My cats and cat poo in neighbours' gardens

[Blahdeblah1]

I moved into my house a year ago and have three cats. My neighbours are all quite elderly and have lived there for decades, they are all keen gardeners and very proud of their gardens.

Several months ago my next door neighbour started complaining to me about my cats pooing on his drive, so every time I go round and clear it up. Although to be honest I'm not convinced that the poo is from my cats.

Anyway, I'm now having complaints about cat poo from people who live way down the street, that my cats are pooing in their garden, although they admitted they hadn't actually seen the cat that did it. I live on a large suburban housing estate where there are loads of cats.

AIBU for thinking that cats are cats and I shouldn't be expected to be picking up any cat poo really, and to tell my neighbours to deal with it themselves and stop complaining to me? I can't control where my cats poo, they are not dogs.

I just wish cat owners would hold their hands up and say

"I have an infantile psychological need which because it is infantile absolves me from any responsibility for my pet's shitting ubiquitously on my neighbours' property!

me want cat!
me baby
my cat need shitty
my cat need shitty at your house
tough shitty!

True.

A responsible cat owner ALWAYS has a litter tray.
An irresponsible cat owner lets them shit in other peoples gardens.

jesus why are people so ridiculous about cats. Do you get this angry about birds and hedgehogs shitting on your lawn too?

Bird and hedgehog shit isn't half as disgusting as cat shit.

And I say that as a cat owner.
Cat shit is disgusting.

Fucking hell. Some of the irrational, selfish, deluded owners on this thread seriously need some introspection.

I would worry, seriously worry if I lived next door to these frankly ludicrous posters.

I'm trying not to laugh, because it's not really fun, it for fuck's safe. Some self awareness, please

You give responsible cat owners a bad name. Not sure if it's the sun, needing a holiday or too much to drink, but FFS

Boney - genius

A responsible cat owner ALWAYS has a litter tray.
An irresponsible cat owner lets them shit in other peoples gardens.

And what about the 90% of cats that will continue to shit in other people's gardens despite having their own litter tray?

Just getting back to the OP, who has quite sensibly disappeared, I think she is being reasonable. She has a litter tray, and she helps out nearby neighbours. I think most of us would consider that fair enough.

The fact that I think pet owners should take responsibility doesn't mean I hate cats. I look after my friend's cat when she travels. I feed the cat, give the cat some attention and clean out the litter tray. I go over everyday when she is gone. This cat is allowed to roam, but still has a litter tray, which it is obviously using, at least sometimes. Why? Because my friend loves animals and is a very considerate person. But then, she would be. She is a vet.

Sorry Lurked, you were right about the battle of wits.

You seem to be outflanked and outnumbered by a vastly superior army,

In other climes cats are treated as vermin. I remember disembarking from a ship at Hydra and there were hundreds of moggies on the jetty. The locals hated them and I saw some hydrachavs shooting them with airguns. I bent down to stroke one of the cats and almost got shot myself.
I don't have a garden but I do remember my Father returning a shovel load of cat crap to our NDN in a rage as his begonias had been dug up and the surrounding plants shat on.

My dad's friend has put vandal paint on the walks surrounding his property.
His cat shit problem was solved overnight.

Cats never bothered me one way or the other until my neighbours 3 cats starting using my front garden as their toilet.

Unfortunately the neighbours were not bothered by this - they would stand with their door open at night waiting (and watching) their cats finish up on my garden before letting them back in. Apparently the cats couldn't use their own garden as they were terrified of their dog (actually don't blame the cats i was a bit intimated too)

It became really grim quite quickly - the odd bit of poo would be ok but it was daily between them - i had to completely rip up the affected area to stop it.

I did put me off ever having one of my own

Because whattodo I haven't said I would dump horseshit on someone's doorstep. If I was the type to start breaking the law I'd be shitting there myself, and if you'd read what I actually wrote ( that battle of wits thing again) you'd know I never mentioned doing any such thing. Horses shitting on roads themselves however is a perfectly legal activity

"The battle of wits thing" is irrelevant. No matter how clever you are, you are not winning anyone over to your point of view. In fact, multiple posters have remarked that their feelings towards cats and their owners has dropped after reading this thread. Not sure what you are trying to achieve here.

I don't really think it's fair if they don't witness your cat doing the crime. It could also be a fox or a naughty dog doing it. They sound a bit bullying

Have you actually read my initial post on this thread whattodo? You know the one where I said my cats don't shit in my neighbours gardens but I regularly tell my neighbours that if they do to tell me and I'll move it because it's the moral thing to do? Or have you conveniently ignored that in your campaign for flower bed rights? And incidentally a battle of wits isn't about numbers, it's about erm, wits

There are some fucking rude posters on this thread. I have to laugh at people who think they are part of a 'vastly superior army' when fighting about cat shit. A lot of people just hate cats, they moan about cat shit because they feel it gives them a legitimate reason to indulge this vitriolic hatred but really they just don't like cats. I live in the country, animals shit everywhere, it's a fact of life and you'd look like a knob if you complained to the farmer up the road that his cows had shit all over the place. I have cats, they have a litter tray that they use but they also go outside. They cause much less pollution of any kind than other people's kids but I don't go onto threads saying people's children should be shot, dumped, poisoned because they keep spitting chewing gum on the pavement or throwing bottles, cigarettes and half-eaten packets of chips on the ground. I don't live on some grim estate either, I live in the middle of the Lake District.

I don't find you witty.

That's ok I'd be insulted if you did. I find myself witty and equally to the purpose of this thread I know I am certainly not lacking in wits. Tolerance for fools I grant you I lack

I'm pretty sure people would complain to the farmer if he was letting his cows shit in their garden Uptown.
I am ambivalent towards cats. I am not ambivalent towards having to clean up piles of their crap from my lawn where my toddlers play almost every day. Tbf it has made me dislike cats a bit. But then I don't get any of the benefit of owning a cat - just all the shit so it's not that surprising.

Ps I would never hurt a cat. And I actually mentioned to my neighbour that I was going to start shooing it, out of politeness, but I am pretty upset about it. It has taken a bit of the joy out of the garden for me. Especially cleaning it from my youngest's trousers when he crawled in some.
And I do get a bit angry when cat owners suggest that it must be foxes because cats bury their poo when I have seen my neighbour's cat curl one out on my lawn and saunter off. And I do think my neighbour is selfish for owning cats when she has two yappy dogs who scare them out of her own garden.

I don't think you can make a moral correlation between children and cats.
I don't know a single person who has ever had to regularly clean up other people's children's faeces from the garden. Not one. You have no argument.
Even responsible cat owners with litter trays have little idea where their little furry mobile shiteing darlings are shiteing. They neither know nor care.

You cat lovers enjoy your cats at our expense, and you should walk around with your heads down for simple shame, seriously, you have three cats?! Three?
Look I loved cats as a child but once I realized only an indoor cat is a cat whose poo you are certain of, I could not defend having one.
I used to have to clean up cat diarrhea (sp) regularly thanks to a neighbour who 's elderly mog liked to squit up my garden, lovely for my ds when he was a toddler lovely

how can anyone make a moral correlation between my pfb might touch cat shit or my flowers got dug up, and poisoning/ dumping/ hurting a cat. You have no argument. Not one.
One of my cats does a cracking job of keeping the area free from vermin, because unless you keep your entire family and your rubbish inside always, then humans and their shite are the only reason towns are crammed with rats and mice. So keep your kids and yourself in 24/7 and my cat won't need to go out and do its job.

I haven't seen many posts with people talking about hurting cats. And not a single post advocating it. This wailing about cat abuse is straw man to distract everyone from the fact that you frankly don't care about the costs you are externalising to the neighbours: cat shit.

They're bloody cats, FFS.

Not children not human, not foxes, not hedgehogs, not birds.

Cats - filthy shitting cats and certainly on this thread, we've seen the very worst of cat owners.

Your fucking cat, your shite, as far as I'm concerned.