Kelly,

Bully for you. If I let my frustration get the better of
me and decided to shoot, kick, clobber or however harm my neighbor's
cat I don't think I'd shoot my mouth off in a public forum about
it. Regardless of whether your neighbor is violating animal con-
trol laws or not you may still find yourself accountable for your
action.
Have you spoken with your neighbor about the problem.
Not all cat owners are idiots. Perhaps your neighbor doesn't
understand your seriousness in the matter. I understand the
hard feelings that can come about in such a battle but is your
only reasonable alternative stealthy gunplay?
I'd imagine you feed birds for the pleasure of watching
them. If drawing concentrations of birds to your yard heightens
the risk to them it bids you to reconsider the wisdom of feeders.
Feeders obviously draw cats like they do squirrels. Without the
feeders birds are much more widely dispersed and less apt to
become targets.
Not all Tweeters hate cats and are going to cheer
your actions, although I'm sure some would. A bird killed by
a cat bothers me as well but planing a birch or alder in your
yard is probably smarter than hanging a feeder who's seed spills
onto the ground. Let the Siskins feed in safety 30 ft up in
the spindly treetops.

Jim Flynn
Renton, WA
bf519 at scn.org