To not want neighbours cats in my garden?

Oh, yes, as Hoskins said about spraying .... Grrrrr.

Again, I say this as a cat owner, unless being kept for breeding there is no valid reason for cats to not be neutered. Tom cat pee is disgusting 🤢

This is utter insanity and I see it more and more often whether is about cats or noise etc. You are basically saying that this woman has no right to enjoy her home in the way she needs it to, not to even mention protect her health because the neighbour's right to have a bloody cat that has the right to "roam free" and come into someone's house trumps everything. It is utterly insane and it only reflects the insane lobbyism of cat owners who have no common sense. If they are so wild and need to roam free perhaps they shouldn't be kept as pets.

Cat owners are infuriatingly selfish. Why should OP pay to cat proof her garden? They should pay to keep their moggy contained! If cat owners cared about their animals, they would invest in catios or cat proof fence panels to keep them contained.

Bells won't stop bird predation. Birds haven't evolved to recognise a bell as a threat. There is certainly nothing vulnerable fledglings can do against a cat. Cats are not native. They are kept at inflated density levels due to human feeding and have a devastating effect on local small animal populations.

Is it not cruel to let them out where they can potentially get hit by a car? There are dozens of posts on my local Facebook page “saw a cat on the busy road, does anyone recognise? Can anyone scan?” I see it all the time.
Is it not kinder to keep them in a cat proofed garden with plenty of enrichment inside and out?

Hey, OP. It’s understandable that you’re really annoyed, but your annoyance is coming off as unrealistic (unfortunately). You have a neighbour with roaming cats, and it is what it is. Some people have neighbours with loud kids, barking dogs, constantly hosting garden parties, smoking outside etc.

Here are the things you can do:

• electronic cat deterrents in your garden. Some claim they don’t work but most of those people use the ineffectually – keep them out of long grass, have enough for the size of your garden and they usually take a couple of weeks to be properly effective.
• if you own the shared fence, then get the spiked plastic fence topper.
• get screens for your windows and door. Handy at keeping out insects too.
• use a citrus spray deterrent liberally around garden, windows and doors.
• spray water on the cats whenever you see them, and keep at it. It will provide them with a negative pattern of coming into your space.

You say it’s not your responsibility, but unfortunately it has to be, because there is nothing your neighbours can do.

As a cat owner, I think that's fair.

Dogs are roaming, hunting, pack animals but we don't allow them to do that nowadays. We have 'evolved' them to be members of human packs and not roam or hunt.

I don't believe cats NEED to roam or hunt. There are plenty of toys to satisfy their hunting instincts and a house and garden are quite enough for them to exercise in.

Well said.

You can buy cat alarms that only cats can hear and prickly trim that goes across the top of your fences.

I wish the local cats here buried it!
We get it on our drive & on our front lawn. 🤢

We live in an area with loads of cats, I don’t mind them but I do get pissed off with my front garden being a toilet area, and when they decide to walk on my garden cushion covers with muddy feet! . We’ve also got scratch marks over a new fence and on one of our cars which a local cat uses to get over a fence.

I know cats wander but it doesn’t mean we all want them in our garden and definitely not in the house (although my dogs would put a very fast stop to that!).

I’ve seen them physically do it but cat owners know best! My grass was covered with the filthy stuff, 5 cats and that was just from one house and I had a lot of grass. It would have cost me thousands to cat proof my garden. Covering the holes in the huge hedge would also have prevented hedgehogs too as another poster said. Impossible.

Well said. As an outdoor cat owner this could have been written by me.

I think it would be more accurate to say, "You have to compromise when living".

The UK countryside is filled with feral cats. We have one lounging in our garden right now. He's fourth generation at least. His feral mother and grandmother both sat in the same spot.

It's cruel for them not to be allowed to roam. We know that animals in zoos need a lot of space and we worry about them not getting it, but then we advocate for people keeping their cats in a garden.

The law is that you can own a cat, and as I said, most cat-owners are not going to treat them in a way they think is cruel.

Even if your neighbours cats were no longer around, other cats will loiter around your garden. I have two or three pass through my garden regularly and I've no idea where they live.

But you know how a great many people get rid of annoying insects, don't you? I'm not necessarily saying it's right, but it's what people do - and it works.

Insects are not owned by anybody, but if they stray where they are not welcome, they get blatted.

Dogs are owned by somebody, and it is incumbent on the owner to take responsibility for their pet and keep them under control.

Cats fall awkwardly between the two - they matter enough to their owner that they don't want them to be killed when they continually step out of line (and I'm not for a single moment suggesting that they should be killed at all), but when it comes to preventing them from being a constant nuisance to neighbours, they suddenly don't matter enough to their owners, who will shrug and pretend that there's nothing they can do to stop it.

Said cat owners who shrug are always quick with suggestions of expensive and/or time consuming 'fixes' for YOU to take to stop THEIR cat being a nuisance.

Here's a simple one: if your NDN has complained to you about your cat coming into and pooing in their garden, why don't YOU wait there watching it constantly, with a supersoaker ready to deploy the moment they start to venture next door. If it's a good suggestion for them to do for somebody else's pet, surely it's good enough for you to spend the time doing for your own pet, eh?

Cats are CLEAN
Every poo is always a fox poo. Always. Even if it looks and smells nothing like a fox poo and you saw the cat squatting in that very spot

The RSPCA don’t approve walking cats on leashes for numerous reasons.

YABU sorry, as this is just life in Britain, unless you live in the middle of nowhere with no close neighbours who have cats 🤷‍♀️. Cats are free to roam. Personally the only time we don’t get cats in the garden is when we have a dog or cat ourselves (as even if your dog or cat isn’t in the garden at the time, most cats sense there is one in the home and stay clear). Personally I miss watching all the different cats that have stopped coming now 🤣- I find the sticky pigeon poo everywhere in the garden since they left, far worse with my toddler 😡

But since I assume you don’t want to get a dog or a cat yourself (and therefore only have to deal with your own animals mess) your only alternative is to try to cat proof the garden - you can buy a variety of things for the top of fences (such as nasty looking plastic spikes that make it uncomfortable to climb over, or mesh) and hope for the best. But cats are crafty creatures and if there is available territory ie. not “owned” by another cat or a dog, then they are going to want to try to claim it, whatever the human deterrent.

This solved our problem with cats pooing in the garden. Had to move it a few times to get the right position. It's solar powered and you can recharge it as well. It's been brilliant and had no cat poo for 5 months now.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DQ3VJGZ9?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3

🤣 I love that cat owners are still not ready to admit that even if a cat attempts to dig and cover, its still on the surface of your flower beds.

We can't control cats, that's life but don't kid yourself that they're not causing other people issues by shitting and spraying everywhere. They absolutely are!

Yeah it's cruel to get a pet that you don't personally have a sufficient enriching space for.

There is the option to just not. Or chose a pet more suitable to your property.

Cause you know, you just never know what kinda neighbours you might have. They might be like me!

Am going to start gifting them to my neighbours, bit of a change from the wines n candles we swap at Christmas. Different and interesting.

We'll have a beautiful gothic sea of em up and down the road by next year.

I am advocating cat owners cat proofing their gardens.

and if you weren't so snotty that would helpt too.