR on them. TNR is about the cruelest thing you can do to any cat. As well as the cruelest thing you can possibly do to all your local wildlife. TNR is 100% animal-abuse and animal-torture from every angle that you look at it.

I'm not here to argue. I'm just saying that doing something is better than doing nothing. I don't know what the laws are outside of city limits, but I can't shoot anything in my back yard. This group is at least making a dent in the problem.

Here's another fun aspect of TNR that TNR-LIARS never bother to tell you.

I recently learned that TNR cat-hoarders practice a form of "TNR-On-A-Budget" (my name for it). TNR cat-hoarders who want to keep feeding their cats but can't afford all that tedious mucking-about and getting them sterilized or vaccinated just trap the cats and clip the cats' ears themselves. Then release them again right after clipping their ears. Doing their best to hide all evidence of where they keep these colonies and telling few about them. This way the cat if trapped again just gets released right there so the cat-hoarder can continue to dote-over and feed their unsterilized and unvaccinated cats. Plus everyone else who might happen on their secret cat-hoarding locations thinks those cats are sterilized and vaccinated so they have fewer concerns about them still overbreeding or spreading deadly diseases. The TNR cat-hoarder feeder just tells them, "Oh, don't worry. See that clipped ear? They are sterilized and vaccinated. Perfectly fine and legal!"

Thanks to these "TNR-On-A-Budget" people, clipped-eared cats must be trapped and euthanized or destroyed on-site -- the only affordable and sane solution for everyone.

Here's proof, post taken from www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbi...

"Chris Cook
We had a culling of the neighborhood cats 2 years ago when there were only 10 or so (I lost 4 under my care in the same week). Now there's over 25 - that I know about (about half fixed)... it's just a matter of time before someone decides they have the 'solution' to the cat 'problem'. All I can do is get them tipped (in case Animal Services gets them, there's a small chance they'll release them back to the area they caught them) and hope for the best by making my own yard a hidden sanctuary of sorts. At least my HOA knows I'm TNRing them and not just feeding them so they (for now) look the other way while slamming the feeders-and-breeders who contributed to the problem getting out of hand and refusing any and all offers of assistance."

Not only is this criminally irresponsible TNR practitioner hoarding and feeding unsterilized cats, she even attracted MORE cats to keep reproducing -- which again disproves their oft-spewed "vacuum effect" LIE. While also lying to her HOA to boot. She even believes that what she is doing *is* TNR, that's just how demented these people are. I'd say this person reflects the norm rather than the exception, since TNR advocates relentlessly lie about so much and so often.

luvujvl - Using YOUR logic, a dead cat prevents us from doing all that math...and avoids future un-wanted cats. Simplicity, and an even greater "impact".

Even if TNR isn't ideal, using your own logic, for every female cat that is spayed, there are on average 17.5 less offspring every six months. (1x5=5; those 5xhalf = 2.5, that 2.5x5=12.5, plus another 5 from the original female = 17.5 in 6 months.) And, since a male can mate with multiple females, neutering any males should theoretically have an even bigger impact.

Sobeit, you might also like to know:

It is mandatory by law in nearly every, if not every, state of the USA to shoot any dog on sight that is seen harassing wildlife. And a property owner has EVERY RIGHT to destroy ANY animal that is threatening the well-being, safety, and health of their own family and animals. (Minus those on endangered or threatened species lists or under protection of MBTA (Migratory Bird Treaty Act), though variances can still be given should there be sufficient problem, but this requires further study by authorities.) This is why feral dog-packs are a rarity in most rural areas. They are SHOT before things get that bad. Unfortunately, people moving to the country aren't aware of this so they refuse to do their civic and moral duty by destroying that dog or cat that is harming other animals. I keep a paintball-gun loaded with red-pellets for any stray dogs. Stings enough to teach a teachable dog, and leaves a nice signal on their coat. The first time they get the paintball gun. If that doesn't teach the owner and alert them to what could have really happened to their dog, then out comes the rifle next time. Cats aren't so easily forgiven, because from past experience I know that warning a cat-owner does no good. So out comes the rifle on the first sighting of a cat instead of the paintball-gun.

People in rural areas who actually care about their animals keep them supervised, or they lose them -- permanently .

You can tell who actually loves their animals in rural areas -- their animals are still alive.

These are just the diseases cats are spreading to humans, not counting the ones they spread to all wildlife. THERE ARE NO VACCINES against many of these, and are in-fact listed as bio-terrorism agents. They include: Campylobacter Infection, Cat Scratch Disease, Coxiella burnetti Infection (Q fever), Cryptosporidium Infection, Dipylidium Infection (tapeworm), Hookworm Infection, Leptospira Infection, Giardia, Plague, Rabies, Ringworm, Salmonella Infection, Toxocara Infection, Toxoplasma. [Centers for Disease Control, July 2010] Sarcosporidiosis, Flea-borne Typhus, and Tularemia can now also be added to that list.

Cat-Transmitted PLAGUE:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/80599...
http://www.pagosasun.com/archives/2011/0...

Tularemia (rabbit-fever, transmissible to humans):
http://www.westyellowstonenews.com/news/...

Flea-borne Typhus:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/count...

Hookworm -- ruined Miami Businesses:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-11...

The most insidious one of all, cats' Toxoplasma gondii parasite they spread through their feces into all other animals. This is how it gets into meats and humans get it from meats, cats roaming around stockyards and farms. This is why cats are ROUTINELY destroyed around gestating livestock or important wildlife by shooting or drowning them. So those animals won't suffer from the same things that can happen to the unborn fetus of any pregnant woman. (Miscarriages, still-births, hydrocephaly, and microcephaly.) It becomes a permanent lifetime parasite in your mind, killing you when your immune system becomes compromised. It can last over a year in any soils or waters and not even washing your hands or garden vegetables in bleach will destroy the oocysts. Contrary to popular cat-lovers' self-deceptive myths, a cat can also become reinfected many times during its life and spread new oocysts each time. It's now linked to the cause of autism, schizophrenia, and brain cancers. This parasite is now also killing off rare and endangered marine-mammals along all coastal areas from cats' T. gondii oocysts in run-off from the land, the oocysts even surviving in saltwater.

Its strange life cycle is meant to infect rodents. Any rodents infected with it lose their fear of cats and are actually attracted to cat urine.

http://scitizen.com/neuroscience/parasit...

Cats attract rodents to your home with their whole slew of diseases. If you want rodents in your home keep cats outside of it to attract diseased rodents to your area.

The time has come to destroy them all whenever spotted away from supervised confinement. There's no other solution. We have nobody but cat-lovers to thank for this ecological disaster.

sobeit, frogger, feduptaxpayer,

*ALL* the NATIVE wildlife on my land was completely annihilated by these MAN-MADE INVASIVE-SPECIES cats. Prey became tortured cats' play-toys, larger predators all STARVED TO DEATH from cats destroying all their food sources. I even had to raise native mice and voles to try to get the food-chain restored. A project that lasted over 15 years. And the problem kept getting worse and worse as more and more cats were breeding out of control because I was listening to IDIOTS LIKE YOU for advice. It wasn't until I stopped trying to reason with unconscionably ignorant cat-advocates, and finally employed my .22 was I finally rid of EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM. All wildlife is now starting to recover. In just 2 years owls have returned to my woods. I had a parliament of 5 of them having hooting matches in my yard last summer, a sound I had missed hearing for 15+ years due to cats destroying all their food. A family of gray-foxes (a HIGHLY beneficial native species) has made a den near my home last fall. Hawks are now flying over my land once again.

"WHACKY!!!"-che @ 6:24am.

I'm not sure what you are refering to che. Do you have something to say? Do you have something to offer to a discussion?

"Woodsman, the cats are filling a niche that was creat by the over hunting of coyotes, fox, and now wolves".-Sobeit @10:51am.

Nonsense, this sounds like something that you pulled out of your . There is no evidence at all that coyotes and fox are overhunted in Wisconsin. If anything, feral cats take food away from foxes, coyotes and birds of prey.

The damage that feral cats do to the wild bird and small game mammal population is the big problem. These predations are estimated to be in the 10s of millions per year in Wisconsin alone.

What do they mean by "return"?Does that mean return to the area that they found the cats?Return the cats to society through an adoption program?Return the cats to the earth from which they arose to begin with?All of which have a place in that defenition.
The fixed cats would make good mousers,but how long does that go before all the mouse are under control enough to that the cats would need more food and better nourishment to add to such a skimmpy diet.Then their is disease that arrises from the cats being left to fend for them-selvs critters.That adds up to more money for the tax payer.
Which brings me to ponder what ever became of that great responsible citizen that left such a pile of garbage for every one else to pay for.Has anyone found out what is going on with that?

Woodsman, the cats are filling a niche that was creat by the over hunting of coyotes, fox, and now wolves. Go hunt mice, and rats once you have hunted them to extinction then maybe you can move on to bigger game.

What's next dogs because of irresponsible owners that dump them in the country and municipalities don't address that problem either.

"Feduptaxpayer
Mar 17, 2012 at 7:19 a.m.
Suggest removal

Woodsman - but they do help keep the mouse population in check. :0)"

True- my relative had two-three outdoor kitties(he had them fixed BTW)that hung around.
They have died and now he has a huge mouse problem in the garage. This is in the city.

Hkwnd- EXACTLY, nail on the head.

Good, working people losing their houses just because they lost their job and the banksters want to take their house first chance they get and what happens to the pets?????

And NO politicians really want to do anything about it!!!!!

This could be a message indicating that this is what happens when money is taken out of the equation of marriage,society etc.

These animals are starveing and suffeing. TNR will not work nor does it work...plus its just cheaper to put them down...if your gonna trap them put them down unless they are adoptable (which is a slim case) saves us all alot of aggrevation...and I am a saver but simply not all animals can be saved.

The real point is dont dump your pets...it JUST CRUEL

I used to have a couple of strays running around my yard at times...

I would just like to point out that Woodsman001 is a person with nothing better to do than stalk nation-wide online articles about TNR. He will almost instantly start to comment on them, posting several, often taking over the conversation and spreading misinformation. Then his comments will regress into threats against either the author of the article or the feral cat advocates. Amazing that this man(or woman) has nothing better to do with their time.

In the rural areas, feral cats are frequently dealt with in a different manner. S.S.S. is very effective, problem gone. Stop dumping your cats off in the rural areas, we do not care for them or their destruction of songbirds and small game animals.

Feral cats are a non-native, invasive species and should be dealt with like other invasives...eradication.
It is not efficient, financially prudent, or smart to spend money on catching and sterilizing them and then re-releasing them to fend for themselves.
Once they are caught, the cats should be killed in a humane...and cheap way.
If you love cats so much, then sterilize them and keep them in your house, not allowed to roam again.

If you do the research, as I did using data from the most "successful" TNR programs, you'll easily find that no TNR program has EVER trapped more than 0.4% of existing cats in any one area for over a decade now. (Even Oregon's amazing 50,000 TNR'ed cats, at the end of this year will have only trapped 0.35% of them in Oregon.) They simply cannot trap them faster than they breed out of control, no matter what they do. And those cats that learn to evade traps go on to produce offspring that now also know how to evade any trapping method used. So not only are >99.6% still and ALWAYS breeding out of control, and spreading their diseases everywhere, and still destroying ALL wildlife (native prey becomes tortured play-toys, native predators starve to death from cats destroying their ONLY food), but TNR fools are also ensuring that any future generations of these devastating invasive-species won't even be able to be trapped. This is why, due to TNR-Advocates' insistence that they have "the answer", that their feral-cat population has now climbed to an ecologically-deadly 150 MILLION feral-cats across the USA. Soon to turn into 1.5 BILLION cats within the year if you apply cats' breeding rates to previous population numbers. (That's actually a low low estimate. The real number from calculations spit out by their reproduction rates is closer to 2.4 BILLION.)

Find whatever way that you can to destroy all feral and stray cats on-site. If you don't destroy stray-cats as well, the source of all feral-cats, then you'll never be rid of feral-cats either. Avoid using traps if at all possible because trapping is what slowed everything down to where cat populations have now sky-rocketed out of control. TNR advocates are at least right about one thing (and ONE THING ONLY); trap and kill doesn't work either because it is based on the very same flawed method that they use -- slow, random-chance, inefficient, easily outfoxed traps. There's a reason the phrase "hunted to extinction" is so well-known in all cultures across all lands. It is the *ONLY* method that is faster than a species can out-breed and out-adapt to. The following link (of a study done by the University of Nebraska) is some good documentation on the most humane ways to confront a feral-cat problem where you live; including the best firearms, air-rifles, and ammo required. Though avoid using their suggested slow and inefficient trapping methods that got us into the ecological disaster that we have now. http://deenawinter.files.wordpress.com/2...

TNR-Advocates "Vacuum Effect" is an absolute 100% LIE.

There's an interesting study done by the Texas A&M University on TNR practices. They started out with about 12 sterilized cats. At the end of 9 months they had over 30. An increase of more than 200%, all moved in of their own volition. This isn't due to any mythical "vacuum effect" that cat-advocates spread and lie about so often. You would have had to remove cats to create a vacuum for others to replace them. The exact opposite happened in this study.

Simple reason being: CATS ATTRACT CATS

Cat scents attract cats. This is why they spray everything; to attract mates, rivals, and mark territory. Cat sounds attract cats. Mewing kittens will even attract stray toms who kill the kittens if they are not their own (basic feline behavior of any cat species).

If you want more cats, keep some around. More will find you. Get rid of them all and there's no reason for other cats to come to that area. I proved this myself by getting rid of every last cat on my own land. ZERO cats moved in to replace them for OVER TWO YEARS now.

Another interesting finding, sterilized cats very poorly defend their territory. Any new cats see this as easy-pickings and move in to take over. If that cat-colony is being fed then non-sterilized cats will actually overtake the sterilized colony's food-source because the non-sterilized cats are not as docile and complacent.

I'd like to know what planet these TNR-Advocates are on. The ONLY animals that benefit from TNR are the veterinarians, pet-food industry, and drug-industry. NOTHING else is accomplished nor solved. These INVASIVE-SPECIES cats still suffer to death, as does all the NATIVE wildlife those cats destroy during their lives.

Here's how TNR-MATH works (and how most of you are so easily conned and deceived):

"In NYC there are currently 465 registered TNR colonies. When TNR began in these colonies, 6047 cats were present – today, there are 4523 cats present, a decline of approximately 25 percent." (Quoted from Alley Cnt Allies who are SO proud of this.)

6,047 cats REDUCED the total by 1,524 cats, about 127 PER YEAR. That's only 0.08% of the 1,806,310 feral-cats within the city's limits. (data taken direct from TNR-advocates' own resources)

Apparently, if you TNR 4 cats and 3 die from being flattened by cars this is a 75% decline of feral-cats everywhere.

Guess how many have been born IN JUST THE LAST 6 MONTHS (hoping like hell that they're not breeding every 4 months). Let's do the math...

(1/2 total = females) 903,155 X 5 (avg. number in a litter) = 4,515,775 NEW CATS. Which lowers the number of them that have been reduced by TNR idiots to only 0.024%. THEY ARE GOING BACKWARD.

Guess how many will be born in another 6 months? (4,515,775 / 2) X 5 = 11,289,438.

The 1st 903,155 females are still breeding, so add 4,515,775 more. Add the original 1,806,310, totaling 17,611,523 CATS IN 1 YEAR. Which means that TNR groups have only reduced the cat-population by 0.008% of them. That's not even 1/100th of 1%.

Alley-Cat-ALL-LIES can't even reduce cats in their own city, yet they promote it as a worldwide solution. Then even bigger fools fall for it and promote it.

I think catch and release is a good idea, but...
They'll come back to torment my cat behind the patio door.
saxcat70 - Regular, or extra crispy?
happycamper - People already shoot the song birds, and the cats are still here.

Really kind of sad, when alot of these cats starve to death. Some need to be destroyed.

If we shoot the song birds will the ferril cats go away?

As the county prepares to take on responsibility for stray animals, a trap-neuter-release program is essential to reduce the future population. I hope this is a key part of the discussions at the local government level.