Getting rid of wild cat- need advice

 Wanna borrow my dog?  LOL, though the birds wouldn't be safe either...

I would call AC and ask them what you can do to deter the cat.  You can also ask them what happens to feral cats that they catch.  Other than that, I really don't know what you could do.  Cats wouldn't stick around in my yard if it was fenced and my dogs had access to it.

Isn't there something you can run across the top of your fence to keep cats from getting up there?  The name "tanglefoot" rings a bell, but I'm not 100% sure.  Or maybe run a short strip of barbed wire across it.  It won't be terribly attractive but it should keep cats out.

Joyce

Where do you live? Are there any groups that help feral cats in your area? Are you sure the cat is really feral as opposed to a former pet?

I would call local shelters or search online to find a cat rescue group nearby. Some groups specialize in feral cats and even have trap-speuter-vaccinate-release programs. If the cat is truly feral and there are no other feral cats nearby they may agree to relocate the fellow. If it is afraid of people but not truly "feral", then they may be able to find a home for him. It can't hurt to give someone a call---at least they can neuter him and vaccinate him.

A friend of mine volunteered for a group that trapped and released feral cats for many years and has a 12+ yr old cat that she adopted as a feral kitten. The cat isn't a normal housecat because she's still afraid of strangers, but she is fine with her family and seems to have a good life as an inside cat.

 I had to go to the AC in our area to help a friend look for a lost cat. If I remember, the policy around here is to hold cats for 3 days before being put down. It might be longer, but not much. If the cat is friendly and healthy, it is moved to an adoption center. This cat has little chance of that in my opinion.

As for putting something along the fence, we've thought about that, but the problem is that one side of the fence isn't ours, and is facing the wrong way for us to put something on it (the 'outside' of the fence is facing in towards us). We've tried putting things that are supposed to naturally repel cats around the fence, but it simply hops into the neighbors yard (with their Great Dane :P) and then comes to ours.

Polarexpress- I'll look into this! I don't know if there are any groups in my area (Sanford, Florida) that help out feral cats. As far as I know, he's not part of a group. I can't be 100% certain that he's not a former pet, but I'm pretty sure. I -think- he was the kitten that we heard mewing on the other side of the fence about a year ago. If so, then he's young, but probably not young enough to be eased into house cat life. 

I would really love it if he could be caught, spayed/neutered/relocated. I'd love it even more if he could find a home (he's a gorgeous little cat), but that probably can't happen. But thank you! I'll look into local organizations. 

 I reckon you gotta get it picked up. Wild cats are just not good for the environment. Over here it's so bad that it's in the legislation as a threatening process, meaning you're kinda obligated to treat them like a serious pest. We do have groups that rehab steet cats, though. If we catch any in our traps, we're supposed to put them down. It's a bit irresponsible to let them go again.

Incidentally, the birds I'm sure can cope without the bird feeder. People keep telling me bird feeders are one big bowl of disease and spread nasty things through populations. Besides which, where I live at least you just end up with all the pushy species that kick out all the shy species, so you end up helping birds that probably need to be DIScouraged. But anyway, I think it's good when people enjoy their wildlife, and I'm not sure if birdfeeders are the evil people keep telling me are. A lot of people are killjoys about wildlife. We plant bird-friendly plants in our garden instead, but that's more because I don't like birdfeeder species than because I don't hold with feeding birds.