We have 2 stray outside kitties now, Sam the siamese who has never been shy and follows me when I'm outside the gate, he will sit at the gate and meow at me if I'm inside. I think he is the sibling of BC, a black cat that adopted us just before Ike, and who evacuated with us. There is another black kitty out there who may be their littermate as I first saw it across the school yard about the same time. It is very skittish and I can't even get close enough to tell if male or female. Sam is going to the vet to get fixed as soon as we get back in the houe. I think the guy across the alley is responsible for them, I've found siamese mix kittens before. I'd like to confront him but have no proof-except empty litter boxes outside his house and the cats hang around his yard. BC prefers to go outside, so do my 2 cats who have the run of the house and yard-they choose to stay out most of the time. BC prefers the alley-dry and sandy, Oscar the neighbors yard behind her garage, no idea with Gomez or Sam. Gomez(female) is the only one I've had problems with spraying in the house, and not often. I feel bad for Sam sitting outside the gate, he's such a pretty cat, blue cross-eyes, perfect posture. I feed him and pet him about every day, sometimes I don't see him. Tally HO!

The newspaper issue is a hard one, isn't it? Yes on the craigslist. I would also send a flyer to all of your local vets because most have bulletin boards for such ads. Some areas have free weekly merchandiser papers they distribute to homes and businessness and that's a possibility. Ours has. Then report it to your local shelter or humane officer in case anyone should call there to see if it turned up.

Cats LOVE freshly turned ground, it is like a giant litter box for them, my mom couldn't keep her petunias because her cats kept digging them up, they also love her bird of paradise, and it is in the house, it is just a cats nature. I adopted a cat that was born in the wild, I tried to keep him inside, he would not so I started leaving him out, my neighbor came over one day and told me he had laid on one of her hostas and killed it, I immediatly brought him in, he cried and cried, about 2 months later I was staying at my moms and my husband accidently let him out, well he is not one of those people who will run a cat down to bring it back in, the next day when I got home he was curled up on our porch sick, it was Sunday and we live in a small area with no emergency vets, I took him in first thing Monday morning and he died in my arms in the waiting room. Poisoned. My 9 year old son (it was his cat) made me promise before I took him to bring him home no matter what. so here I am out in the yard with 2 bawling children (and myself) trying to bury Chrys, and of course all my neighbors are right there saying how awful it was, meanwhile the whole time in the back of my mind all I could think of was that one of those neighbors was responsible for this even though it was really our responsibility to keep our cat inside, one day later another neighbor who owned the mom to Chrys and had his brother came over crying, someone had poisoned the brother too, so there I was again burying another cat because she just could not do it. No more outdoor cats for me period. she has another outdoor cat that kills squirrls all the time, and I am forever going over there and disposing the bodies for her, just yesterday I was in my tulip garden and lo and behold, cat potty. but for some reason I cannot get worked up over it, I of course said a dirty word when I ran into it , but I would never think of doing something to someones pet because of it. there is about a 50 percent ratio of outside cat owners here, it aggravates me because they do not even try to keep them in (one was trying to go in and the owner just ever so gently pushed her back out and shut the door) when we was trying to do the right thing we got punished anyway. The main reason I don't mind all the outdoor cats is because we have NO MICE, that is worth it to me, but I will never claim another outdoor stray, if I even get caught feeding one it becomes my problem in the minds of my neighbors (they have to be watching me constantly, I swear!) I have had to haul 10 so far to my moms, I am so glad she has that nice big barn on her farm!

I heard about them on the Blaze Morning Show with Doc Thompson and Skip. I wouldn't purchase one, but it takes all kinds to make the world (and retail marketing) go round..... ;-) I look at isle after isle of things I consider "crap" in stores that someone must be buying!