2 of my cats are using next doors lawn as a toilet, she's ready to fall out with us, wtf am I supposed to do?

[Lovesgiantbuttons]

This is a a bit long but think history will make clear the issue.
I've had 2 cats for almost 10 years. They were instead of children until we had a very lucky surprise 5 yrs ago.
We also got a rescue kitten at the beginning of this year which my dd adores and calls her own.
The problem is the older female isn't normal and has always done her 'business' on the grass. Unpleasant, but duly cleared up after like you would a dog. My neighbour would occasionally complain she had done same in their garden and I could only apologise.
Now that the kitten is older it has been made apparent by my neighbour she is using their garden too (aswell as ours). When they've been away and asked us to look after their rabbits we have cleared the garden for them.
Neighbour recently has sent graphic photos whilst I've been out to a meal. She has called me round to express her disgust full force and I have done things like delivered teabags dowsed with tea tre oil to her garden to help put them off. I've stopped trying to prevent them doing it in our garden so they don't feel they have to go next door. I've apologised til I'm blue in the face but a watery bucket of excrement outside my gate this morning has me at a loss! (Rained a lot yesterday)
The cats are part of our family but I do appreciate where she is coming from. She isn't an animal person (her rabbits had matted hair and very long claws - they didn't live all that long, which she suggested was down to the presence of our cats) and had a dog once for about 4days that went back.

I don't want world war 3 and am looking for constructive suggestions of how to remedy if anyone has any??!

[ApocalypseSlough]

Keep them in. Or offer to go round everyday and clean their lawn. Do they have a tray inside?

[KittiesInsane]

There is catproof netting you can put on top of your boundary (if you have a fence or wall already). It sort of tilts into your own garden. Even if you only did it down your shared boundary, it might be enough to put off a lazy cat.
Otherwise you might have to keep them inside - not easy and possibly against the terms of the rescue?

[Diggingmywayout]

A neighbour's cat does this on our lawn. I can't explain how annoyed and disgusted it makes me feel. I would be so happy if my neighbour offered to do what Apocalypse suggests. It would solve the problem for me.

[Poppiesway]

I had this with my next door bar one cat last year. It had bloody /jelly diarrhoea over mine and our joint neighbours front paths and my slate / pebble garden. My children accidentally walked in it (opened from door and it was on our mat) They refused to keep the cat in and we actually fell out over it. I called the police as neighbour was so aggressive about it.
What we had to do was keep guard for a few days with a water pistol and shoot it every time it came in. It does a detour around us now. I have a silent noise cat deterrent thing also.
I have cats and my other neighbour has two cats and neither of them had ever been attracted to the slate or our paths as their toilet (plus we both have indoor trays and a tray by the back door)

[YvaineStormhold]

Deliver one of those cat deterrent noise things to her.

Agree a time every day to go round and clear it up.

Put some of the cat proof stuff on your fence.

After that, there's nothing more you can do, and if she continues to act like you've personally crapped on her lawn just to piss her off, then she's been unreasonable.

I've never known this hysteria about cat shit IRL, by the way. Forty two years of living around neighbours' cats and I've never even noticed if one has shat in my garden. Who cares? Foxes, hedgehogs, birds and god knows what else are merrily crapping away, too. It's life

[Lunar1]

Cat proof your garden so they can't get out. Stop buying cats, 3 is far too many to inflict on your neighbours!

I can't believe you think you cleaned her lawn for her, it's your mess.

[YvaineStormhold]

being ffs

[Lunar1]

Foxes, hedgehogs and birds never meant I had to give up growing veggies. I really ring it's about time people were made to cat proof their gardens so the can't roam. It won't happen but it doesn't mean it's fair.

[FruitCider]

Keep your cats indoors! The average life span of an outdoor cat is 4 years, 20 years for indoor cat. If you love your cats that much prolong their lives by keeping them in or putting a net from fence to fence so they cannot get out of your garden, which will also deal with them pooing in other people's garden. Why would you deter your cats from pooing in your garden anyway?

[Dozer]

We have this with 3 cats from next door and it really, really pisses us off as there's often so much we have to clear the garden before DC go outside. Health hazard. We've bought the bags used fo dogs and a dustpan thingy. We've tried the noise machine but it didn't work. We haven't had a go at our neighbours but it's a huge PITA.

[Lovesgiantbuttons]

My neighbour has tried the sonar boxes and it's hard to catch them at it when it's at night.
Keeping them in isn't viable as both the older one won't use a tray (they've been kept in post ops and have held on so long made themselves more poorly- clearing that up was an experience!)
I dorm know anyone else with a cat that does it middle of lawn and leaves it??!! Its unfortunate for all concerned that I have one that doesn't bury in beds instead doing full view on the lawn.
I've ordered spikes that will be delivered this week but if her aggressiveness continues I can't promise that I won't lose empathy.
The regular cleaning thing would be subject to perception of how thorough/ frequent, dependent on them being out and could open a whole new can of worms I think...
Lunar- I'm not the only cat owner in this culdesac and I wish I had more children instead, but cats it is!

[GirlWithTheLionHeart]

I bought an outdoor litter tray and the cat bloody loves it and doesn't use anywhere else now. Amazon sell them

[Kittyrobin]

We brought a solar powered cat deterrent as our cat was using our flower bed as a toilet. It worked!
However she goes in all sorts of places now around the garden and doesn't bury it, our garden stinks! I think it's because she was in a rescue centre with a litter tray for so long she ha become lazy, she's old aswell.
I will have a look at the outdoor litter tray.

[CatherineDeB]

This is tough OP! No suggestions but a story from someone a bit more relaxed about these things .

I have moved recently but a neighbour's cat used to walk about 200 yards to my garden and poo in the same place on the lawn every day. It clearly belonged to him, same spot exactly. I miss having a cat and the cheek of it used to make me smile.

I just picked it up when I picked up my dog poo! Always took two bags out of the packet rather than one!

Joke was it had to walk past the edge of the field it used to romp about in to get there!

I am not sure you can control where an outdoor car chooses to have a poo.

My parents would have been enraged, I just picked it up.

[SeemsLegit]

Don't keep your cats in to appease your neighbour, it's what cats do. I'd she's so opposed to them she should cat proof her garden. Could you keep them in at night to compromise?

[Lovesgiantbuttons]

Seems Legit- I lock them out cos one of them is a hunter and end up with bloody carnage all over the hall at this time of year! His idea of a midnight snack or if I'm really lucky a headless mammal as a present!
Girlwith- I like that idea and reckon te kitten would at least use it thanks.
Catherine- how I wish my neighbour had your philosophy, did make me smile. I needed that x

[ProfYaffle]

I didn't realise how bad cat poo can be til our cat died. Once our garden was no longer his territory, literally every cat in the neighbourhood started using ours as a toilet. It's a small garden, less than 6m long. We were getting 5 turds a day. It literally destroyed our ability to use the garden as even when we cleaned it up, bits remained on the grass. And the stench from our bin was unbelievable.

We got a motion controlled sprinkler which helped and finally paid to cat proof our garden. It was the best thing we ever did and we finally have our outside space back but, even though we're friendly with our neighbours, I massively resent the lengths we had to go to.

[00100001]

give them a water pistol and say they can use it to scare the cat away.

[BabyGanoush]

Reading between the lines I can see that you used to deter your cats from pooing in your own garden, until recently....

So your attitude was that someone else should have your cats crap their lawn. Nice. Until you were pulled up on it.

So you perfectly understand WHY she is annoyed, as you tried hard to avoid having to deal with your cats crapping in your own garden...

Some cat owners!

Can't think of a solution really, but it's a bit antisocial.

I have to pick up neighbour's cat poo every day too. They like to shit in my carport, next to the car, so you step in it when you get out of the car when you are not careful.

Bloody cats. Selfish cat owners.

It's life I guess. One of those things.

[Veterinari]

Seems Legit- I lock them out cos one of them is a hunter and end up with bloody carnage all over the hall at this time of year! His idea of a midnight snack or if I'm really lucky a headless mammal as a present!

So basically you are prioritising your own convenience over your neighbour's: Lock them out to shit in the neighbour's garden so you don't have to take responsibility for clearing up after they hunt. I can see why your neighbour is upset.

1. Put bells on their collars
   
2. Put cat proof netting around your garden
   
3. Get an outdoor litter tray
   
4. Put down indoor litter trays (use soil or compost as litter) the chances are that you've just not offered them a type of litter they like - try harder
   
5. Take some responsibility for your own choices. I'm not surprised your neighbour is pissed off - your choices are making her garden unusable and you're doing fuck all about it!

[HandbagCrab]

Our cat poos on the grass and was doing it on the neighbours. We cleaned it up and he's not allowed out the front now so he can't get onto their lawn anymore. Dh goes round cleaning up after him like he's a dog before ds can play out. I'm annoyed because it's the first house we've had with a lawn, before he'd go in his tray!

It is not fair to knowingly inflict this on your neighbours and their pets. So when I was in your position, we apologised, cleaned it up and changed the cat's access to their property. I think this was fair and I was mortified by the situation.

Cat proofing your garden sounds fair, then as well you might be able to let them in rather than locking them out all the time so you don't have to deal with their offerings.

[DiddlySqeak]

Give your neighbour a motion activated water squirter thing. My garden is completely free of cat shit because of them. I bought them from Amazon.
The cats learnt very quickly that they would get shot at if they walked across my garden. They make a bit of a noise at the same time as shooting the water which scares the cats.
They don't work at night and you can't use them if it might be frosty but the cats stil won't come near my garden.
The only downside is I forget that I have them and end up getting squirted
Cat crap is really disgusting and can smell awful.

[Lunar1]

Why can't you get the things for round the top of you're fence to stop them leaving your garden?

[TheSpottedZebra]

I say this as a mad cat owner. I've had cats all my life. I love them.

Keep your bloody cats in overnight. And go round regularly and pick the shit off your neighbour's lawn.

[CharlieSierra]

she should cat proof her garden are you serious?? Neighbour should go to expense of keeping out someone else's pet from shitting all over their property?

Some people are unbelievable. OP your cats, your responsibility to stop them causing problems for other people. I am sick of this in my own garden with our new neighbours, it's bloody disgusting, and also I keep finding dead baby birds too, which never happened before they moved in. Outdoor cats should be banned.