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These comments by guests are wonderful cues for you, the host, to fix something that you do not see or (in this case) smell. I am always happy when I read comments from guests. Remember, just because it is not obvious to you does not make it invisible to others.
Also, punctuation is important - it costs NOTHING to proofread what you type. Poorly written things like the run on paragraph you posted sends a very strong message that you are careless.
So right!
When a guest makes a comment that I feel or know is ‘incorrect’ (e.g., contradicted by the language of the listing) I have two choices.
– I can vent about how guests don’t read, which is fine but not productive, that they’re just wrong, or/and
– I can make some change that addresses the comment, which could mean adding/re-wording/repeating something in my messaging, adding a picture, adding a label, but the takeaway is there is usually something that the Host can do to lessen or eliminate the issue for the guest.
Here, suggestions have been made how the Host can add language that might defuse the cat smell issue even though the Host doesn’t experience that issue. Even if the issue is psychological – seeing the cats creates the suggestion in the mind of some observers that there is a cat smell – it’s real to the observer. After all, the placebo effect is a real and measurable effect.
Of course, nothing is 100%.
You might want to use the term “community cats” rather than stray. Additionally, do you know if you neighbor is making sure the cats are spayed or neutered? Sometimes folks start feeding without realizing how fast the population can get out of control. She may not have the funds or the ability to do what is called Trap-Neuter-Return. I don’t know about your area but I did a search on “Long Island Feral Cats” (feral cats are not tame – use feral for searching but community cats is a new term and probably better in your listing) and a lot of organizations came up. You could contact some of them and ask about Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) help for your neighbor. Many organizations will actually come out and do the work for a reduced fee, sometimes free. If there is a urine smell, that is from intact tom cats. Once a cat is neutered, that strong urine smell will disappear over time. Good luck dealing with your situation.
Haha- I am not a cat person, but I do have a cat. She was fending for herself around the neighborhood for a year or two until she discovered my outdoor dining table seat cushions and decided she lived here.
When I resigned myself to now having a cat, I took her to the free spay and neuter clinics they do my town. But when they shaved her down, they saw she had been tattooed, indicating she was already spayed. So she either had a home at one point or got a trap/neuter/return.
She is a strange mix of feral and tame. It took years for her to meow (I read feral cats are normally quiet so they don’t announce their presence and get eaten by predators), she just had this quiet little squeak. I live in the Mexican countryside and she’s a stellar hunter who has decimated the rat and mouse population (although she won’t go near the little civet skunks we have here) and occasionally manages to bag a baby iguana. She eats the mice and lizards, but won’t eat the rats she kills.
When she wants to be fed, she bats at my legs with her claws out. I have lots of scratches. It seemed so odd- I’ve had cats before and never encountered that. Then I realized she must be treating me like prey- batting the mouse around before killing and eating it. As I am now her primary food source, she must think she has to bat at me to get fed.
To see her, you’d think she was a normal house cat, just laying around on the cushions all day. She does like to be petted, but only so much and just so. She’ll let me pick her up, but doesn’t like it. She’ll sometimes curl up next to me on the couch or bed. But she will just suddenly turn around and bite you with no warning.
Cats that didn’t grow up with littermates often bite or scratch inappropriately because they didn’t learn that rough play makes the others stop playing with you. I’m wondering if she belonged to someone – isn’t that what tattoos usually mean? I’m not sure how things are down in Mexico. Feral cats don’t tend to meow – as you said, they are quiet because of predators. Lots of indoor cats that get outside will assume feral behavior and hide without making a sound – owners could be standing right over them and they won’t respond and many give up too soon. I used to volunteer with a TNR group and we had lots of cats come through that had already been spayed or neutered – some were even declawed and, of course, we didn’t put them back out. Any we got that were tame we tried to place.
I didn’t even like cats till I was 42, always a dog person and this cat came to my house, banged on the door and said “hey lady, I’m moving in” – and he made me a crazy cat lady!
The tattoos here mean they have been spayed- they tattoo their belly after the operation so no one cuts them open again thinking they need to be spayed. So she either belonged to someone who had that done or the clinic picked her up, spayed her and returned her to the area they found her.
Interesting about biting and scratching if they got taken out of the litter too young. Lots of people here dump litters of kittens and they either die or find their way to a home where they get taken in.
The cats are community cats they are part of the catch neuter release program, I spoke to the neighbor cat person, he personally saw to it he said. As such they do not spray, or “pee” everywhere. Cat odors or any odors is all part of the illusion/ placebo when guests sees these community cars and a neighbor feeding them - that’s my 2 cents
I really can’t validate these guests’ claims because there’s really no smell of cats to anyone I have asked around to smell or smelling it myself in the wide open environment, I don’t live there, I’m not a cats person, I’m not immune to cats smells if I smelt it, these guests could have smelt anything I do not know what it could be, could be trash day when they checked in but that’s not even credible but it’s not cat pee it’s not smelly it doesn’t exist
Are you under the impression that the cats have some special place they go to when they need to pee? That when they feel the need to urinate that they “hold it” until they can get to a bathroom?
Your insistence that no cats pee around there is ludicrous. Animals relieve themselves wherever and whenever they need to.
@muddy Hi how are you doing? No, I’m not under that impression nor trying to be ludicrous. I’m saying neither me or anyone I have asked to smell smelt cat pee or odors in the wide open exterior spaces or any interior spaces- it’s frustrating to get low ratings for something we can’t find or fix, that’s all I was saying , we aren’t perfect here but not for odors. Guest had cancelled and for her fresh groceries left for guests in fridge complaint, she got her refund, she also did not book any other places after canceling her stay at mine, she just didn’t need the stay, plans changed. As to the groceries that is clearly there in the fridge, we can see that and we can fix that and we have fixed that immediately removing everything so there’s no more of that. If hosts can’t hosts because of community cats that is present everywhere, I don’t know what world we live in. That’s all , thanks
You really don’t need to keep pointing out that you had a bad guest who complained about a lot of bogus stuff to get a refund- I fully understand that. Nor is you leaving food in the fridge anything terrible and it’s a ridiculous complaint for a guest to use to scam a refund. While it’s a good idea to leave a clean empty fridge for guests, that doesn’t mean you did anything wrong because you thought the guest might appreciate the free food. Your guest was a jerk and a scammer.
And of course I am not there to see if I detect any odor of cat pee.
All I am pointing out is that saying no cats who get fed there ever pee anywhere on the property simply isn’t something that you can know for a fact unless you sit and watch them all day, which of course you don’t.
That’s great that they are part of the trap-neuter-release program. If you mention that, maybe say something about the “community cats fed by a neighbor are part of a trap-neuter-release program” that will actually buy you some points with some people — somebody like me, for instance. I’m just thinking “community cats” sounds better than strays… if someone asks tell them they are “abandoned or feral cats”… strays just sounds worse to me. I don’t know. That could just be me. Some people hate animals, though, so might as well mention it to keep those people (and their bad reviews) away.
| Disillusioned
June 26 |
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The cats are community cats they are part of the catch neuter release program, I spoke to the neighbor cat person, he personally saw to it he said. As such they do not spray, or “pee” everywhere. Cat odors or any odors is all part of the illusion/ placebo when guests sees these community cars and a neighbor feeding them - that’s my 2 cents
I really can’t validate these guests’ claims because there’s really no smell of cats to anyone I have asked around to smell or smelling it myself in the wide open environment, I don’t live there, I’m not a cats person, I’m not immune to cats smells if I smelt it, these guests could have smelt anything I do not know what it could be, could be trash day when they checked in but that’s not even credible but it’s not cat pee it’s not smelly it doesn’t exist
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In Reply To
| JJCatfinder
June 26 |
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You might want to use the term “community cats” rather than stray. Additionally, do you know if you neighbor is making sure the cats are spayed or neutered? Sometimes folks start feeding without realizing how fast the population can get out of control. She may not have the funds or the ability to do…
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Judy Jordan
Catfinder Collections
eCommerce and Graphics for Print
336-978-9976
Please visit my online stores. Thanks!
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In the US we clip their ears, just taking the tip off of their left ear — not a lot, about 1 centimeter — but that let’s colony caretakers and others see immediately which cats need to be trapped and fixed.
Lots of people say that Trap-Neuter-Return is not effective in reducing the number of feral cats but those of us who do it know different. For example, one lady I helped is now done to one when she had 12 when we started. Some of them aged out and I’m sure predators (coyotes are bad in most of the US) or cars got some of them — still 12 to 1 is pretty good.
| muddy
June 26 |
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The tattoos here mean they have been spayed- they tattoo their belly after the operation so no one cuts them open again thinking they need to be spayed. So she either belonged to someone who had that done or the clinic picked her up, spayed her and returned her to the area they found her.
Interesting about biting and scratching if they got taken out of the litter too young. Lots of people here dump litters of kittens and they either die or find their way to a home where they get taken in.
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In Reply To
June 26 |
- | - |
Cats that didn’t grow up with littermates often bite or scratch inappropriately because they didn’t learn that rough play makes the others stop playing with you. I’m wondering if she belonged to someone – isn’t that what tattoos usually mean? I’m not sure how things are down in Mexico. Feral cats do…
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To unsubscribe from these emails, click here.
Judy Jordan
Catfinder Collections
eCommerce and Graphics for Print
336-978-9976
Please visit my online stores. Thanks!
etsy.com/shop/CatfinderCollections
stores.ebay.com/Catfinder-Collections
Cutting the tip of a cat’s ear off sounds pretty weird to me. An ear has a certain shape for a reason. One cm. is a lot to remove from an ear the size of a cat’s. It would be like someone cutting an inch off your ear. and how would anyone know if a stray cat was missing part of its ear due to a cat fight or some other injury?
My cat LB (Lover Boy) must have been a TNR cat—he was a stray cat who just walked right into our house when the kitchen door was open. He’s the most affectionate cat I’ve ever had. The ear clip is not noticeable. This is Lover Boy.
Cats are so fickle. Back when I was 19 years old, I had a cat that I brought back to Canada with me after living in Israel for 2 years. I smuggled her into my room on the transatlantic ship. Then we travelled, with the cat, across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver, where we lived for 8 months before moving back to Toronto. We lived on a block of old row houses and at some point the cat just disappeared. I assumed she had been hit by a car, killed by a raccoon, or dog. Or maybe someone stole her.
About half a year later, I made the acquaintance of some neighbors up the block. They invited me in for tea, and there was my cat. They said she just wandered into their house one day and never left.
They must have been feeding her fancier cat food than I was. 
So what appears to be a stray cat may just be one looking for better digs. "Hey, this place is nice ! Way better than that dump I call home with the smelly dog. Oh, look, the nice lady rushed to put out a bowl of milk for me. I live here now. (I’ll have to check tomorrow to see if those other people put up any lost cat notices and rip them down) "
I guess your neighbor was a 5-rated Cat SuperHost!
