What can you do to protect your cat and prevent the loss of your wild neighbors?
Rookie Steps
- Keep your cat indoors or in a safe, enclosed outdoor run
- You could try using a cat bib -which is a bib that goes around the cats neck and is designed to slow the cat down while attempting to pounce on its prey. (bells on cat collars are not effective in protecting wildlife from cats)
- Spay or neuter your cat
- Never abandon a cat. Find it a home or release to animal services
- Do not feed stray cats without a plan to find them an indoor home, or call animal services
Rock Star Steps
- Teach your cat to walk on a leash for outside time
- Help eliminate colonies in your neighborhood call animal services to report
- Educate neighbors and friends, encourage keeping cats indoors and safe
- Eliminate sources of food, such as garbage or outdoor pet food dishes, that attract stray cats
Make your house an indoor playground for your cat
- Provide toys and rotate them – Paper bags, rolled up balls of paper, motorized mice, and laser pointers are some cat favorites.
- Provide scratching posts – helps stretch muscles and remove broken claws
- Provide a room with a view- Watching what’s going on outside can provide a cat with hours of entertainment, put a seat or perch next to a window so they have a good view.
- Provide access to a screened in porch or outside enclosure – This will allow your cat to safely commune with nature.
- Take your cat out for walks- Teach your cat to walk on a leash
