Feral Cats are Pests, not Pets, Part 1 – The Problems

As I stepped onto our front lawn with my dog Imhotep for his morning bathroom activity, a pair of barangay staff wheeled an empty cage and cat catcher’s net in front of us. I couldn’t help asking which house it was bound for and they replied it was going to be used for the place across us. I then asked them about their prospects of catching one and they said it was going to be next to impossible because, unlike stray dogs, feral cats jump over cars, walls, and roofs to get away.

What are Feral Cats?

Feral cats are felines that have grown up without any human interaction. Basically, they were born on the streets or the outdoors and grew up without being physically touched or come into close proximity to people.

I understand that once feral cats move into young adulthood, it becomes impossible to integrate them with humans. In other words, they will be feral cats forever. Being the case, they cannot, and should not, be petted because they will most likely scratch or bite.

Since they are most likely unvaccinated, feral cats may carry diseases such as rabies, mange, and even the cat-specific parvo virus. If you have pets at home, feral cats can be a source of ear mites, worms, intestinal viruses, and even dog-specific parvo, the latter of which they are immune to.

By comparison, house cats have been raised and kept by humans. Barring any personality issues, they are much tamer than feral cats. Stray cats are also felines with owners that may have wandered off or gotten lost at some point. Strays are used to people and aren’t expected to scratch or bite like feral cats.

[However, attacks may still happen so it is best to avoid any cats you are unfamiliar with.]

What drives them?

If I were to pick one thing that is the most important to feral cats, it would be territory. Everything revolves around it – shelter, eating, mating, and even escaping. Without territory, a male feral cat cannot be expected to live long.

The desire for territory is so strong that feral cats are relentless in keeping it. Their stubbornness compares to house flies and mosquitoes, which still keep coming even if they are repeatedly shooed away.

Marking their territory

Feral cats mainly mark their territory with two things – urine and feces. Once a day, usually at the same time, they will urinate on things they find in their territory, such as:

• Front doors
• walls and windows
• stairs
• streets and the sidewalk
• sewer and drain holes
• garbage cans and their covers on the ground
• washing machines and other appliances
• car bumpers
• car tires and rims
• car windshields and windows
• car hoods and roofs
• car differential boxes and brake assemblies
• engine bays
• bicycles
• baby strollers
• slippers and shoes
• bushes and trees
• you name it, they will discharge urine on it

Urination is done on the same spot over and over again because other feral cats, in an attempt to grab territory, will also urinate in the same places. So it is not uncommon for items, such as a baby stroller left in an open driveway, to be urinated on by three or more feral cats within a twenty-four hour cycle.

Apart from carrying diseases, feral cat urine is more potent than that of dogs. This is probably because the sense of smell of cats is weaker than dogs, requiring the odor to be worse. In addition to this, feral cat urine is more corrosive than that of dogs, making it worse on the metal parts of vehicles, and even its paint.

One of the main differences that sets feral cats apart from other animals is that they can urinate upwards. This means that they can actually spray a low car’s headlights from the ground. And when you pair this with the ability to climb, nothing, and I mean nothing, is unreachable.

[A cat urinated on my windshield, while my dog only does the tires.]

Defecating is more of a round-robin thing as I have noticed that they deposit their feces in different places within their territory at seemingly random times. I am under the impression that since the smell of feces is longer lasting, they don’t need to do it in one area as often as they urinate.

Just like urine, feral cat feces is more potent in odor, which may also compensate for the weaker sense of smell in comparison to dogs. In my case it is easy to know when a cat has deposited feces in the garden because the odor permeates throughout the entire house.

Perhaps the worst part of their feces is that dogs love to eat it. Yes, Imhotep may hate cats but he loves eating their excrement. It has gotten to the point that I have had to spank him, the only time I ever have, in order for him to stop ingesting these disgusting things.

[Even worse is that Imhotep likes to lick me after dining on cat poop!]

Oh, and did I mention that feral cats like to bury their excrement? I don’t know how many times my family and I have stepped on fresh feral cat feces buried under leaves or a light layer of soil only to smear it all over the floor of our house.

Finally, feral cats have scent glands on their paws. So in the absence of urine and feces, all they have to do is walk or step on something to deposit their scent. This explains why there are a ton of white paw prints on our external doors and walls.

[I cannot detect the scent myself but it drives Imhotep crazy when he gets near any foreign paw prints]

Fighting to the death over territory

The need for territory is so strong that I have seen feral cats defend what is theirs to the death. Just last month, a dead cat was decomposing in the drain outside my gate.

[No, I had nothing to do with it.]

The night before that, the car of the neighbor across was witness to one violent cat fight between the resident king and an usurper. The king, who I christened Lolo because he’s around for quite some time already, was going to war with the new kid on the block.

The cat fight was so violent, thumping was coming from underneath the car. The screeching was so loud, it woke up our entire household in the middle of the night. While I tried to ignore it at first, my parents told me to go out an deal with the noise.

Well, before I had my hand on the door, Imhotep was already waiting to rush outside and join the fracas. Upon seeing my dog, Lolo fled the scene. And since I had failed to leash Imhotep due to the rush outside, a chase ensued but Lolo got away by jumping over the nearest fence before disappearing into someone’s lawn.

I didn’t notice his opponent running away so I assumed he was able to escape during the chase. It was only during next morning’s bathroom run of Imhotep that I saw a bloodied figure under the neighbor’s car. Wanting his pound of flesh, Imhotep was barking wildly and trying to grab the body. To avoid him catching the mange, or any other disease, I had to drag him back in the house.

After depositing him safely behind our screen door, I then got a stick and poked the torso only to be surprised that it stirred. Having no desire to disturb it any further, I called the barangay for disposal. But before they arrived, it disappeared. We looked everywhere but never found it so we assumed the injured feral cat limped away to lick it’s wounds.

It was only after three days that I found where it had gone. Apparently, it crawled into the nearest sewer opening , which was in front of my gate and died there. The stench of its decomposing body stuck around our house for months.

What problems do they bring?

I mentioned that feral cats may scratch or bite people, possibly infecting them with rabies and other viruses. They may also pass on ear mites, worms, and loose bowel movement to your pets. In addition to these, I indicated the smell and corrosiveness of their urine and feces can be dangerous to health and damaging to property. However, the problems they pose do not stop here.

They have torn up the flower beds of my uncles and aunts, especially the ones that were set up during this pandemic, because they don’t like change. They have made deep scratches to the hood of a vehicle owned by one of our fellow writers during their courtships. They have urinated on the windows of my father’s car. They have stolen the food of our house staff; right off the dining table in just a seconds. They even defecated on the couch inside the living room of my brother’s rented condominium.

[Fortunately, there was a new dish rag on the couch so it didn’t stain the fabric.]

Perhaps the worst thing that feral cats do is that they are responsible for bringing native species to the brink of extinction. Australia is one of several countries facing a crisis because feral cats are excellent hunters without any natural enemies in that continent. Species like the Bilby, Bandicoot, Bettong, and nNmbat have been placed on the endangered list due to them.

The same goes for places like Bohol, where feral cats are decimating the defenseless Tarsiers by eating them and wreaking havoc on their environment.

In my neighborhood, the number of birds has decreased alarmingly. Once upon a time, the tree in front of my window had a steady supply of bird nests, now none exist because I have seen several feral cats dine on the chicks.

Finally, feral cats regularly overturn trash cans to spill their contents on driveways and streets. They do this because it is easier get scraps than hunt for mice. And if that isn’t enough, garbage from these same trash cans can be found in the gardens of houses several meters away.

[I regularly see a plastic bags containing some garbage in our garden after waking up in the mornings.]

Final Thoughts

Just thinking about feral cats makes me fell like my blood pressure has risen to unsafe levels so I will end the first part here.

I’ll continue writing the second part after I have sufficiently calmed down. For Feral Cats are Pests, not Pets, Part 2 – The Solutions, I will cover common internet remedies that do and don’t work, so I hope you can join me after about a week’s time.