My neighbour has asked me to pick up my cat's poo from their garden. Literally she wants to be able to call on me to come and pick it up on an as and when basis.

[pingu2209]

I have 2 cats. They have only just started going outside, about 1 month so far. I still have a litter tray at home and they do use it but they are also beginning to 'go' outside too.

My view is that cats should not be locked in doors. I had to keep them indoors for the first 6th months because I was told by the shelter that they needed their injections, be neutered and micro chipped before they could venture outside and all that wasn't done till they were 6 months old.

I keep my cats up to date with their injections and worm/flee ointment - well they are only 7 months old at the moment, but I fully intend to keep them up to date.

There are other cats in the area. The house behind mine has 2 big cats and we are in a rural area with foxes. Also, my neighbours have a dog. Nice dog, sometimes it barks but it isn't really a problem if I'm honest. I like dogs as much as cats, I'm not anti dogs or anything.

Am I legally obliged to pick up my cats poo?

I've spoken to my mother and she has told me that I should pick up my cat's poo if the neighbour asks. The thing is, I may have to go round there each day or two to do it.

I have a big furry persian cat. In the late summer/early Autumn, she feasts on those flying daddy long legs, which she catches and scoffs, and then gets the shits. All down her furry trousers. Ewwww.

I gave her a "bum bath" once it was so bad, it had dried on (we'd been away overnight and came home to her stinking and looking ashamed). Then she got cystitis because I was supposed to use baby shampoo apparently but my punishment for that was having to give the feral little fucker little darling antibiotics for 7 days

I was up early with stomach pains this morning (suspected peptic ulcer would you believe!) and I was reading this thread, and my cat got up on me and lay on my tummy and her furry warmth made me feel a little bit better. And I felt sorry for you miserable lot, though you do have a point, of course. No axe to grind though, my cat doesn't climb fences and she uses her litter exclusively as far as we are aware (she seems to come in from outside to do a wee in it, never mind a poo) but honestly I don't know what I'd do if she upset a neighbour - apologise and try and put it right, I suspect.

Because maybe the only cats she has caught in the act are your cats? Maybe the problem only started when your cats started to go out. Maybe the other cats are shitting at home or in gardens other than hers.

And because they are your cats, and not her cats, it is fair that you have the joy of picking up after them.

You have cats and they are shitting somewhere, if not her garden then someone elses. She has no cats and a garden covered in cat shit. She seems to think it's coming from your cats and the right thing for you to do is help her clear it up.

Yes you might pick up a turd from a cat that isn't yours, but you will also be picking up the ones that your cats have done.

You will be helping one neighbour. As long as the entire street doesn't decide that only your cats are responsible and expect you to patrol every garden then you should be safe in the knowledge that you are dealing with the amount of shit your cats are responsible for, even if you aren't getting all of their shit or only their shit from her garden.

But she doesn't know for sure that it is my cats. That is a fact. She hasn't said, 'I have only just found cat shit'. I know for a fact that the 2 big black cats from the neighbours at the back of both our gardens go into her garden because I have seen them in her garden. I have also seen a black and white moggy in her garden - but I don't know who that owner is.

Therefore it is only fair that anyone with a cat does the cat shit duty.

The fact is she will ONLY ask me. She wouldn't dream of asking the owners (caretakers) of the 2 big black cats because their house is a massive barn of a place and they have luxury 4x4s and all the trappings of wealth. She asks me because she is continually looking down on me. She feels that it is fine for me to come and pick up poo, whether my cat or not, but wouldn't ask anyone else.

Her argument, therefore, must apply to all cat owners (caretakers) in the area.

When she asks again I will say that I will do it if the other neighbours with cats will do it. To be frank, if she asks them (which I will be bloody amazed if she does) and they agree to it, I will join with them and clear up the cat poo.

However, as I don't legally have to do it, and I think it is a bloody strange thing to ask anyone because in the hundreds and hundreds of years of cat ownership in the UK this is not a normal request at all. No I won't do it.

I am certainly not going to be at her beck and call. This is life in the UK. If you don't like the laws, lobby for them to be changed with a rational argument.

Also, remember I do have my cats litter tray and they do use it.

pingu2209 I can see what you are getting it. I think I said earlier that I suspect that there has always been cat poo, but after realising you had got yourself some cats she decided to wait until they were allowed out to make a complaint to you about poo, and try to demean you by getting you to clear it up. She just sounds that type.

What about keeping your cat in for a few days and then wait for her to complain that there are fresh poos in her garden? You can tell her that they can't possibly have come from your cats and then watch her face. It would be fun anyway.

Well as long as you're legally allowed to let your cats shit anywhere then who gives a fuck about your ethical obligation to take responsibility for your pets, right?

From what you've said Pingu, she does sound a bit...I don't know, I can't quite put my finger on it, but a bit like she wants to put you in your place. It might simply be because she's outraged about cat shit but the other anecdotes you have mentioned don't quite sit well with me. I think she might just have a giant sized chip on her shoulder and my gut feeling is that rather than go and pick up shit from her garden you should somehow ensure they are not shitting in her garden (if possible - I know you are already pretty sure they are not) or do something preventative, though I know how hard that is. Somehow I can't help feeling that it wont be a good situation on an ongoing basis for you to be summonsed over there regularly to do your duty with rubber gloves, even if it is your duty, from an actual neighbourly relations point of view, paradoxically as technically it should be the right thing to do, morally, though agreed the law is on your side.

Waspie I don't think this is about "ethical obligation" though. The OP has a litter tray which she has trained her cats to use and a toilet in the garden. Cats are impossible to clean up after if they poo far and wide. And the neighbour is using this to get at the OP, I doubt the poo is even coming from the OPs cats! The neighbour has seen an opportunity and is using it.

The neighbour has a dog! How bothered about poo can she be?!

Well the truth is that few cat owners really give a shit - they let their cats do that for them. Arf.

OP - maybe you can feed your cats get some sort of fluorescent marker then go round with a UV torch. If the poo doesn't glow then don't clear it up!

TattyDevine That was why I suggested the OP pay someone else to clear up the poo, so the neighbour doesn't get that satisfaction of seeing the OP "put in her place".

I don't suppose it would cost that much if it were once a week and you explained that it was visible poo as you can't dig through every flower bed in her garden every week!

Glowing poo?! Genius!

Do what others suggest- keep ypur cats in for a few days and see if thee is still poo.

Of course, it does seem a bit of a coincidence that she is complaining to you since you got your cats- which makes me think it IS your cats.

Even if other cats poo there, she has maybe thought enough is enough and decided to tackle you and your cats immediately, whereas it's harder with her other neighbours if she has let it go for years.

In either case you are in the wrong-the more you post the bigger fool you are looking- so stop digging and start clearing up.

strawberryjelly a bit of a coincidence that she is complaining to you since you got your cats- which makes me think it IS your cats.

Or that she saw an opportunity to put the OP down and have a dig! That is also a bit of a coincidence!

so you support the OP and her shitting cats?.

I doubt her neighbour is that petty and even if she is, shit is shit and it shouldn't be in her garden.

If I knew which neighbour's cats shit in my garden, yes I certainly would go and complain about it! I'm 24 weeks pregnant, so I really do not want toxoplasmosis for me or the birth defects it causes for my little one while I'm pregnant, nor the ongoing health risks after baby pops out and becomes mobile in our garden. The little bastards don't just shit in the flower / vegetable beds, they do leave little 'presents' in the grass too. So even tho I wear gardening gloves, there is still a risk of ambush when sitting on the lawn

I bought 2 battery operated ultrasonic repellents for about £14 each on amazon. They seem to be working, in that I haven't seen the little darlings or their waste since putting these up - so maybe buying these for your neighbour would be a different compromise, here have these and forget about you coming to poop gather? It would work out cheaper maybe, in terms of your time and effort and good neighbour relations?

Btw, if the repellents hadn't worked, the next step for me would be an air rifle or pellet gun and shooting the little fuckers in the arse. Maybe a supersoaker if I was in a good mood that day, but they're on my property causing a nuisance ad a major health hazard for me/ foetus and I have no way to know whose they are . I like cats but I have chosen not to have any until kids are big enough to deal with random shits, and not to end up harmed by my choice to have or not have cats.

Sorry but this is a health issue, not just about the hassle or weirdness of being asked to pick up poo. She may have issues with her immune system that means toxoplasmosis could be serious or fatal, or she may have kids or grandkids in her garden being exposed to cat poo. I would ask how she was so certain it was just your cats and not the whole neighbourhood's but that wouldn't stop me giving her a repellent!

PrettyMeerkat the title of the thread contains the words "asked me to pick up my cat's poo"

How can you doubt that it's her cats when she admits that it is her cats in the title of her thread?

Haven't read whole thread but I'm with OP's last post - very reasonable. I'm not a cat person - used to hate it when next door's cat shat on our front garden (saw him doing it!!), cleaned it up myself, also when pg. I didn't say anything to neighbours - that's life - animals have roamed the land shitting wherever they like for quite some time and I think it'll carry on.

My deterrent of choice was banging on the window or chucking out a bucket of water. Pass it on to your annoying neighbour.

*Waspie" She was just quoting what the neighbour said, that isn't the same as admitting it was her cats poo at all!

MissusTulip That's why you shouldn't do gardening when pregnant . . . obviously! Toxopasmosis is also spread by birds and hedgehogs. Once you've shot all the cats (YOU would be in the wrong if you did that) are you going to shoot the birds and hedgehogs as well?

Hang on - you have just got cats? The penny has dropped.

New cats. Turf war. Which will eventually be won by one of them. And they'll stop leaving turds out to mark territory.

Which means the arrival of your cats has sparked the spate of non-buried poo, but doesn't mean it's your cats doing the actual pooing, iyswim. Chances are it's actually your neighbours' cats, who had that garden marked as "theirs" and since the arrival of your cats, are now making their feelings clear.

Longtalljosie That's a good point.

PreetyMeerkat - no she isn't. If she were saying that it was what the neighbour had said she would have said "neighbours wants me to pick up the cat's poo".

She then, in the first post, says "...they are also beginning to 'go' outside too"

She then repeats that it is her cat's poo and also that her mother has told her to pick up "her cat's poo" but her concern is soley with whether she has a legal responsibility to pick up her cat's poo.

Perhaps I'm being a pedant but it's very clear in this first post, and the thread title, that the OP believes her cat's are crapping in her neighbour's garden.

However, her only concern is whether she has a legal obligation to clear up after them.

After most of the respondent's said she was BU she then changed tack and said that perhaps it wasn't her cats after all

She seems to believe that other people should clear up after her cats because she has no legal obligation to do so herself. I wonder if she also leaves used nappies and sanitary products in the toilets at department stores and supermarkets too. After all she has no legal requirement to put them in the disposal units, does she? The legality of the situation is the only thing she's concerned with and this is, in my opinion at least is wrong, she should consider the ethical responsibility also.

Absolutely rank and revoting attitude IMO.

apostrophe frenzy - sorry!

mwhahaha yes I am going to kill EVERY LIVING CREATURE that dares to vernture into my garden, perhaps with a small nuclear device.

Except that only cats poop out the live pathogen, so not sure why I'd have to take agin hedgehogs and birds? They can have the infection but can't pass it to humans in their poo... Never seen a hedgehog in my garden tho .

seriously prettymeerket I should give up using my garden because of 2 cats (as previously posted they poo everywhere]? [sceptical] Way to ignore my comments about a solution that worked for me (ultrasonic repellents) and suggestion for OP as well, in favour of jumping on something I haven't actually done but posted as part of a rant about cat poo.

Agree with waspie although you left out the bit where the op dstated that she got cats just so she wouldn't have to clean up after them. V responsible attitude.