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Driving him away & releasing him somewhere doesn't really fix it for him, though I can understand it's totally unfair on you & your neighbour's cats.
My neighbour has a cat that has 24/7 access to the outdoors and for years I have been chasing it out of my garden where it comes to kill the birds I feed. I often use an old brass garden sprayer filled with water.
She leaves at a rate of knots and comes back again and again...
My two were house cats that were out when anyone was at home and never killed anything but the occasional fly.
I won't harm the cat, but she is a demon and I wish she would sod off elsewhere.
...but no, you can't have him .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Don't get me wrong, my two were as territorial as any of them. I lost count of the amount of plants, pots, radio's etc. that were knocked off windowsills and any other surfaces in a mad attempt to get at other cat's passing by or in the garden.
As they are both dead, the neighbours cat has modified her behaviour, as the likelihood of having two furry cruise missiles set after her has gone.
Pisses me off as trying to do the right thing, but nobody is helping.
Will keep ours in all night and check it every 2 hours. Hopefully it'll get sorted!
So now she has two cats, kinda.
Since being more domesticated other neighbours have taken a shine to him and they absolutely adore him. Lives like a king now.
Original owners we think abandoned him.
Have moved the trap slightly and loaded it with tuna now. I heard him at 8am, so hopefully he'll come back round.
We were watching a film, looked out at half 9.... and the bugger was in the trap! Much rejoicing, ran to get some shoes on... and by the time I got outside, the little f*cker had managed to roll the cage over, and in doing so could get out.
I then set it back up with more tuna as the bait, and bags of ballast either side (so he can't roll it over), and a couple of weights on top.
Had about 2 hours sleep, as the cats had to stay indoors with us, and the gits were very disruptive. Kept checking every 2 hours, and nothing in the trap.
Checked it this morning.... and the tuna has all gone! The little sh!t managed to get the food without tripping the door.
Now I know how Wile E Coyote feels.
The problem with the cat being caught and then escaping is that he will be extremely reluctant to go into the box again.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
That was my concern after it's been in once; hopefully it realises it's free food, and it can get out, and will go for it again. I've got cable ties on standby, as I intend to run out and cable tie both ends once he's in so he can't get out.
Well, that's the theory at least....
Losing a battle of wits with a 'dumb animal' has been a constant source of humility & frustration to me.
The best laid plans of men are frequently no match to an experienced, determined mouse/rat/cat.
Could the cat have simply stayed back toward the door, away from the switch area & reached in for the tuna?
As @ICBM says, the possibility is unless you get things right fairly quickly, they won't get fooled again.
Might be worth removing the trap for a day or so, then relocating it somewhere new, so the avoidance pattern isn't established.
Also (this works for rats) use a solid food/bait and fix it to the switch using netting or even hot glue.
This way the cat has to get in close & use more force to eat, increasing the odds of the trap working.
Good luck, we're rooting for you
The vet looked back through the records, and this cat of ours have been in 6 times over the past 2 years due to infected scratches and bites.
Is it illegal to get a tranquilizer gun and darts?
Or get stab vests for your cats?
Following my frivolous comment above, we had a similar situation. There was a tomcat getting into our house, even though we had a microchip catflap. He figured out that if he repeatedly butted his head against it, it would give way eventually.
Our much smaller female cat had a chunk taken out of her ear, and two trips to the vet with infected bites. We also ended up with a lot of peeing/marking in the house. A lot of that was because our cat was stressed.
We ended up giving our cat away to a friend of a friend. It just wasn't fair on her to keep her.
If you can catch him, that's probably the best approach, but there are no easy solutions. If there are lots of houses with cats in an urban environment, there will always be territorial fights.
I wouldn't get another cat in an urban environment. My daughters are desperate for a dog, but guess who would end up walking it. The problem is that I don't think it would be fair on the dog on days when both myself and my wife are working.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I tend to have the front door open most times & in the last 3 weeks I have had 3 blackbirds, a duck (plus duckling) a mouse and two young siskins come in from the garden.
Siskin on the way out of the house...