Saga of the Stray Cat...

[Drayton Calhoun]

  Let me start out by saying I am, at heart, a cat person. I have two, female and spayed. We have several strays that hang out around the house and most of them aren't a problem...except for one. It is a scruffy, bob-tailed, ill-tempered so and so. It jumped up on the wife's new Pacifica and scratched the paint, so, therefore a hired gun was recruited to do in the felonious feline. Guess who?
  First, I tried a pellet rifle, thinking a little pain and it would get the idea to vacate to a different range. No good. Couple of days later, he was back harrassing my two cats and even our two dogs.
  Next, ah ha! Live trap! I borrowed my brother's live trap. Sure as shootin' I caught the critter! By the time I got dressed and got out to the trap, he was gone! Jail break! Wonderin' if he had help. Never fell for the trap again, although I did catch MY stupid cats repeatedly.
  Finally, decided that a more permanent solution was needed. Never cared for just playing Tom Horn on a stray animal, but this one got to me.
  Tried gallery loads through a Heritage Rough Rider .22. Nailed him twice, still coming back. Then,yesterday, the ultimate opportunity. He was behind the pool by the pump, excellent situation for a stalk.
  Creeping around the pool, quiet as a Apache, I got the muzzle no more than 2 inches from the intruder's noggin. Squeezed the trigger and....click! NOOOOOOOO! The hammer fell on a spent cartridge! I had loaded 6 rounds when the affair started and had actually fired 4. Then I remembered twice cocking the hammer and having to let the shot pass because of the direction I had to fire would have put the neighbors at risk. Why had I not reloaded? The last 6 gallery loads I had.
  Now, I have 6 Stingers loaded and what do I see this morning? That's right, that #*@%# cat, under the wife's Pacifica...laughing at me!
  The battle lines have been drawn. I just wonder if I should just load up the Navy and take him with a dose of Holy Black?

[GunClick Rick]

You ever try to kill a cat? They do not die easy~~Took me a gun full to put a sick one out of his misery with a 22,i still feel bad about it and that was years ago..Go for the big stuff,trust me..

[Qball]

You ever try to kill a cat? They do not die easy~~Took me a gun full to put a sick one out of his misery with a 22,i still feel bad about it and that was years ago..Go for the big stuff,trust me..

Took a stray with my 12gauge, but it still was able to somersault all over the place untilll it finaly perished. 

Next one got bouth barrels

[Drayton Calhoun]

He did it again! He got in just the right position by the pool and bolted just as I fired. Either he is the luckiest cat alive or, and this is quite possible, he's just a heck of a lot smarter than me! Time to load the Navy...

[mestiza letty]

They do have nine lives 'ya know
I got one of those wily bob tails too 

[Deadeye Dick]

Keep trying as he's bound to run out of those nine lives sometime. 

[Drayton Calhoun]

Part of the problem is I'm hemmed in on one side by a trailer park and he always seems to position himself where I can't get a good, clean shot at him, except for Saturday (duh!). But, I'm a'loadin up the Navy and me and Mr. Cat are gonna come to conclusions!

[Jed Cooper]

Mr. Calhoun, I too am a cat/ animal guy. That said , some critters/ vandals get to be not only pests, but expensive problems.  (A cat is not worth the cost of the paint job on a new car) . I have dealt with this many times. If you cant trap em, Instead of trying to head shoot em, I gut shoot em! I have never had one come back. I don't like having to do that, but sometimes that's what it takes.         Jed

[baddwolf7]

It's like missing the close up pistol target at ya next match, makes ya feel like like an idiot, try using a juicy piece of meat as bait. Don't feel bad though, i had same problem til my wife did it in with a .22, I felt like the idiot.

[GunClick Rick]

A deep sea fish hook through a mouse (snake food)from the pet store Reel him in and take a rollin pin to the furry boogers noggin

Or call the little yellow feller

[Drayton Calhoun]

Don't make me go all warthog on you puddy tat!

[Drayton Calhoun]

The Final Chapter...
I finally bested the feline fellon...I outlived the #$@#@#.
He had been hanging out for a while and we had a sort of truce.
This morning, I went out to my shop and there he was, stretched out in the doorway, looked like he passed in midstride. Finally found out who he belonged to, no mention of the attempted assassination, learned that he was 14 years old and had been in steady decline for the last few months. I wrapped him up and buried him in the back yard. He may have been a pest, still I respected him as a worthy adversary...

[GunClick Rick]

You done what marshall Dillon would have done But now what ya gonna do?

[Drayton Calhoun]

Possums and armadillos, they's still plenty of them. Lots of work to do in the back yard...bad Josey Wales pun....

[joec]

Yes and I can relate as a dog guy converted over 48 years of marriage to a cat woman. I have a pair of minx brothers (bob tails) and a Russian Blue all fixed and house cats. However living at an owning a storage facility we feed the feral cats here also so a couple of them have gotten pretty friendly with me as well. We have 2 females that seem to live here always though they have a litter of kittens, ween them and send them on their way not to return. Males seem to come and go though. As for the kittens the grandmother of the current old lady let her stay but died shortly after. She just had a litter which she hasn't brought out as of yet but she is about her mothers age now so perhaps she will let one of the females stay. At any rate the last litter born I managed to get to gentle enough to get spayed and neutered before letting them go, so perhaps the next batch I can also get.

[Drayton Calhoun]

I think the reason I couldn't do him in was because I knew he was an old timer and didn't have long left anyway...