To throw cat poo over my neighbour's fence?

I love cats. One of my SEMI WILD (ahahahahaha.. if you could see my cats you would appreciate the joke) vicious monsters is feared far and wide in these parts by all kinds of flying bugs which he stalks and kills mercilessly. Oh yes, mosquitos and flies watch their backs around here, yes siree.

ooo the floodgates on cat hatred have opened

just because your cat have only brought home 3 or 4 dead wild animals doesn't mean that they have only killed three or four in their lifetime.

that can be a night's hunting for some semi-wild, er, i mean domesticated cats.

birds surely would have had more natural predators in the past

yes, birds etc had more natural predators in the past. humans have totally farked over the environment and something as simple as controlling the cats would lessen the damage we not necessarily the cats would inflict on it.

In case anyone is mistaken. I am not here for a fight. just happy to shit stir with some latent comments.

If cats are semi-wild them maybe it is easier to allow them to just go back to the wild than keep them cooped up?

If you don't want walls streaked by cats then don't have one. And certainly don't inflict them on your poor neighbours by allowing them to shit and piss in their gardens.

I tried the bottles of water.... didn't work - caught my own cats just admiring their reflections ...

God, I'm supposed to be working but this thread is too much . Can't wait for Sixofone's next instalment!

I have similar problem since moving into our new home - nice cottage type 'wild' garden, trying to tame it, keep finding cat poo (no, cat's obviously don't always bury it). I have two cats of my own, but until we moved they were house cats and still use their tray (I assume) rather than going outdoors. They don't seem to wander further than the immediate neighbours' gardens and I keep them in at dusk till morning as I heard that's when they tend to be most active with catching birds.

HOWEVER - there is a gang of cats that are not so well trained - and they bully mine as they are still 'new kids on the block'. I have similarly tried pepperdust, citrus peel and holly branches. The holly seems to work, but how much of it can you spread? Haven't tried the sonic thing yet. The poo only appears overnight, so I feel that if only these cats' owners kept them in as I do, maybe the problem would stop. It's really not nice having to do spade duty every morning, even though it's me and dp who spend most time in the garden (dd is teenager and prefers to entomb herself in her room now). I bag it up and put it in the bin, but it still turns my stomach. Funny, I can deal with my own cats' litter tray without a problem - bit like changing nappies, I suppose, as they are my only 'babies' now ...

Six, I really hope the cat DOES belong to your neighbours - otherwise, poor them!

it seems that people are missing the point a bit here. maybe chucking a big bucket of cat shit back into a neighbours garden is a bit gross, BUT i totally understand it, we cant let our lo go into our garden either. cat shit - and dog shit -carries certain parasites that can cause blindness, especially in those with weak immune systems...such as babies.
my baby gets totally filthy, i dont believe in bleach and sterility, had to fish a worm out of his mouth only today, and i think its great his desire to explore nature and enjoy it. looking forward to splashing in puddles and mud pies and the like. and he's pissed on the carpet a fair few times andit doesnt bother me! but the cat shit IS different, because its dangerous.
same as, i dont mind him eating the dandelions, disgusting though they taste, but he cant eat the foxgloves cos they are deadly poisonous! i call that adequate parenting!
weve tried loads of ways to keep the cats out of our garden and away from our bird feeders. we know all the cats and who they belong to in the area. and they DONT bury their shit, they have territory wars and leave it all over the place! what seems to be working a bit somehow, is large plastic bottles (fizzy water or lemonade bottles or something like that) 3/4 filled with water spread around the garden. we havent found cat poo for several days now, and let the boy have a bit of supervised play.
ps - i dont hate cats at all, although i have limited interest in all domesticated animals.
good luck sixofone, cant believe its so controversial!!!

I cant believe so many people are that passionate about steaming piles of sh*t. However funny the topic. Its shocking!

I think you are all missing the main point and that is?????. why throw a bucket full over the fence, when you can obtain maximum overall spread to all cat owning neighbors by investing in a powerful catapult, thereby pebble dashing all surrounding neighbors. Just in case it is their cat!

The best bit on a summers evening is hearing the faint cry of "hey, a packet of cat sh*t has just landed in my gin & tonic darling"

Classic!

I feel now is about the right time to refresh our memories with the famous cat/ football thread classic enjoyment

actually I am totally shocked and appalled that this child is allowed out into the garden when the soil (and other things) have not been sterilised in advance. Do you not realise how many worms, woodlice, slugs, ants, beetles and other nasties live (and poo) in your garden? And where do you think the lovely birds poop? Just because its less obvious doesn't mean it's not there (with the worm poop, the the woodlice poop, the ant poop....). And food is grown in compost and all water on this planet has been through someone's kidneys many times......

I'm sorry but it's just not good enough. You must immediately prepare a sterile bubble for your child!

Well yes I do take your point about that SIW.

It's just so intolerant not to be able to put up with a bit of crap on the lawn every now and then.

I hate it, but really, to suggest that cats should all be locked up? Really? And yes they eat voles, so what? I just can't get worked up about voles, I'm sorry, I know I should, but I just can't care about them. Yes they should all have bells on, yes they should be litter-trained, but shot or imprisoned? Blimey O'reilley what has happened to our sense of proportion?

And I speak as someone who really isn't very fond of cats. Particularly the creeps who rub themselves against your legs and try and sit on your lap when you don't want them to. If they were men you'd slap a sexual harrassment suit on them. But I'm honestly not suggesting that.

Is it wrong to shoot cats with an air rifle?

Get a dog. Our dog caught next door's cat once, and gave it a good shake. It never came back.

pmsl at this thread!!!!

Have been ROFPMSL but...
Two things occur to me...what wouldhave happened in ye olde days gonne bye when there were loads of foxes, rabbits, deer, hedgehogs, rats, whatever...all pooping and peeing all over the place?
What makes us so special now that we think we can't share our space with other animals..that goes for the anti-cats-hunting (not the anti-cat-hunting) people too...birds surely would have had more natural predators in the past than the odd fox or bird of prey.
Before i get a good roasting from you, Kiskidee, i am only asking!

I'll have to agree with Kiskidee about onlyhaving cats if you keep them indoors. I presonally disagree with keeping (as someone else has sadi) an wandering animal constrained like that - epscailly after seeing the state of the walls of house full of "indoor" cats when we were looking at Siamese cat breeders before buying our first two.

We now have three Siamese (one just a 5 month old kitten) who are free to go outside. They also have a litter tray inside which they use the majoirty of the time. They never use a lawn to do there business - it is just not soft enough for the them to be able to bury their poo/pee. When they do go outside, they look for a peice of soft earth (and I beleive usually go in our own garden - which is fortunately very large - but I can't guarantee that they don't go elsewhere) Our neighbours either have dogs (and back garden covered in dog shit) or are cat owners themselves.

I have however frequently found dog-like turds on the lawn, which we have worked out is from the (many) foxes that frequent the vicinity. (Our part of Glasgow is infested with urban foxes - and I don't think it is unique for an urban area).

Are cats have alwys been neutured (and the kitten will be as soon as he is old engouh), partly to stop breeding, but also to reduce the range that they wander and to stop the males "spraying" smelly stuff (they still do it, but it is not as smelly).

I can't commnet on the killing of birds, as I don't know the research. I do know that in the 12/13 years that we have owned two Siamese, we have only three times had to deal with birds/mice brought inside.

We also have 4 large fat magpies that live in the garden (which my dad, at his place, does kill to protect the local songbird popultation - he also owns an old Siamese and a young Oriental) and terrorise the cats if they come close, eight large pigeons (four very fat ones, and four slimmer ones which we presume are the "new" generation), I think the birds are pretty safe from our cats and have more to be concerned about by the magpies.

And as for the OP, PMSL! And yes, YABU - you can't know for sure the cat was theirs. And all you were doing collecting the cat crap was encouraging the cat to come back as they return to their "own smell".

anyway. had fun on this thread last night. glad it brought lots of laffs. still think cats don't belong outside and should be litterbox trained.

enjoyed the shit stirring meself.

no weak excuses about semi-wild or need to roam...

Katiekin - great minds think alike, I´d just had that exact thought

cats are partly responsible for the demise of songbirds greebos. in addition to all the other things you named.

and i can't believe you willing to downplay the effect they have not just songbirds but on protected and very endangered species like voles and dormice. (did you find it convenient not to address those two in your last post or was it just happenstance.)

do you know of any research that has looked at what effect if any or none that cats have on bird populations?

I have worked in the tropics with migrating birds and seen studies on this kind of thing. the cat population in nice american touristy resorts in the caribbean have a detrimental effect on the migratory bird population.

birds land after 2000 mile non stop flights from across the gulf of mexico and are completely oblivious to all predators. I have walked behind warblers which are canopy dwellers and never normally come down to the ground. they peck on the ground like little chicks, completely oblivious of ME!

fwiw, i wouldn't shoot a cat. I just entertain fantasies of it as I think the owners should be more responsible for them. Oh, i come from a culture which hunts and eats game so shooting animals is not such a vile thing to me.

nice to hear you bell and neutered your cat. Now can you work on the other 10 million or so cat owners in the UK?

and if you can't stand locking up a cat, then don't own one. I don't want them in my garden and don't want to waste my time chasing them either. hence why shooting them is an win-win solution in the best possible scenario - for me.

I hated it when i lived in a terrace house and found cat shit in my plant pots and tiny terrace. Then there is also cat wee which you can't scoop up an throw back at the neighbours. Your toddlers still play in that. YUK!

this is going to end up on one of those 'neighbours from hell' style TV shows isn't it...

How about a poo throwing contest, it could be a new olympic sport!

Have just had a thought - what would really be hilarious is if, when the neighbours get home, they find this pile of poo and think "who the bloody hell chucked this over here" took a sneaky look over their shoulders, collected it up in a bucket and threw it back over the fence into sixofones garden

Awen - I´m with you in finding this hilarious