Neighbor has asked me to start feeding feral/stray cats
My neighbor across the street has about 10-15 stray and feral cats she feeds. To my knowledge, she has tried to trap, neuter, and release (TNR) them but has not been successful. She told me there were a couple of litters this year.
Yesterday, she called me frantically asking if I could start feeding the cats at my house. She said that she noticed them running across the street from her house to hide underneath our deck. She is concerned that they are going to get ran over by a car.
I love cats - I have an indoor cat as a pet. But I really don’t want to start feeding the strays for a bunch of different reasons. I don’t want to feed them if I can’t TNR as well, and I just can’t dedicate the time to that right now. I also have been trying to improve habitat for songbirds in our backyard. Last year I had a successful hatch of bluebirds in my nest box and I don’t want the cats to have any extra reasons to hang around our yard.
That being said, I feel bad for the cats and I know that she really cares about them. I guess I’m just curious if any of you have had experiences with this? Am I making the right call by telling her no? Do you have any advice for how to gently tell her that I don’t feel comfortable doing what she asked?