Felines: Friend or Foe?

Felines: Friend or Foe?

Warning on Villeray Tree to Neighbourhood Cat Owners

In recent weeks, I've come across photocopied notices to area residents regarding a certain neighbour who evidently hates "stray" cats in his garden.This neighbour "Claude" has taken to posting an anti-feline message on the perimeter of his property, and it reads like this:

"Warning to all (Avis à tous), cats without tags will be captured and sent to the SPCA."

Another concerned cat-loving resident photographed Claude's warning message, added her own message, photocopied it and posted it to the tree directly across the street from the cat-loather's home, "Warning: keep an eye on your cat..."

Fortunately my own cats have tags, but after I asked around at work, I discovered that some of my long-time cat-owning colleagues have never put tags on kitty. So, it would appear that our neighbour Claude may be trying to tackle hapless felines in his backyard who indeed have legitimate homes.

Monsieur Coton on our BBQ

And some of the neighbours are vocally opposed to his kittynapping. In a woman's curly blue-pen scrawl, another concerned resident has added to the notice, [Translation] "I say we pass around the hat in the neighbourhood to collect some money to pay for cat-hating Claude's yoga lessons. He needs to breathe through his nose."

Now, I can understand the sentiment of fretting cat owners. Our feline friends go wherever they please, and we have little say in the matter. Take for instance our neighbour's tagless cat, Monsieur Coton, who refuses to buy into the concept of human property ownership. Twice I've gone downstairs to find him sleeping on the couch, and we suspect that Monsieur Coton regularly uses our garden as his litter box, so we do understand where Claude is coming from. For catless green thumbs, felines can be the bane of their gardening existence.

But we may have found a solution, which we are trying as I write this. It's called the ScareCrow, a motion-activated animal deterrent. As an animal approaches your garden, the motion-detecting sprinkler repels the animal with a startling two- to three-cup burst of water. The sudden noise, movement and spray of water should keep the cats away. We have aimed our ScareCrow directly at Monsieur Coton's favoured poop du jour site. Fingers are crossed.

If the ScareCrow is a successful deterrent, I might slip the spec into Claude's mailbox to keep some peace in the hood and to save him some lacerations and possibly his sight. The funds raised from the neighbourhood collection could be used to purchase this new found solution, and then we could all breathe through our noses again.

Other Villeray-related sites

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Buying Local: Slak on Villeray 
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Neon Icon: Miss Villeray
Café Cuzcatlan: Roasting Local Coffee Beans
Creole Cuisine
Oriental Pastry Delights

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