Thread: Feral Cats

As a young'n living in a block of flats with my GF (hmmm, must be 42 years ago now!) there was a series of pensioners flats next door. All had lovely little flower gardens that the old girls (all girls, guys ddn't seem to last that long). At the end of the two sets of flats, was an old half acre section accessed from Main street (Talking Palmy nth, 1970's here). The old dears were beside themselves, as their lovely gardens were being rooted up and shat in every day by the weird old cat lady that lived in the Main street house. Without a word of a lie, she must have housed at least a hundred cats. Only the nice ones were allowed in the house, so about 70 ferals hung out in the local area, waiting for evening feeding time. They lived in and under all the tonnes of shite stacked up in her back yard.
I was a fitter and turner apprentice back then, and had turned up a good (read big) suppressor for my 10/22. Firing subs with my thumb behind the bolt handle to stop the cycling noise it was very very quiet.

At the end of our block of flats was a monster old Oak tree. I set up a bowl of cat food at its base (using the tree as a backstop) and retreated into the storage room we all had at the end of the block of flats. Luckily I had bought spare ammo, as they just did not stop coming. The odd one I winged was immediately set upon by the others, ripping into it. Till I leveled the playing field. That one afternoon, with the AF MArtin foundary down the road keeping a good level of background noise up!, I filled three PNCC paper rubbish bags full of cats. About 35 odd cats, give or take.

A couple of days later I was picking up the paper from the communual letter boxes and one of the old dears sidled up to me and said " we all know what you did the other day, and we all want to thank you very much!"

Originally Posted by XR500

As a young'n living in a block of flats with my GF (hmmm, must be 42 years ago now!) there was a series of pensioners flats next door. All had lovely little flower gardens that the old girls (all girls, guys ddn't seem to last that long). At the end of the two sets of flats, was an old half acre section accessed from Main street (Talking Palmy nth, 1970's here). The old dears were beside themselves, as their lovely gardens were being rooted up and shat in every day by the weird old cat lady that lived in the Main street house. Without a word of a lie, she must have housed at least a hundred cats. Only the nice ones were allowed in the house, so about 70 ferals hung out in the local area, waiting for evening feeding time. They lived in and under all the tonnes of shite stacked up in her back yard.
I was a fitter and turner apprentice back then, and had turned up a good (read big) suppressor for my 10/22. Firing subs with my thumb behind the bolt handle to stop the cycling noise it was very very quiet.

At the end of our block of flats was a monster old Oak tree. I set up a bowl of cat food at its base (using the tree as a backstop) and retreated into the storage room we all had at the end of the block of flats. Luckily I had bought spare ammo, as they just did not stop coming. The odd one I winged was immediately set upon by the others, ripping into it. Till I leveled the playing field. That one afternoon, with the AF MArtin foundary down the road keeping a good level of background noise up!, I filled three PNCC paper rubbish bags full of cats. About 35 odd cats, give or take.

A couple of days later I was picking up the paper from the communual letter boxes and one of the old dears sidled up to me and said " we all know what you did the other day, and we all want to thank you very much!"

I have a similar story about a certain inner city park infested with ferals that dined out of the rubbish bins, bred under people's decks, entered houses to steal food in the wee hours and generally made a hell of a nuisance of themselves. they were in-bred, with deformed feet and ears, mangy and mal-nourished. Disease ridden ugly things. I rang the Council to ask them to clean the cats out to be told they had tried to catch them, failed, and had given up. They suggested I call the SPCA. Did that, they said they could rent me traps and they would come and get anything I caught. They also said two of my neighbours on the park had tried and not caught a one - the cats were too smart, or educated. In the end I did the same as you. No suppressor tho. Just a wee old Winchester single shot bolt and shorts. A 4 ft high retained bank with a bowl of milk in front. Me back in the garage with a side door open about 30 ft away. Through early and mid-summer fireworks are a thing in the inner city. No-one noticed the pop I made. over a period of a couple of months I cleaned them all out. Several adult dams, a couple of Toms and about 20 half grown mangey offspring. All headshots. I would put them in a black rubbish sack rolled up tight and go for a walk of an evening when the rubbish bins were lined up down the street and pick one at random. I thought it only fair the neighbours should contribute something. Many years later there still has not been a feral problem in the area.

Originally Posted by XR500

As a young'n living in a block of flats with my GF (hmmm, must be 42 years ago now!) there was a series of pensioners flats next door. All had lovely little flower gardens that the old girls (all girls, guys ddn't seem to last that long). At the end of the two sets of flats, was an old half acre section accessed from Main street (Talking Palmy nth, 1970's here). The old dears were beside themselves, as their lovely gardens were being rooted up and shat in every day by the weird old cat lady that lived in the Main street house. Without a word of a lie, she must have housed at least a hundred cats. Only the nice ones were allowed in the house, so about 70 ferals hung out in the local area, waiting for evening feeding time. They lived in and under all the tonnes of shite stacked up in her back yard.
I was a fitter and turner apprentice back then, and had turned up a good (read big) suppressor for my 10/22. Firing subs with my thumb behind the bolt handle to stop the cycling noise it was very very quiet.

At the end of our block of flats was a monster old Oak tree. I set up a bowl of cat food at its base (using the tree as a backstop) and retreated into the storage room we all had at the end of the block of flats. Luckily I had bought spare ammo, as they just did not stop coming. The odd one I winged was immediately set upon by the others, ripping into it. Till I leveled the playing field. That one afternoon, with the AF MArtin foundary down the road keeping a good level of background noise up!, I filled three PNCC paper rubbish bags full of cats. About 35 odd cats, give or take.

A couple of days later I was picking up the paper from the communual letter boxes and one of the old dears sidled up to me and said " we all know what you did the other day, and we all want to thank you very much!"

Classic. There was a local cat lady whos house burned down, she refused to let the fire brigade in and they smashed their way into the house and it was condemned so she moved to another house and took her cats there. The council tried to foreclose on the next house because she didn’t pay her rates ,before they could that house burned down too and she passed out due to smoke inhalation and a couple of schoolboys rescued her . She took her 70 cats to the next house , I have no idea where it is but I pity her neighbours . My mate bought the house she passed out in and the council said it was a hazardous site and made him strip it down completely and clean up the site . There was 20 skip bins full of gib , pissed stained (cats and her piss I guess) carpet , cat skeletons, cat shit , the kitchen , bathroom and other garbage . Just about drove him broke .
I surprised her neighbours never poisoned the cats , the place stank and she didn’t have the money to look after them so most of them looked pretty ill .

Originally Posted by paremata

I surprised her neighbours never poisoned the cats

Cats can be very difficult to poison, they are fast to regurgitate anything that doesn't taste right etc.
I found mixing in an antiemetic into the bait food sorted that out to a degree.