Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

AIBU?

To chuck water on their cats?

136 replies

Softlysoftly · 14/04/2013 20:52

Next door neighbours cats I have discovered havebeen using our top bit of garden as a toilet.

I'd planned for that to be a swing/slide area for the 2 dds, had saved their Christmas money to buy toys for summer, now it is coated every step in shit. They aren't even burying it. I'm going to have to shovel it all out and it stinks.

I know they can't control their cats, we've tried lion stuff, , pepper, plants they are supposed to hate, blocking fence gaps and nothing has worked.

AIBU to lob a jug of water over them every time they venture shitwards until they stop coming in the garden?

OP posts:

Thanks

Share

Report

olivertheoctopus · 14/04/2013 22:57

We have 3 cats and I would be in no way offended by a neighbour throwing water on them if they were being annoying. Some people 'don't like to' and seem to think the owner can sit the cat down for a good stern talking to... One of ours came home utterly drenched one day after sneaking into a neighbours house to pinch their cat's food. A super soaker gun sounds like the best idea. Or the hose...

Thanks

mazylou · 14/04/2013 23:07

Not at all unreasonable. But do it with a supersoaker. We moved in last year with a cat who loves hunting, next door to chicken keeping neighbours with a small boy. Presented small boy with a supersoaker, and told him to use it on the cat if it ventured into the garden.

Thanks

FirstVix · 14/04/2013 23:15

OK, liking these ideas for my unwanted pooing-cat visitor- but those super sonic things? I can hear them and they're VERY annoying (albeit a bit quiet - it's like hearing a mosquito/insect chirrup every-so-often). It can't be only me??

Thanks

SchroSawMargeryDaw · 14/04/2013 23:17

I have 3 cats and would be perfectly happy for them to be soaked if they were being annoying.

Thanks

Toadinthehole · 15/04/2013 00:08

I think it is disgusting even to joke about kicking cats.

I would-

-seize the cat
-have it put down
-send the vet bill to the owner.

Much more humane and pragmatic.

Thanks

CleopatrasAsp · 15/04/2013 00:31

Cat owner of three cats here - two who never go outdoors and one roamer. Neighbours have never complained but if they did I would be fine with them dousing them with water.

Thanks

Secondsop · 15/04/2013 00:56

I'm a cat owner and wouldn't mind a bit of water to deter my cat if he did this kind of thing (although the chance would be a fine thing as I wish he would poo outside; he always runs in and uses the litter tray). But, are you absolutely sure it isn't foxes? It's unusual for a cat not to bury their poo. We get (always unburied) fox poo in our garden all the time (I established once-and-for-all that it was foxes after a snowfall, as I could see the tracks).

Thanks

toffeelolly · 15/04/2013 01:07

Thanks

Toadinthehole · 15/04/2013 01:15

areyoumad

You are wrong. If cats cause enough of a nuisance, their owners are legally answerable.

www.inbrief.co.uk/animal-law/cats-fouling.htm

Cat-shit stinks just like all other kinds of shit.

A cat is currently crapping in my garden which, thankfully, is large enough for the children to play elsewhere. I haven't got hold of the little bugger: haven't even seen it yet. At the moment I throw the crap over the fence onto the grass verge. It will go into the owner's garden once I've identified them.

Thanks

MidniteScribbler · 15/04/2013 01:38

They get trapped and taken to the pound at my place. It usually only takes the owners a couple of fines to start realising that they should keep them indoors.

The pound is preferable to the other legally permissable action in this area of shooting them (as long as you are a licenced gun holder of course).

Thanks

PigletJohn · 15/04/2013 01:57

cat's don't bury their muck in "unoccupied territory"

so they will keep their own garden reasonably clean, especially if you provide a dug-over or hoed patch of loose soil; and they will be chased out of another cat's territory; but a garden that is not owned by any cat will not be respected.

That's why cat-owners think that cats are clean, and cat-haters think they are dirty.

Thanks

CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs · 15/04/2013 02:47

I'm not a cat owner (as my following statement will attest to), but why does keeping my garden free of cat crap fall on ME to be in my house, staring into my garden, 24/7, with some sort of water spray?

In order to keep my garden free of cat crap, I would have to curtail my life completely.

If it was ANY other animal waste, the OWNER would be expected to ensure that their faeces wasn't left on my property.

Why does it suddenly become MY responsibility when the animal in question is a cat?

Cat poo carries numerous germs, worms if the owner isn't worming them properly, etc, etc.

I choose NOT to have pets that go and shit on other people's property - so why do I have to put up with cat poo on mine?

It stops my DC's from being able to play out there, as my gardener (I'm disabled) refuses to mow the lawn if the cat poo isn't removed first, and neither will any other local gardeners.

So I can't get my grass mowed because of other selfish people keeping cats, and not stopping them from shitting in my garden.

The nearest park is too far away for my 9yo to get to on his own (he has SN's). So he is stuck in the house most of the time when he should be able to play in the garden.

He likes to dig in the mud with his hands. I can't exactly let him when there is 1001 cat turds everywhere.

Thanks

CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs · 15/04/2013 02:51

FirstVix - it's NOT just you, I can hear them too - but I find them far more screechy than a mosquito. They are really high pitched and screechy - I tried one to keep the cat shit at bay, but it actually hurt my ears!

The ones they have at parades of shops to keep teenagers away hurt my ears too. They say it doesn't affect anyone but teenagers, but that's crap. If I'm a teenager, then I'm a teenager twice over, I'm bloody 31.

I reckon I have bat hearing, mind you, I hear loads of high pitched squeaky things and clicky things that other people my age don't seem to!!

Thanks

Bossybritches22 · 15/04/2013 04:19

Arrrf at "controlling a cat".

Thanks

Toadinthehole · 15/04/2013 05:58

It's no different from controlling a bird. If you keep it shut in, it won't get out. If you think that's cruel don't keep a cat.

Thanks

MrsMangoBiscuit · 15/04/2013 06:20

Another one who can hear those flipping cat repellents. PIL have a motion sensor one out the front that you have to walk past to get back to the car. Walked past it first and got blasted! It's like a dentist drill, in your ear! Now I always hang back and let DH go first as he can't hear it.

As for cats in our garden, there's one that used to poo a lot, and tried getting into the house. I keep trying to chase it off, it hisses at me! Since next door got a cat, we seem to have less poo, so I wonder if she's claimed our garden. We often see her out there, but never seems to poo, just pops round to play on DDs slide.

FWIW I don't much like cats, we certainly won't have one of our own, and whilst I understand how bloody annoying it is to have someone elses pet crap in your garden, it's all just part and parcel of having a garden.

Thanks

LST · 15/04/2013 07:43

I hope you capture all the foxes, badgers and squirrels etc as well midnite?

I anyone even tried that with one of my cats

Thanks

Theicingontop · 15/04/2013 07:58

My cat poos in my garden. Can I supersoak him?

Thanks

Sparklingbrook · 15/04/2013 08:02

Controlling a bird? How does that work?

Thanks

Rosesforrosie · 15/04/2013 08:03

Only on MN does this hysteria about cat shit exist. I have never known it become a huge problem in anyone's life in RL.

The odd spray with water/sonic alarm is all that's needed!

Thanks

Sokmonsta · 15/04/2013 08:03

Yanbu. I don't have cats but adore them (no room in our house ). Out neighbour hood cats used to use our garden as a toilet.

Other than spraying them, other things I found worked are cats away pellets - I got mine from a hardware shop. And keeping the grass short! One year I didn't keep the lawn as well as I should and I couldn't let the dc play out back as it was full of pooh. Now the lawn is kept and the pellets laid during the warmer weather we don't have a cat pooh problem. A neighbours dog on the other had keeps soiling on the front lawn so any tips gratefully received (they let it out alone after dark).

Thanks

Namely · 15/04/2013 08:04

Get a dog. Soon stopped the cats coming in to our garden. When one is intelligent enough to sit out of the dogs reach it has me running at it hissing and brandishing water. If I see them out the front (we have shingle surrounding our driveway) I put the dog on the lead and take it out the front to chase it off. If I see one tiny furry paw on my land I open the window and hiss.

Believe it or not I do actually like cats! I do not like cat poo, it stinks and I have a baby who I would like to be able to dig in the garden when he is older.

Thanks

Sparklingbrook · 15/04/2013 08:08

I have never come across cat poo hysteria in RL either Rose.

Thanks

Namely · 15/04/2013 08:09

Sokmonsta- gather the poo and put in on their land. They will get the message. Also, I imagine a super soaker would work just as well on a dog! Well it would on mine!

Thanks

Namely · 15/04/2013 08:11

And how would this hysteria take place in real life as opposed to a forum where the topic of conversation is cat poo? It's not exactly dinner party conversation is it.

Thanks

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.