that's five

[Doberluv]

Years ago, when we lived in a neighborhood kind of neighborhood..we had a fenced yard and a big GSD. In the 10 years that we had our GSD, there were maybe 2 or 3 cats that happened to come in our yard....that I know of. Our GSD almost got one. He chased it and it ran up the 6 ft. wooded part of the fence (some was chain link) and then it fell backwards....didn't quite make it over. Our dog had that cat between his front legs and was just about to dive into it with his teeth when I hollered loudly, "Ajax!!!! Come!!!!" And he obeyed and left the cat. Whew! Other than that one time, I think he chased another cat, but the cat got away. And other than those few, I hardly ever saw a cat in our yard.

In the next place we lived, I don't recall ever seeing a cat in our property, other than our own cats. And same here...(going on 9 years here.) Well...I have seen the neighbor's cat once or twice, but not right in the yard, but way down in the pasture, which is closer to the road and their house.

So Pops, either you are experiencing an evolutionary oddity or Renee might have something there. LOL. But it makes a shocking visual....you out there, picking up dead cat after dead cat after dead cat. Ewwwww.

[ACooper]

Is there ANYWAY possible that Sonic is escaping, chasing them down, and bringing them back home? Dogs have been known to do sneakier things than that, LOL

Or something that is VERY attractive to them? Are your trash cans in the back yard? Dog's food? Anything that would make them WANT to tempt fate?

It is odd that you get so many........not impossible in my mind, because we do have Chazzers post this happens from time to time, but really weird it's so often!

[Romy]

Our house in Tucson was stray cat central. We had an elderly neighbor who fed them literally by the dozen on her back porch. Just the transient tomcat population alone was insane.

Anyway, there was a handful of resident strays that we knew, and then dozens of outliers who would cruise in for food and then cruise out again. Those transient cats would often cut through our yard, despite our yard usually being inhabited by a non cat friendly foster dog.

Our dogs never caught one, but the neighbors chow killed three that I know of, and that was just from me looking over the fence and seeing her eating dead cats. She probably had many more than that under her belt. It may be that the cats coming in pops yard are just used to being able to get out of reach, and not expecting a super keen/driven dog that can run 45 mph to be in the yard. If nobody survives to spread the news about Sonic, how are the other cats to know of the danger? Especially if he's not outside 24/7, and the cats have some experiences of going in the yard unmolested.

Could you find some cheap motion sensing sprinklers to put facing outward on the top of your fence maybe? I don't know how much those cost, it would probably be cheaper to do electric fence if that's to route you want to take with it.

[Brattina88]

My first thought was along those lines Renee... that would be horrible.
But then I got to thinking. There are some pretty cocky cats around here that would rather turn and use their claws than run. And Pops doesn't sound like he has a dog who that's going to scare him off.

That sucks.

[colliewog]

I agree it sounds like someone is tossing them in. Very odd ... and sad. Sorry you're having to go through this.

[Pops2]

the thought occurred to me that he might be calling them in. he has a very high pitched whine that he sometimes uses for no reason. he's dumb as a post but i wonder if he calls them accidentally by sounding like a small distressed critter. or the nesting mockingbirds in the holly bush might be drawing them as most have been killed under the bush itself.
he actually does live outdoors (goes nuts if kept indoors for more than a few minutes and only relaxes outside). i know he isn't escaping because he is the kind of dog that if he gets out he'll be gone and you have to go get him. (when i was deployed the DW had to rattle a box of biscuits to get him to stop so she could put a leash on & bring him home)
i suspect a lot are escapees or more likely abandoned (it's pretty common here for families to move and after you see cats crying at the door to be let back into the empty house) and just not dog savvy. also he's black and nearly invisible at night, which is when he seems to be getting them. the yard isn't even that big more like an extra large run about 25X80-90.

[Amber]

Amber almost caught a possum once, but I think that's the only other animal that I've ever seen in our yard.
This might sound weird, but what we do around our garden to keep the squirells, birds, and cats out is get something that smells like the urine of an intimidating animal (fox, even coyote) You have to make it strong (not strong enough that you can smell, but so the intruding animal thinks that it is the territory of something that could cause damage to them.)
That usually keeps most animals away. Poor you, and poor cats.