To Tell My Elderly neighbours about their cat shitting in garden.

This is controversial as I know you shouldn’t feed other people’s cats but I made friends with the neighbours cat, she comes and goes in and out of our house as she pleases although I keep her contained to the kitchen / dining area, we’re here alot more than her owners though. I give her the odd treat and play with her etc., and she treats our garden as hers, plays in it, roams around, scares off other cats etc., and she also doesn’t seem to shit here, I’m assuming she does her business somewhere outside our garden as she thinks of it as her territory?? I do put coffee grounds in the back corner as I’ve seen her hanging about there occasionally and thought she may do a poo. I’ve probably jinxed it now!

I've looked after an indoors cat for a friend from time to time. I feel really quite bad about it, because it's plain the cat has such a boring life, as no-one can spend all a cat's waking hours amusing it. So no, I don't think it's necessarily responsible to keep a cat inside all the time.

Don’t flush it. That introduces unnecessary contamination to the sewage system.

An outdoor litter tray may be a compromise, preferably on the owners property. Cats like to bury their poo.

Of course cat owners can stop their cats going into other people’s gardens but the fact of the matter is, they won’t and there’s virtually nothing you can do to stop it, as cat’s just don’t care either. Years again I had one of those high frequency devices to protect a small lawn area and it worked (I would see the cats walking around the perimeter) but it won’t stop them completely. Good luck.

I was going to suggest a motion activated sprinkler. No, I’d not bother them, because they’re elderly and frail. It’s grim and I’m sorry for you.

i was going to say cats hate going in the rain so if they wanted to encourage it to go in their garden,
if they put the top covering part of a plastic cat litter tray in their garden the cat would likely choose that spot. But I’d bring it round for them and be helpful, because they’re elderly are your neighbours and they’re elderly.

@thesagarollson I see you have ordered a motion activated sprinkler, are you in the UK? A sprinkler sits under the hosepipe ban so cannot be used when the ban is in place.

We have more than one cat using our garden as a toilet. I think the only solution is to get your own cat or dog. My neighbour has a pristine lawn her young dc roll around on. We have to tentatively find our way to the washing airer as there is usually a cat poo on the way. I don't want to be picking up cat poos when I don't have a pet. Our lawn is not one you can lie on or play games on. I might try one if those devices mentioned above. Would I mention it to my ndn? No, I don't see anything she can do as long as she already has a litter tray. But it is very annoying, I agree with the op there.

Yes OP be sure to plaster a beatific smile on your face whilst you shovel up your neighbours cat shit. After all you too will be old one day and the only joy you will have in life is making poor decisions that mostly impact on your neighbours.

Ok fine don’t throw it on the lawn, put it in a corner of their garden on some soil. Is that any better?

Its called nature. Presumably nature is also why you bought yourself a garden in the first place? Or are you one of those who ripped up all your trees and replaced them with box hedges?

Absolutely spot on. If only more people were able to think critically like this instead of focusing on their own entitlement. Yes it’s not ideal to have to pick up cat shit but when you live in a community you do sometimes have to face the consequences of other people’s choices and lifestyles. You can do it graciously or you can moan about the inconvenience and fall out with people.

Not only elderly but at least one of them is 'very frail'.
Let's say they were both born in 1945 ish so they would have been in their prime in the 60's, virtually every household had outdoor cats as they helped control the mouse/rat population.
People were far less precious about outdoor spaces, it's a recent phenomenon with the mass marketing of (sodding) bi fold doors meaning everyone wants to 'bring the outdoors in' BUT what they really mean is a sanitised version of the outdoors.
I am old enough to remember when picking up dog poo was just not a 'thing'. I still feel conflicted picking up my dogs poo and wrapping it in plastic bags to go to landfill when the rain and mother nature would have mostly taken care of it not too many years ago.
Regardless of people's opinions on the cat, it might be nice to remember the world may as well have been a different planet when OP's neighbours grew up, we all might appreciate a bit of compassion when we get to that age and the world around us ceases to make much sense.
But go ahead, start flinging cat shit in an old, frail person's garden, really make their last few years miserable because they chose to get a cat.

They tend to go where they can smell they've been before so just discreetly tuck it in to the neighbours front garden and it will shit all over theirs eventually.

They don’t have to. They aren’t legally required to. You don’t get to tell people what to do.

Key difference is that by law a dog must be controlled whereas a cat can roam. You don’t have to like it but it’s the way that it is in this country.

I wouldn’t fall out with my elderly neighbours over this. The cat obviously brings them comfort and most people’s gardens are usually full of some sort of wildlife shit.

I think you’re not supposed/advised to flush animal waste down the toilet due to pathogenic content. Though I can get why one might want to as it tends to reek much worse than dog poo in my experience. 🥴

We have one kitten that’s nearly an adult now and he used to exclusively use his litter box but does go in our flower beds now. I hope he doesn’t use the neighbours’ gardens and have been up front with our neighbours and told them to let me know if he does and I will go round and pick it up. Not sure what else we can do and we love our cat. I wouldn’t mind if they sprayed him with water though. I would not keep my breed of cat indoors unless he was causing a real nuisance.

The cat gives them joy but no to OP.
Id hate to clean up some cat's shit. This is also why I hate cats and their selfish owners, get one, keep it in your house isntead of expecting other people to have t oclean gardens and whatnot.

Noise detector deterrent works with cats. Get them off amazon. In the meantime I’d put the catshit in their bin.

Why do people keep saying ‘What do you expect them to do’ on these threads?

Theres plenty of things cat owners can do to prevent their pet being a nuisance to others, they just choose not to bother.

Perhaps they can't do anything about it, but it's entirely fair for you to let them know it is happening, and that you're not happy about it. That knowledge doesn't have to spoil whatever relationship you have with them.

The other thread about this recommended squirting cat with a water pistol, you could try that.
Other than that, I agree with putting the poo onto their lawn. They made a choice to get a cat, they can deal with its excrement. They don’t get a free pass just because they are elderly.

You need to keep the grass very short. It’s the best hope of deterring them.

Yes, this worked for me. I used to shovel it back into the owners next door’s flower beds. I hardly had any after that. I’d just chuck it back rather than have it in my bin.