To feel so angry about our neighbours constantly 'visiting' our garden and house!

[longbay]

Firstly I hate cats anyway. But our neighbour has 3 Siamese cats. They are horrible, aggressive, territorial cats who use our garden as a toilet, and come in to our house if a door is left open (which in this weather is quite a lot)!
They even climb in to the car when I'm unloading the shopping.
One night last summer when it was really hot I found one in my DD's bedroom. It was 4am. It scared the he'll out of me!
I HATE cats and feel like I can't have my doors or windows open because of them!
It's ridiculous. Can I do anything about it? So far I've bought all of the so-called anti-cat devices & plants etc Needless to say, none of them work!

Liking this thread.

I can't get past the typo in the title though and have a mental image of Roy and Betty from next door putting on their anoracks and drifting round to 'visit' and then hanging around, unsure what to do next.

I was just going to suggest getting some cymbals or something as I think a loud noise would work best, but I see you've has the balloons idea!

Actually, even better and less faffy than balloons, if you go to a large pet superstore you can buy cans of compressed gas that make a REALLY loud honking/hissing sound which are for deterring barking or bad behaviour in dogs, and they definitely work. Keep one by the back door and get as close to the cats as you can before you give it a good blast.

And although they won't make a noise, cans of compressed citronella spray would not be very popular either, but you'd need to get pretty close for that to work.

Do not get a cat of your own, they will kick the gibbleolliepops out of it, probably kill it,

the best solution I have come across is sprinklers on motion sensors, if placed correctly are a great deterrent, you might have to invest in a reasonably sophisticated system, one you can override at a flick of a switch, so you can use the garden, you can run these off water butt.

but well worth it if you regain your space.

I also recommend you grow something prickly on your perimeters,

www.davidaustinroses.com/english/showrose.asp?showr=658

find someone with a holly tree, offer to prune it, use the leaves to mulch all beds, it puts them off using area as a loo,

bulk buy some citronella essential oil , keep all tea bags put them on beds add citronella, add it to the water butt that supplies sprinklers.

Do invite a friends with a dog, for a walk that ends up in your garden for lunch, curious cats will a shock when encountering unexpected dog.

Put up notices in your area about a spate of cat thefts

my colleague reckons he peed round his garden one night and the cats who were using his garden as a toilet never came back

You like dogs so why not get one? You could even sign up to be a Foster Dog carer, which is like the best of all worlds (part-time dogs on your terms).

I am that buckets of water haven't put them off.

Everyone here has screen doors and in their windows. I don't understand why I read on mn about cats coming in open windows all the time. I am wondering if you don't have screen doors in the UK?
Anyways, that is my suggestion, a screen door and windows.

Just read everyone's messages from last night. Thank you so much for making my anger turn to laughter. They are hilarious!

Iscream - I've got some fly screens but not for every single window. Guess I'll have to buy more. Can't get them for the kitchen door cos it's a 5 door bi- fold door thingy. I.e massive.

Adventures - We've got Guide Dogs for the Blind nearby. You can look after the ex-stud/bitch dogs for them. I think I'll look in to that.

Hilly- I'll go and buy one of those horn things today and give it a go. But once again, can you imagine how pissed off you'd be if you were chilling out in your garden on a sunny Sunday afternoon and that noise went off every hour! Wish me luck!

Quote - I think I've already exhausted the garden type deterrents. Thank you for your suggestions though.

Latara - there are 3 of them. They bully all the cats in our area. I frequently hear them fighting with the other cats. They are horrible and aggressive!

3 duracell - got a toddler who I 'let out in to the garden' to scare them away. It works but then they come back later!

Swampster - nice idea but I'm not prepares to turn my beautiful garden in to a deadly cat assault course with chicken shit and barbed wire!

We used to have 3 Siamese cats and they absolutely hated citrus- even rolling an unpeeled lemon across the floor at them would make them jump 4 feet into the air to avoid it! They were nowhere to be seen when we actually opened the lemon up and started cooking with it - they could not stand it.

Cats will remember eventually,my neighbours cat used to keep wandering into my house and id chase it our shaking my fist and cursing in hushed tones. It now cowers when it sees me which is embarrassing when im chatting to their owner

Tiger poo apparently scares them off :) I've heard that if you strategically place it around your garden the cats won't come in as they feel threatened iyswim, its a territorial thing. You could ask your local zoo.

Also, possibly fostering a dog from guide dogs for the blind might be a bad idea...they are trained to like cats so you would probably walk in to find them both asleep on your bed all snuggled up :)

Here in Australia, in areas where we have a big feral cat problem you are allowed to kill any cat you find on your property as long as it's done humanely.

Some people in urban areas are taking up the idea enthusiastically too

www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/bendigo-man-threatens-to-kill-pet-cats-if-they-wander-into-his-yard/story-fn7x8me2-1226246080079

I hate cats. why are dog owners expected to scoop the poop from their dogs but cat owners can just open the door knowing that they will poop wherever it takes their fancy. you either have to take on some serious deterrent measures or accept that they are there. next time one came into my house i would put it in a cage and drive out to the middle of nowhere and let it go. if it was laying on my drive i would run it over. dog owners have to control their dogs but it is acceptable for cat owners to shrug shoulders and say well there you are they are free spirits. come in my house, mr cat and i will set your spirit well and truly free. i did say i hated cats!

I can lend you my dog for a week.

She loves chasing cats out of gardens. You only have to say the word 'cats' and she's on high alert.

She'd have a field day if one wandered into our garden or house!

Guide dogs - hmmm all assistant dogs are taught to defer to cats otherwise they could not work

Honsetly some little ankle biter dog would be best I reckon. Keep it on a flexi lead and let it dash out the car/front door and chase the blighters.

Siamese are a notorious breed for being dominant, aggressive, terratorial etc especially three of them. I'd be tempted to get a cat run and every time you find them on your property stick them in the run until it's your bed time and then realise them. Probably illegal but the owners may get the hint.

I would hope my neighbours would inform me if my cats were being a nuisance, when they started toileting regular in one of their gardens I told them to use a water pistol on them and offered to let me come clear up, however being former cat owners they seem to rather just enjoy them visiting instead

Next time you see one, grab it and make it yodel. My cats hate when I do that. If I even look like I'm going to grab them for a yodelling session they run for cover. Here's a handy guide to get you started:

Don't know if it would work, but my sister has a squirty thing that looks like an aerosol but just makes a hissing noise. It's for her dogs - to fire at them when they are bugging the neighbours by jumping up at the garden fence and barking. Seems to work with her dogs, dunno what it would do to cats.

"Throw stones?"

If I saw you throwing stones at a cat I would throw stones at you!

I love cats, but I agree that they can be a pest to people who hate them. When we had cats I kept a litter tray in the kitchen and didn't encourage them to use the garden because I didn't want to fall out with the neighbours.

If I caught anyone throwing stones at my lovely cats I would knock your teeth down their fecking throat.

Get a bloody grip, it's a cat not a man eating Tiger.

My little cat is helping my dd overcome serious injuries after an accident.

In my previous career as a district nurse I saw how very precious cats and dogs are to sad and lonely owners.

You have a full family life, be grateful and stop whining.

I agree cats can be a nuisance if you don't like them, but certainly if I saw somebody throwing stones at an animal I would probably report them to the RSPCA. I googled how to deter cats. There's loads of things to try. Mothballs even. At least you wouldn't get moths in your garden.

Is anybody else picturing the cats from Lady and the Tramp?

(Sorry can't offer any advice - don't have cats, don't like cats, I would just drive onto my own drive and assume it would move)

I would collect them and dump them at a shelter in another town.

There's 6 cats near me, 6! I scare them away from my garden but the little shits keep coming back. 2 of them are always trying to get into my house so I feel your pain. I was told once that a little jeys fluid on a teabag deters them. I do shoot water at them and they run off, they always come back though.