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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To throw cat poo over my neighbour's fence?

387 replies

Sixofone · 20/06/2007 22:17

I suspect I probably am but have had a few glasses of wine so here goes!

My neighbour's cat turds all over my garden and it's really pissing me off, especially as dd crawls around out there and will eat anything. So, DH stalks the cat, surmises that, because it spends an inordinate amount of time statistically on one particular neighbour's flat roof, it must belong to them.

So, I tipped a whole bucket of saved up cat poo (I mean, what else can you do with it - it surely isn't nice to put it in the black bin with your food waste?) over the fence, so it is now sat there in a rather suspicious looking mound. Some of the turds have gone mouldy. I expect my neighbours will see it in the morning. I have now had to throw the bucket away. Do you think they'll think it's me, or just a rather large cat? AIBU for being a cat poo thrower?

OP posts:
maisym · 21/06/2007 10:08

we had a terrible time with cat poo in the grass until we got some of those spinning toys you can stick in the ground. It keeps the cats away.

bozza · 21/06/2007 10:05

any news on the repercussions? I am not a confrontational person, but if this was not my cat and you did it to me I think it might just send me over the top.

While I agree that shooting cats and some of the other more drastic measures mentioned on here are not on, Harman I think you are rather burying your head in the sand regarding the behaviour of cats here. Yes they do bury it soemtimes, but they have cost me quite a lot in the plants they have dug up while burying it. Sometimes they only half bury it, soemtimes they have diorhea, sometimes it still smells, sometimes they just don't bother. And yes I really want some cat shit buried in among the carrots I am growing - not.

Soph73 · 21/06/2007 10:04

I´m sorry but this ... "UCM if I wouldn't get arrested I would shoot you with pleasure - and I don't have a cat." just made me laugh even more. Poor UCM watch your back girl there´ll be a price on your head soon

Maybe I just don´t take things seriously enough. BTW sixofone had I got more bottle I would have done exactly the same thing

tatt · 21/06/2007 09:58

UCM if I wouldn't get arrested I would shoot you with pleasure - and I don't have a cat.

Some cats kill birds - so do lots of other things, even bigger birds. The main reasons for the decline in songbirds are habitat change and pesticide use. If fields were organic birds would rely less on gardens. environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2042 896,00.html

and forget the decking

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6086574.stm

Mo re minks around don't help either.

To return to the original poster - what do you do with bird poo and fox poo? You need to encase your garden in a plastic bubble. Have you read any of the evidence that suggests children who have pets have fewer allergies? You should probably encourage your child to pet the cat.

Soph73 · 21/06/2007 09:54

ROFL - have just read this thread and it´s hilarious. Sixofone - have your neighbours been round yet? Am dying to hear what happens next.

BTW we have a cat but she does have a litter tray but if she was to go outside she probably wouldn´t bury it as she doesn´t bury the stuff she leaves in her tray!!

anniebear · 21/06/2007 09:51

!!!!!!!!!!! that was so funny!!!!!!!!!!!

cant wait to hear if they say anything

RedTartanLass · 21/06/2007 09:39

ROFL at you sneaking about in the middle of the night, trying to disguise cat poo. What on earth would you have said if your neighbours had caought you!!

hippipotami · 21/06/2007 09:21

PMSL! Have the neighbours discovered the new feature to their garden yet? A steaming pile of rotting pooh and weeds? Not so easy to miss

maveta · 21/06/2007 08:09

Were you pissed?? ROFL at what you and hubby did last night. Your neighbours are going to think you are insane! LOL

I wouldn´t have done anything, would have cleaned up the poo and chucked it in the bin. I have outdoor cats and always did growing up so it´s not something that would bother me. Having said that, cats do normally bury their poo so I´ve never had to collect and dump poo from our, or any other, cats. I would say that collecting it in a bucket and leaving it at the end of the garden probably encoouraged the cat to return because it´s own scent was hanging around. That´s how cats know to go in their litter tray, because it smells like them.

goldenwings · 21/06/2007 07:57

yabu you dont actually know if it was their cat.

also cats should not really be kept indoors imo. they love being outside and are quite self sufficient. they need to roam and stalk on prey even if they dont catch anything lol.

it would be great if cat owners could clean their cats poop up but its not possible. owners dont know where there cats roam although granted its not usually far. and even if you live next door to a cat that cat isnt always the culprit in pooping in your garden.

Original poster
Sixofone · 21/06/2007 07:28

Well. my favourite quote of the night has to be Noelle's 'out of sight = someone else's shite'

Thought you might like an update from Turd Towers. We decided last night about midnight that, although justified on principle, we were perhaps just a teensy bit unreasonable in slinging an entire bucket of cat poo, some of which was mouldy, on someone's garden when we weren't entirely sure it was their cat in the first place.

We decided to try and make amends by trying to camoflage what we'd done by way of maintaining good neighbourly relations. So hubby got on the ladder with the washing line pole(we couldn't find the rake, so that's something else I'm going to have to throw out now it has been sullied ) and did his best to spread out the poo a bit.

We weren't really sure how well it had been spread out so we decided to throw a bit of compost over the top so it might just look like some extra mud had appeared in the garden or something, but unfortunately there were a few weeds in there too - I snuck out at 5 this morning feeling guilty and the poo is not as obvious (apart from one rather large turd which seems to have ended up in the middle of the lawn, but we could easily blame that on a cat ) but you CAN see the weeds....

So one way or another we might be hearing from our neighbours today

OP posts:
seamonstr · 21/06/2007 00:52

Our cats are now 5 years old, and (as far as I know) have caught one bird and one mouse between them in those 5 years. It's not difficult: it's called a BELL.

Also, if you leave a bit of the garden soft and unplanted then they'll go there every day, and you can clean it up (shovel) and bury it in a different place every week - the worms will take care of it for you, and it might even do your garden some good. If the cats have a spot to poo then they tend to reuse it (as long as it doesn't get too rank), and then they don't bother your neighbours.

I chase any other cats out of my garden the moment I see them - nothing clever with water pistols and things, but a proper chasing with stamping of feet, waving of arms and odd looks from the neighbours The other cats know that this is not somewhere that they want to hang around and so they don't.

moo · 20/06/2007 23:41

Getting dh to stand on a ladder with a rake to spread it about? Hmmm...I think this is Twig again.

Katiekin · 20/06/2007 23:40

Exactly, thereby getting the population down and reducing the number of strays - so good for cats too. - I don't approve of shooting them, I just want owners to be responsible.

harman · 20/06/2007 23:37

Message withdrawn

Katiekin · 20/06/2007 23:35

Not for the sake of the birds then?

harman · 20/06/2007 23:34

Message withdrawn

Tabkat · 20/06/2007 23:33

I used to have a cat and was quite glad when it used to go elsewhere to shit. However, if a neighbour had slung it all over my fence I would have had no problem cleaning it up.

UCM · 20/06/2007 23:33
Katiekin · 20/06/2007 23:32

No harman because the population of cats is increasing due to human interference. Magpies are still working under the laws of nature. By the way glad to hear you have neutered your cat.

UCM · 20/06/2007 23:31

Ok so where is the story about either Magpies or cats eating babies.....

kiskidee · 20/06/2007 23:31

i don't know, i never asked the magpies.

i know that well fed cats take home baby birds to their owners and the owners don't eat them.

UCM · 20/06/2007 23:30

You can't involve yourself with a racing pigeon, they are on a race, like the cyclists in the yellow tops. That IS bad.

sparklygothkat · 20/06/2007 23:29

if my neighbours came to me and said that my cat had shit in their garden, I would go and clean it up, the same way I clean up my dog shit when he goes for his walk

weebleswobble · 20/06/2007 23:29

I've never followed my cats around to see where they crap. I really must make more of an effort.

They undoubtably do some of their crap in my garden. Probably don't do it in the garden of the house to the left because they have a cat. Definitely don't do it to the house on the right because they're scared to go in that garden - they have a huge rabbit!

They could possibly crap in the garden behind my house