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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

aibu to resent neighbour slinging cat shit into my garden?

186 replies

wipeyuppie · 12/06/2011 22:26

I have 2 cats and an elderly neighbour. I have noticed that our side passage is littered with cat poo but my young ds told me today that he saw *** (our neighbour) throwing poo over the fence into our garden and that he thought it was disgusting. There are several cats in the area. What do you think about that?

OP posts:
mossip · 13/06/2011 19:04

That's just it really. Cats don't crap on their owner's garden, they go next door. And it's horrid if you're that person next door. I think your neighbour is telling you she's had enough and you need to do something about it. It is really horrid to find shit in your garden when you don't own an animal.

Amaretti · 13/06/2011 19:16

Yes. You should have had a litter tray already. Did you even think about where your animal was shitting?

TotallyLovely · 13/06/2011 20:57

That's not true mossip, all the cats I've had have always made a loo in their own garden.

To all the people saying that her cat should have had a litter tray . . . wtf?! If you have an indoor cat they have a litter tray, if you have a cat that goes out night and day (like most cats) then they don't. No one has a litter tray for an outside cat!

You people on here are barmy and some of you really evil! (referring to poisoning posts). You have to think really that you have no right to be so harsh to the OP when that is something you would consider. You are no better a person.

mossip · 13/06/2011 21:06

So totally, why do people who don't have cats get loads of poo in their garden?

missinglalaland · 13/06/2011 21:18

My husband spent days making raised beds. He spent days wheelbarrowing literally tons of earth around the side passage of our house to fill them. I have spent countless hours, planting, weeding, hoeing, and picking.

The neighbour's cats use our beautifully maintained beds as a litter tray that they obviously don't have at home. I can't let our children play in the vegetable patch easily now because I have to be sure they aren't getting cat poo all over themselves. I am not sure if we should be eating the lettuce, rocket, and other salad items that can't be cooked. Is a little soak in the sink and a whizz through the salad spinner enough to guard against worms and parasites? I've no idea. I do know that cats can have these things in their poo.

I've never retaliated. I'd never hurt the cats. I do think the fact that my neighbour's are happy to let their cats use the neighbourhood as one big litter tray is awful. I think they are selfish people not to take responsibility for their pets and provide a littler tray.

TotallyLovely · 13/06/2011 21:21

missinglalaland I wouldn't just let the cats put you off, what about all the wild animals, foxes, hedgehogs etc? Would you not worry about your children playing around with their poo?

Lunabelly · 13/06/2011 21:22

What poisoning posts? I haven't seen any on this thread.

Personally I'd like to call the CPL and tell them there's two feral toms causing mayhem to cats and humans alike and to please take the things away. However, I'm aware that someone actually loves these horrible creatures. (Although if they loved them that much they'd neuter them and keep them in at night, which is what the CPL advocates)
Though I cannot lie, I'd shed no tears if they were beamed up by aliens.

I would be horrified if my cats terrorised people and other cats the way these toms do, utterly mortified.
Hence, no catflap (although we couldn't anyway because of the marauders), keeping in at night and snazzy litter trays. With totally ineffective charcoal filters.

Original poster
wipeyuppie · 13/06/2011 21:26

I'll be totally honest. I thought you had cat litter trays for kittens when they were training. I honestly don't know anyone who has a cat litter tray for an adult cat. So the whole litter tray thing is news to me and i had no idea that they are considered to be essential equipment for cat owners and not to have them makes you antisocial. Is it something to do with towns and cities ie too many cats in a small area? Anyway, it's been a good insight into shite etiquette.

OP posts:
EldonAve · 13/06/2011 21:28

how is it that people find cat shit everywhere? are you weeding every day and searching your borders for it?

I only ever see fox poo and there are loads of cats here

EldonAve · 13/06/2011 21:29

litter trays are grim as!

missinglalaland · 13/06/2011 21:29

TotallyLovely we do get the odd fox in the garden but I have never found them pooing in it - though they may someday. The odds of fox poo are very long. The odds of my going out in the garden and finding cat poo is pretty much a dead certainty.

The random chance of a little animal poop in the great outdoors is a normal part of life. A high concentration of it where I am growing salad crops seems a bit unfair to me.

TotallyLovely · 13/06/2011 21:31

wipeyuppie You are totally right. No one I have ever know has had a litter tray for an outdoor adult cat, it is not something that is necessary as CATS BURY THEIR POO!

EldonAve I do actually think they are digging for it!

TotallyLovely · 13/06/2011 21:32

missinglalaland What about some netting over it?

missinglalaland · 13/06/2011 21:33

EldonAve I pick a little fresh lettuce usually every other day, and I water my tomatoes everyday it doesn't rain. So, yes, I am pretty much in the garden every day. A little cat poo in the back of the border by the fence I probably wouldn't notice or care about. Having it in my vegetable patch is pretty rank.

If cat owners find litter trays to grim to contemplate they should consider how I feel having it in my food.

mossip · 13/06/2011 21:33

Have never seen a fox or hedgehog in our garden. Have seen plenty of cats, who like nothing better than to dig up our carefully prepared vegetable patch (the produce of which we are planning to eat) and deposit a pile of poo on it.

Lunabelly · 13/06/2011 21:35

We have a veg patch and four children, so we're in the garden every day, playing, sitting, weeding, attending the veg, hanging out washing, just living. In the case of my dirty smoking DH, he's out there to smoke as well.

Of course, since BastardCat 1 and 2 have made our home their toilet...we find that the smell is a dead giveaway. Or the numerous piles of poo.

And as the owners can't be bothered with neutering, you can bet your life that they don't do worming / fleaing et cetera.

missinglalaland · 13/06/2011 21:35

totallylovely I like your thinking. I haven't been able to net the patch, it's got some tall things and some short things and I have to be able to get at it on a regular basis to tend it. I have tried crisscrossing it with strings. That didn't really work though. So now I am trying some nontoxic smelly stuff that is supposed to have a strong smell to cats so that they choose to poop else where.

Original poster
wipeyuppie · 13/06/2011 21:38

can someone tell me the difference between cat shit and fox shit please.

OP posts:
CliniqueMum · 13/06/2011 21:41

Missinglalaland. You have my sympathy as we have exactly the same problem. I'd say two thirds of our veggies this year have been dug up or sat on by a couple of cats. We are so sick of trying to shoo them away we are just about to order a sensor water spray which seemed the most harmless deterrent we could get.

heleninahandcart · 13/06/2011 21:44

Totally Where, exactly do you think cats bury their poo? Ah yes, in my vegetable patch where I weed several times a week when I cut lettuce, herbs etc.

Because of the neighbourhood cats, I cannot wander around and just pull up the odd weed as I go. Because of next doors cats, I have to glove up and put plastic bags around my small planting spade, just in case I find hidden shit, like a depth charge. Its even worse than the stuff they leave on top.

They are not clean animals, they shit in other peoples gardens. I'm pleased to see we are, apparently a nation of shit shifters.

Lunabelly · 13/06/2011 21:44

The smell, shape, size, texture. Everything.

In our old place, we had foxes that used to break in. (It had crappy excuse for a catflap in place)
When you've trodden, barefoot, in fox poo at 3am, you truly get to know the difference. Noum noum noum.

All these horrible animals. They love me. Hmm

JarethTheGoblinKing · 13/06/2011 21:46

Sling it back, simple. Preferably towards her windows. That'll learn 'er..

Amaretti · 13/06/2011 21:49

I think it is to do with towns and cities, yes. Because basically there is nowhere they are likely to shit that isn't someone's garden. I suppose it would be different if you were on a farm surrounded by fields. But in a suburb surrounded by houses, well the shit is bound to be in someone's garden. And it's nasty.

heleninahandcart · 13/06/2011 21:50

For a small patch, I find short upright bamboo stakes in the ground so that the cats can't squat very effective. Also thin, random bushy branches across veg patches work whilst veg is growing.

Lunabelly · 13/06/2011 21:50

I don't understand how some people can think it's ok that their cats do this to other people. They wouldn't let their dog / rabbit / DH / DCs / boa constrictor do it, so why is it ok for cats?

One of my cats is being driven insane by all of this (although, to be fair, she wasn't quite the full ticket when she was dumped on me I got her. Completely batshit, actually...