Ok so here is the story.

I am allergic to cats, of any breed, i cant even go near the feline enclosure at the zoo because i break out in a rash and i feel like i am suffocating. The only way to calm the pain and suffocation is by drinking some full cream milk (now i dont understand how that helps, but the doctor told me i need to do it if i break out, and i did, and it works, but that dosent help entirly because i am part lactose intolerant, which i will admitt only leaves me with a really bad stomach pain and vomitting)

Anyone i just wanted to give you a low down, but the real story here is that there is this new family that moved in next door, and they own 2 cats. I have kindly asked them to keep there cats inside, but obviously cats are allowed to do whatever they want, and the neighbours cat is always in our gutter on the roof. I have been constantly breaking out for the last week or so they have been there. My dad has been to the coucil, to see if they could do anything, but they said that there is nothing that can be done.

To add insult to injury, my puppy got out through a broken part of our fence (we got that fixed tonight) and our 'friendly' new neighbours called the Pound, and they took my puppy, this all happened when my dad and brother were at work and i was at UNI. So we all got home pretty much the same time and we had a notice that i had to pay a $525 fine for my dog being out, i paid the fine and got my puppy back.

But now i dont know what to do, Not only do the people next door let there cats skulk around like they own the street, but they are constantly complaining about my dog barking. Me complaining about being in constant pain because of their cats and telling anyone who will listen that i have my music on till al hours of the morning.

So does anyone know what i can do. I cant live with these cats coming in our yard all the time. It is really starting to make me sick all the time. I dont want to move because i like our house and dad has this mortgage to pay, i dont want to move out by myself because i am only working part time and doing UNI part time, so i cant afford it.

What can i do?
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Kennedy

That seems really unfair.

There is medicine that is supposed to reduce or prevent allergies, and I think a medical operation can be done.

Cats generally roam around, and I think it is fine as long as it isn't hurting anyone. As soon as it starts hurting someone, it should be stopped. My cat managed to survive inside for ages until he was allowed out.

I would say just keep complaining to the council. If that oesn't work, take it to a higher level.

I take all the medicine there is out there to reduce my symptoms and stuff. But it only helps if i am not exposed to cats all the time.

I am deathly afraid of needle's so i refuse to have any operations done, dad thinks that is weird because i have 2 tattoo's (my star sign on the back of my neck and the MCR marching band cartoon on left shoulder, with Proud Member of the Black Parade written underneath it), but refuse and scream when i have to get a needle, but i keep telling him it is different.

Thanks for the advice, i will just keep on complaining until someone listens. I hope it works.
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Kennedy

I know plenty about the law here but sadly nothing about the law in Australia.

Certainly here there is nothing you can do about cats, it is the responsibility of the property owner to keep them out of their own property, not the owner of the cats to stop them roaming.

The episode with the puppy isn't nice, not neighbourly, unless they didn't know it was your puppy.

If there is a Citizens Advice Bureau in Sydney seek advice from them as to what you can do, if anything.

I'll tell you what I'd do: get a gun. A watergun, that is. A super-soaker would be best because it shoots the farthest. When the cats come near, shoot them with a stream of water. It won't hurt them and they'll learn to stay away. And if your neighbors don't like it, maybe they'll keep the cats inside. Cats shouldn't have any more right to roam than dogs.

Also you could check your local newspapers for a 'citizen help' column or some other format (including a letter to the editor) in which you could present your problem.

Of course this publicity may make the situation worse and escalate things with yor neighbors but, frankly, they don't appear to be the caring, sensitive type.

I'm going to get myself in hot water with all of the cat lovers out there, but I've never understood how someone could acquire a cat as a pet (which implies loving and caring for the animal) and then open the door and let it loose to forrage for itself, face mutilation at the hands (make that paws) of larger animals or other cats, and face injury/death on roads. I'd worry myself sick about my cat's wellbeing.

Good luck. I hope you can find a workable solution to this unfortunate problem.

If you're afraid of needles, then allergy shots wouldn't help, but they took me from being extremely allergic to cats to being only mildly uncomfortable. Of course, that takes years, so it's really a long-term thing! (I'm not sure if you dislike all needles or just the particularly large and scary ones; allergy shots are with small syringes and in the muscle of the upper arm, so there's not much pain at all and it takes about 5 seconds.) I am unaware of any operation that helps with allergies. Allergies are an immune system response that often affects the whole body; I'm not sure how an operation would work! Any specifics, lioness? I'm curious.

My mother and brother are both lactose-intolerant. One thing that has helped them is lactase pills. Lactose intolerance arises from not producing the right enzyme (lactase) to digest milk sugars, and if you get the timing right you can ingest the enzyme in a pill form so that it gets to your stomach at roughly the same time as the milk product. They take the lactase pill just before drinking milk or eating ice cream, and it seems to work well for them. Perhaps a lactase pill would help you minimize the unpleasant side effects of the cream.

I understand completely if you do not wish to broadcast your medical history to the neighborhood, but it is possible that the neighbors might be more helpful if the situation were explained to them in more detail. Some people just think they world revolves around them, though -- or that allergies are "made up" -- so this might not help.

Would installing a fence around your property help? If there are trees nearby the cats might be able to get over it anyway, but it may be possible to build one as a deterrent. I hate to think of you suffering so badly in your own home.

Vendome my dear, I don't hate you.

I suppose a lot depends on where you live. My cats have always had 'cat flaps' in the doors so they can get out and do what comes naturally to cats. Having said that, I live in a very cat-safe area, no larger animals except dogs, a huge area of common land which has lots of wild rabbits, no traffic to speak of and anyway, with the exception of my one remaining cat, the cats never went out to the front of the house where there is a road which goes nowhere except this private estate.

In total I have had five cats, all at the same time. One (a stray who adopted me) I gave away as my cats didn't like him, two died of cancer and one of kidney failure. The one remaining cat will be nineteen next month. He has always liked to go out the front of the house so when his arthritis got too bad I had yet another cat flap installed so he didn't have to climb a high wall to get out. All the other cats only ever when out over the 7'6" wall fromt he rear of the house and they were able to go hunting rabbits without going near a road.

When our animal shelter advertises for homes for cats each advert will say whether the cat is to be kept in or must have access to outside.

If I lived near a 'real' road or in a busy area then obviously I wouldn't let them out, but it is normal practice here in most areas to let cats roam. We don't have any wild animals apart from rabbits and various small rodents so cats are safe.

It is easy to purchase, pardon the expression, pest repellers. These electronic units can be placed on a wall or in the garden. They emit ultra sonic sound waves which, whilst not harming the animal,cat, dog, mole etc, makes life uncomfortable when they are in the immediate vicinity. They are harmless to humans and the animal concerned will quickly depart. You can buy them on the internet or at your harware store for all types of animal.

Not ideal when you have a puppy though, presumably it will want to leave home!

Cellar Door- I was going to get injections a few years ago, but i flipped out and couldnt do it, ANY needle that is literally going into my skin freaks me out. Any form of hyerpdermic needle, no matter how small or large. So that option is a big fat NO!! Unless of course worse comes to worse and i have no other option.

We do have a fence, it is quiet a large fence as well, but we have this huge apple tree in our backyard, and the cats go from the tree to our yard. And there is no way dad will cut the tree dow, he has had it too long.

Sue943 i called the Sydney Bureau, they were no help, and said something about a cat's rights, which normally dosent bother me, except for the fact that my dog has NO rights and got taken away because for the FIRST time since i bought him 9 weeks ago he got out. Worse part is they know it is my dog. When they fist arrived next door i was on the front lawn playing with Venom (my puppy) and they came over said hello and TOLD me, not asked me, to turn my music down and put my dog inside while they bought the cats out.

The only thing we have over our neighbours accordng to the buerea is that we basically own our house, we only have 12 more payments (12 weeks) and we own it. Whereas they are in a rental property, so they suggested i find out who the landlord/owner of the actual house is and speak to him or her.

I also bought a water gun just to be on the safe side, i had one, but it was one of those really small one's. So i went to the mall and bought this awesome super soaker. Becuase like you said, it wont harm the cat. Because i am so against any form of animal cruelty. I love all animals (except cats, but only becuase i cant go near them)

Well thanks for the advice. My older brother Ray is going to go next door later today and just give them a brief medical history on me and ask them to kindly maintain there cats, becuase we are now doing everything we can to keep them off our property. Although i dont know how well it will sit becuase now they are complaining that our house is blocking the sun light. But it isnt even 2 storey, it is split level, so it only blocks the sun in the morning.

I have resolved to the fact that these people think the world revolves around them.
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Kennedy

Your house is blocking the sunlight...

It sounds like they are self-centered, ignorant, and a few other names I can't post in polite company.

They are renters. If they have a problem, they can move.

Get yourself another dog. A big one. Called Boof.

My dog will be big soon enough! With a name like Venom people run in the other direction and he is only a puppy (for those who know me know i named him after a My Chemical Romance song- Thanks For The Venom)

Well if nothing works out Venom will be big soon enough and perhaps the cats will be too scared to enter our propery, he is an Alaskan Malamou after all! =}

I'm pretty sure there are inhaled allergy meds. That might be of more use to you than injections.
You might also consider an electric fence!

I dont think an electric fence would help! I dont want to hurt my puppy!
But thanks again for all of the advice people! I have taken it all on board and i will see what i can do.

If you're still reading this post - I might have some advice that can help.

1st thing - Pounds take cats too. I realise you're not be able to take them yourself, but somebody else in the family might be able to help you out on this one.

2nd thing - local councils and National Parks and Wildlife offices often have "Possum traps" for rent (sometimes free rental). Interestingly enough, most domestic cats fit very comfortably (and without harm to the cat) inside a "Possum trap". Because possums are nocturnal, the best time to set these traps are at night, when the neighbours have gone to bed and the possums are roaming freely.

You may need to stay up a bit later, and keep an eye on the trap, because when cats are inadvertently caught in a possum trap, they can get noisy. What you do with a cat (I'm assuming it has no collar complete with a bell to warn wildlife of it's approach) is up to you. In some areas, disposing of stray cats is considered a public service!

You could take the cat to the pound, take it to the vet (and have it put down, but that is expensive, especially for a stray), or, I'm aware that cats drown very quickly. And quietly.

Now, before anybody gets on a bandwagon, I've only ever disposed of feral cats, when living out of town.

I'm in no way a cat-lover, but I am all too aware of what it means to have a pet. Having a pet is a lot like being a parent - sadly, some people shouldn't have either pets or kids in my opinion.

Thanks for the advice!

My brother went and spoke to the neighbours, and they said they refuse to keep the cats inside, which isnt what we asked, all we ask is that they keep the cats on their property and off of ours.

I have taken all of your advice on board, and i will try all of it. I have never had this problem with any of the neighbours we have ever had, even when they had cats, because they were all nicer and did take control of there cats!!

In regards to the traps. They are a safe and humane way to capture animals. They are lured into the trap with food, the trap closes, and you take animal, inside the trap, to the pound or humane society. My ex and I did this once when our new neigbors let their (many) cats roam the neighborhood. However, I knew that once the pound had the cat, if it wasn't claimed within 72 hours, it would be put to death. I didn't want to take the chance they wouldn't claim the cat, so once we had it captured, (and sorry if this offends anybody), my ex soaked the cat with a water hose, then let it go. Once the door opened, the cat flew out at lightning speed never to return to defecate in my yard again. We did this a few times, with different cats each time. After awhile, we didn't have a cat problem at our house.

Well it is good to know the traps dont hurt the cats, as this is the last thing i would ever want to do.

I dont want to be the reason for a cat, no matter how much i hate it, or how much i hate the neighbours, to be put down, so i wont take it to the pound.

I am running out of ideas as the neighbours completly destroyed my brother for asking the cats be kept off our lawn. So the traps are seeming like a good idea right about now. I might look into it.

I use possum traps from time to time and hire them from the local tool hire firm. The only problem I can foresee with using traps is,as stated above,the noise that they will make after they are trapped. That noise will probably bring your rotten neighbors running and screaming.

Kill the cats. They are on your property and causing you grief through no fault of your own.

I`m allergic to cats and avoid houses that have them but if the problem was imported onto my property by others I would (and have done so) take action.

Don`t think of it as killing an animal think of it more as removing a rotten creature that would kill as much of the lovely Australian fauna as it could if allowed. Why suffer because of the selfishness of others?

If you are in the Sutherland Shire area of Sydney I`ll deal with the pests if you like. It would be my pleasure to save the lives of natural Australian wildlife.

No i dont live in the Sutherland Shire area. But i would have appreciated your help if i did.

I actually live in Newtown. Which is actually a really busy place, so hopefully the cats will get lost on a walk toward the town houses around the street. That way it really isnt my fault.

Oh well,with any sort of luck those cats will end up in a restaurant in King St! Good luck.

Ok, I'm a cat lover, so I'm pretty much cringing through all of these suggestions, but the water gun one is good, I know my cat hates it.

Just don't be afraid to kick up a massive fuss. I think taking the cat(s) to the pound might help as well.

Your phobia of needles sounds much more serious than mine, I can stay minorly calm if I talk to the people injecting me, but I freak out if they don't talk or comfort me. I once had to bury my head in mum before I let them do it.

It's kinda ironic that the lead singer of MCR is scared of needles as well.

I'm a little surprised that a city the size of Sidney has no cat control bylaw. Many cities are now requiring pet owners to be as responsible for their cats as they are for dogs, and a good thing, too (and yes, I am a cat owner).
You may get a better official response by speaking to the actual people who enforce the various bylaws than to the higher ups. Talk to the Pound, talk to the bylaw enforcement officer. You are not the first person to have this kind of problem, and they may be able to steer you in a helpful direction.
And, in the long term, this is a great impetus to get involved in local politics. Start a campaign for cat control ordinances in your community. If you are not willing to get yourself some treatment for your allergy (and I really, really urge you to work on that - phobias can be overcome, and your tattoos show that there is a way around the problem, if you look for it) this situation will come up again and again in your life. Hoping that things will work out is not really an effective life strategy - much better to take action.