Who says he was either?  One can only put up with so much S***.  By the sound of things, a lot of people wished they had been able to do it, but for some reason or another, were unable.  Some other person might have had a not-so-pleasant conversation with this less-than-considerate idiot.  

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you do not sit in bumper-to-bumper stalled traffic on an abnormally hot day when tempers are bound to flare even without added provocation, and add a powder keg to the flame.  

Some non-gun owner could just have well gone up and pounded the jerk a good one, and to heck with the stereo.  

This perpetuates the perception that gun owners are emotionally
unbalanced and confrontational.

rsquared

Which story? (Just curious, as all the text was cut out.)

 That would be several felonies; unlikely to be a true story.

YES!!!! I love that one!  Actually, I would like to take that one step
further - - this may not bother you, but I DESPISE boom-box crap-cars.  You
can just hear all the tin rattling with every bass boom, and all the screws
jumping a turn with every rattle.  Why should I be forced to listen to
someone's crap taste in music (and yes, it usually is crap-rap!!)

I would take doggy-doo on my lawn any day rather than have to put up with
that.  Okay, let's get those petitions going - - - second hand rap-crap I do
not want assaulting my ears either.  Let's face it.  Does a lot more damage
to your health than a few wandering critters.

Mel

That's a little scary.

Good suggestions.  What needs to be overcome, is the natural human
resentment that one feels when they have to get out of their chair or
spend time & money to deal with another person's negligence.  That is
not an easy attitude to instill.

To be perfectly honest, if I was really aggravated, there would probably be a bit of adrenalin moving along, and I would have the motivation to move :)  I do love cats, yes.  I have two indoor-only babies.  I would probably use the bloodmeal method, as this is excellent food for plants.  I would most likely have flowering vines at the base of the birdhouse post.  Double duty.  Sprinkle some extra around and work it into the very top layer.  Supposed to be extremely effective in keeping deer out of gardens as well, but you would need considerably more :)

If it was a very bad cat, even though I would hate to do this, I would sneak around the house and spray him with the hose.

I assume you love cats(?).  Let's shift the view a bit.  If someone
persistently parked a muddy Winnebago in front of a house that you were
trying to sell, you could remedy the problem by going out and washing
it.  That's assuming you live in a neighborhood/market that does not
prize dirty Winnebagos.  : )

A real filthy anything wouldn't be too impressive in that situation *s*  That would greatly aggravate anyone, I would think!  To me, that would require a lot more effort (the washing) than trying to keep errant felines away from the birds.  I might be tempted to write 'a.shole' in the dirt on both sides, rght down to the metal, so they wouldn't want to drive it that way *g*.

If I discussed the situation with them repeatedly to no avail, I would eventually be forced to enlist my friendly neighbourhood police friends - - - after all, an eyesore is an eyesore, and I am grateful that out here, you can be fined for filthy yards, etc., if you do not clean them up within a grace period.

Obviously, some neighbourhoods are exempt :)

For practical purposes, perception is reality.  You overcome
perceptions on a personal level.  Passing laws is not as effective.

We probably come from two separate biases: outdoor-cat, indoor-cat.

Are you outdoor cat?  One of my neighbour's cats, Phantom, will regularly come over to check out my flower beds.  He doesn't usually bother the plants, but did take his afternoon naps in the very center of my catnip plant.  What did I expect, right?  If I wasn't going to cage it, I knew it was going to draw felines.  I guess there are just things I don't get upset about.  I figure if cats are going to eat birds, there will always be more birds.  My parents live on a farm, with quite a few barn cats.  They have far too many birds if you ask me.  I figure you need a certain amount of most life forms to keep the circle of life in balance.  Look what happened in the middle ages when all the freaked out weirdos who thought cats were evil got rid of them?  Rats proliferated and along came the bubonic plague.  

an unsupervised pet into a residential area is inconsiderate.  Again,
we probably will not agree on that.

No, we do agree there.  I don't mind Phantom coming over for a short visit.  Mine is the only place he does go (I wonder why *g*). I disagree with him being outside particularly as he is a front declaw, but trying to convince Juanita did not work.  I feel, not only from the consideration angle, that it is not correct for the cats to roam.  There are so many dangers out there, psycho people being just one of them.

If people were responsible and did not let their pets outdoors, always spayed and neutered them, did not ever just dump them unwanted somewhere, I feel that we would have a good handle on the feral issue.  (I believe this should include farm cats as well, except for the first point.) There is always going to be that one that got away, but that would be so minimized as to be inconsequential.  Humane education in schools should start at the earliest level.....preschool, kindergarten,  whatever.  Informed people make informed choices.

We can argue as to their psycho-nature, but people with much more
exotic pets manage to adapt and overcome this challenge - - not that I
am calling anyone *lazy*, just disengenous.

Are we talking about the people here? *G*  My cats have NO inclination to put their feet past the front door threshold.  Osker will just stand there and look around.  It is as though there is a wall of glass.  I know for a fact he will not place one toe forward. (I am standing there always, I do not ever leave him there alone.......I will be coming in from taking out the trash or getting the mail, things like that.) Twinkle is a recent adoption, 3 years old, petrified of open space.  She was an animal control confiscation from an animal hoarder - - 36 cats and 16 dogs.  Getting up too close to my large windows terrifies her still.  If someone tells me it is cruel to keep my cats inside, I raise my eyebrows and tell them how these 2 react.....and then ask if they think I would be nice by pushing them outside when they are petrified to go out, where they face dangers....and I list them.

Some people are so incredibly stupid.

"No problem, if they mind, they can buy a trap or use a hose." or...

The hose is a not-bad idea, but I wouldn't appreciate someone hosing down MY cats.  Of course they are going to freak out.  Maybe run in the wrong direction, head for the road, get run over. (This is my wild imagination taking over, worst case scenario.)

Therefore, MY cats are indoor-cats only.  And I do not want them going through the anxiety of being trapped. Who KNOWS how that neighbour will treat your precious pet?  You don't.  Maybe they will be nice.  Maybe they will shoot them with a cross-bow and let them suffer.  Maybe they will give them to some crazy pit-bull trainer for bait. I, for one, am not going to take that chance.

"No problem, they can wash my RV."

Ha ha, fat chance. Maybe soap their windows so THEY have to actually wash part of it, then might as well wash it all, hee hee.

My 19 year old female decided around last autumn that she wanted to start going outside for little 'walks' . She was quite stiff, and suffering from chronic renal failure, hyperthyroidism, and diabetes.  She couldn't walk or run faster than I, so I decided to forego harness and lead.  They would have been horribly uncomfortable on her excessively skinny frame.  She stuck mostly to the wide front flower bed, cozying into the puff of catmint (different than catnip, related, but most cats don't react to it), then moving on to the babies' breath......nibbling the grass along the edge of the border.  

She was still doing this when it was cold in November and I thought her bones must be like chunks of ice, but if I tried to pick her up to take her in I got quite the tongue-lashing.  :)

She passed away January 12.05-----it was pretty obvious that she just wanted something different before she died, but no roaming involved.  I would never let my cats roam.  I had the lead and harness for my "fat boy" +Feb. 22/98 - - who loved to go for "walkies".....just to graze in the grass.

People who think it is "cruel" to confine a cat indoors have obviously never seen what cruelties can be exacted on a wandering feline just by creep humans alone - - not to mention other cats, dogs, skunks, raccoons, vehicles, transferrable illnesses, being caught in a shed without food or water for days, etc.etc.  Working in a vet clinic and at the SPCA can really make you start to despise the human race after a while.  

Thanks, again, for offering the suggestion.  To me, it is worth the
trouble of the trap; my conscience demands it.  I cannot speak or judge
for everyone, of course.

It would be a good idea to send the neighbour (if you know who the cat owns) an anonymous or otherwise note, that the cat went to the shelter because it was eating your birds.  At least they can retrieve it and hopefully they learned their lesson.  I would hate to see the cat die just because the person it lives with is a perfect moron.

There, now that you are snoozing away after this extreeeemmmmely long post :)  it appears that we ARE in agreement :) You never know who you are going to get for a neighbour, and I like having my cats be where I know they are.

Mel

TTFN,

rsquared