What can be done about those pesky strays around your apartment?
No...I'm not talking about your creepy ex who just keeps lingering around...I'm talking about stray animals. Again..not your ex....
Whether it's a cat gone feral or a rogue dog, strays can cause all kinds of headaches for apartment-ites. Not only do they dig into trash bags and carry fleas and disease that can transfer to your pets, but they
also leave their "mark" on doorsteps and patios so that other strays know to stay away. There is only one thing wrong with that picture...THEY DON'T BELONG IN THE FIRST PLACE.
So what can be done about them? There are a variety of tactics that can be used when dealing with strays, but there is one thing that you must ALWAYS consider no matter what the stray is doing...
YOU DO NOT WANT TO CAUSE HARM TO THE ANIMAL...
Trust me, there are ways to keep away the strays that do not hurt or harm them in anyway. Here's what I did:
Someone in my old apartment community used to leave a huge mound of cat food out for the stray cats in the area to feast on. This wouldn't have been as big a deal, but she was feeding them right outside of my patio while her building was on the entire other side of the community. Not only did these strays bother my two cats and taunt them from the other side of the glass-pane door, but they also destroyed my patio furniture and would cry at my bedroom window incessantly if their "provider" forgot to leave them some food.
Perhaps minor, this was indeed a hassle that affected my happiness in my apartment. I had to do something, but what? I didn't want to be confrontational because, frankly, this old lady scared the heck out of me. So I started off by telling the apartment manager, which should always be the first course of action in trying to solve some type of apartment related issue with neighbors or the community.
She told me that she would leave a note on all apartment doors instructing the residents not to feed stray animals and that pets should be kept inside apartments at all times unless accompanied by their owner. While a good tactic, the crazy old cat lady paid no attention and went on feeding the cats outside of my window. Both management and myself contacted animal control to let them know of the situation, but they seemed to ignore it. (No Money in it for them.)
It was then that I went to phase 2. Not wanting to cause harm to these 12-20 stray cats, I was forced to think outside of the box. Since crazy cat lady was spending an egregious amount of cash on stray cat food every week, I decided to do something to make her feel that she was wasting her time, money and energy.
Every day over the next couple of weeks, I would wait for the lady to put out this massive mound of food. After she left, I would completely moisten it with water, soda, or some other harmless liquid so that it couldn't be appetizing to even the most desperate cat. I swept as much of it as I could into the oblivion of the grass and flower beds, covered it in dirt, or simply threw it away. If she left out a bowl, I threw the bowls away in the dumpster. Eventually, it worked and she stopped setting food out....and after a few weeks...the strays went back to "stray-land"...wherever that may be.
The point of the story is that if you wish to get rid of the strays, you have to think about what is causing them to come around. When you take that element out of the picture...they'll go bother someone else.
First things first though.....ALWAYS let management know about the problem when you first notice it. More than likely, they will be able to handle it on their own.
