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.

YABU - if you have cats, you are responsible for cleaning up after them. You can't expect your non-cat owning neighbours to do it for you.

I dislike cats immensely. I am allergic to them (they trigger my asthma). In my ideal world, they wouldn't be allowed to roam in urban areas.

I hate dealing with cat shit in the garden. Why should I have to clean up after someone else's pet? Especially an animal I can't be around without the potential of being hospitalised?

Because she has to live next door to these people.

If a neighbour made a reasonable request, i would do my best to resolve the situation.

If my kids were annoying theirs, or my kids were screaming at the top if their voice and neighbours couldn't enjoy their garden and asked me to get them to stop i would do my best.

And if the kids wouldn't calm down and stop screaming i would take them inside.

I have always cleaned it from my immediate neighbour's property, and will probably continue to do so. However, I am not picking up all of the cat poo in the street as that is unreasonable and unrealistic. I am feeling increasingly bullied to do so. Perhaps I will have to be polite, yet firm, and ask for evidence.

I've posted about these motion activated water jets before as i have found them so effective. You can get them on Amazon. I have one called a Contech Scarecrow but there are other brands.

Now My garden is mostly cat shit free.
I love cats but I detest cat shit. It's really revolting. I grow ornamental grasses and used to have the cats shit in the middle of them. I saw them doing it. It was difficult and very very unpleasant to remove it.

we managed to keep them away. our friend is a gardener and he removed a load of conifers from someones garden. Ran them through the chipper and we used it all over the vegetables patches and bedding areas. The smell of the confiers put them off. But it needs topping up every few weeks.

Maybe the neighbour with the water pistol should get those waters jets. Much more time friendly.

OP i am not saying you should pick up other cats poos. However I am saying that since you object to doing it, you must understand how those of us that have to pick up cat shit when we don't have cats feel.

There was a programme a few weeks ago about foxes and a woman was complaining that a fox kept shitting in her garden over night and it was 'ruining her life'. She wanted the fox to be shot, not moved or help to stop it coming in. She wanted it dead. They filmed overnight and it turned out i was her cat. She soon changed her mind about shooting the culprit then.

OP - I have always cleaned it from my immediate neighbour's property, and will probably continue to do so. However, I am not picking up all of the cat poo in the street as that is unreasonable and unrealistic. I am feeling increasingly bullied to do so. Perhaps I will have to be polite, yet firm, and ask for evidence.

Seems fair enough to me.

How many other MN cat owners reading this can, hand on heart, say they go to their immediate neighbors gardens and pick up cat poos? Not many i bet.

OP i would think about keeping your cats in the house for 10 days or so. Any residents from down the street who then pester about newly arrived cat poo can be told for 100% certain sure that it is not your cats as were indoors at the time. That should take the wind out of their sails. It will prove an interesting experiment.

OP, I know it's hard to keep your cats indoors once they've been allowed out but in your position I'd keep them in for a whole week - that's the only way you'll prove it isn't yours which are creating all the mess.

If they're already using the litter tray and the area at the side of your house, it's unlikely they are also pooing all over the neighbourhood - unless you're feeding them vast quantities of dodgy food.

I was a cat owner for years and while I understand that they're less controllable than dogs, I always did what I could to minimise their impact on others' lives. I chose to have them, after all.

As a non indigenous species with a huge impact on our wildlife, the law is an ass!
If you want a cat you should either keep it inside or build a cat run/secure garden. It may be legal but it is irresponsible to have a pet which simultaneously runs the risk of upsetting/infecting a neighbour, damaging the environment and getting smeared up the road by a passing juggernaut.
I like cats, I really do, I just wish people would put a little thought into cat ownership.

A month ago new neighbours moved in with 2 cats. No bother they said - house cats.

Since then my garden is full of shit. Literally.

In my children's wooded area under the leaves, across the bark under my laundry line so I can't walk outside barefoot, in my vegetable patch where we grow all our veg and fruit.

Not a helpful post but when we moved into a new house the neighbours invited us round for drinks and our cat (who we thought was litter trained) shat IN THEIR WINDOW BOX while we made small talk.

Teabag I have cats a d have had neighbours complaining about cat shit. I refuse to go into neighbour's gardens to pick up random shits (because like in the Op they will get used to it and tell others of the free service).
I tend to tell them, however, that spraying them with water tends to drive the message home. Sometimes I even give them a cheap water pistol from the pound shop.
It won't harm the cat, but they will HATE it. It certainly is!'y illegal.

Someones I agree you shouldn't have to pick cat shit up, if its not your cat. That's my point. You also sound like op, at least making an effort and my neighbour (with the water gun) would agree with that.

I don't have a problem when people are genuinely attempting to make en effort to reduce or stop it.

Personally I couldn't be arsed sitting at my window watching for cats. Just wondering really since a previous poster says if somethings not illegal, its everyone elses problem. This is the attitude I have an issue with. I cant imagine many of these types of cat owners would be happy if their cats came home soaking and 'traumatized'

Blahdeblah1 I have always cleaned it from my immediate neighbour's property, and will probably continue to do so. However, I am not picking up all of the cat poo in the street as that is unreasonable and unrealistic. I am feeling increasingly bullied to do so. Perhaps I will have to be polite, yet firm, and ask for evidence.

I think that's totally fair enough. I also agree about keeping the cat in for a few days and seeing what happens

We had similar problems with neighbour's complaining about our cat poo. We have litter trays (1 inside, and a covered one in the garden which he always uses - he's fussy with his toilet habits). He's getting on a bit and rarely leaves our garden anyway.

There are loads of cats in our neighbourhood and there is no way our single cat was producing anywhere near the amount of shit that was being blamed on him.

Despite pointing this out to our immediate neighbour, they insisted it was our cat so I'd go and pick it up (it could have been him I suppose) then more neighbours from further and further away started complaining and wouldn't accept it wasn't him. I mean, how many shits do they think 1 cat can do in a day?

He then spent 2 weeks in a cattery while we were on holiday, we returned to more complaints about cat shit from the neighbours. When I pointed out he hadn't been there for 2 weeks they finally accepted it wasn't us

Yabu - I had a selfish neighbour like you. his two cats were crapping all over our garden. we have 2 young DC (one with SN) who were picking up everything. We could not let them into the garden unsupervised because our neighbour had the same "cats are cats" attitude. sure my DC's right to ply in our garden should trump the right of the shitty cats to crap all over the place.

your cat, your responsibility.

How would you know that your litter trained cat wasn't pooing in somebody else's garden?

I agree OP, if your cat is clearly pooing in your neighbours garden or any other garden regularly you should clear up/try to change your cat's habits. However, you can't be responsible for all cat poo in the area.

Why don't you cat proof your garden so that your cats can not get out that way any shit will be on your property , there are fences you can buy that keep cats in .

Some years ago I cleared a dark corner of our garden and left a patch of freshly dug earth intending to do something with it... My cat decided that it was the perfect place to poo.... Ever since I have de-pood regularly and keep raking over it to keep my cat happy to use it... No complaints from neighbours ( I have asked) . I would certainly do all I could to prevent my cat from hopping over the hedge or fence. If you decide to have a cat then you must take some responsibility for it. If you can't stop them from crapping all over neighbours' veg patch or childrens' sand pits then you must litter train them . It is gross!

My 2 cats are litter trained. However i live in a rural area and they go out when they want though the cat flap. They both choose to poo outside. One definitely goes in my garden. I'm not sure where the other goes. A neighbour has 5 cats and they go wherever they fancy, including my garden. Its annoying but I don't see what i can do about it tbh. You can't dictate where a cat can poo and unless you see it pooing, how would you know whose cat did it?

Last week, after me ranting and raving and collecting the shit in a bag and leaving it at the end of my drive, the shit disappeared.

In the absence of any other explanation, the owner came and removed it.

There was a great thread the other week about this. Some "interesting" posts.

I was called all sort of names - even continued as a TAAT . Very interesting how some owners cite the law but give no thought to the impact on others

I have a dog. He gets very excited if I say "cats!" I wind him up a bit then let him out. He goes roaring out blindly with no idea of what he would do if he caught one! it scares the bejeesus out of the cats though!

Perhaps not everyone can CHOOSE to have a dog or cat .

Everyone can choose to not have a cat. Cat shit problem solved overnight.

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

OP YANBU if someone asked me to pick cat shit out their garden I would laugh.

How grateful all you cat-shit-haters must be for that sewage worker at the other end of your drains, puddling your poo that you shit every single day down your (probably multiple) toilets.

Every animal alive shits somewhere. Seriously, have a word with yourselves. OP is not obliged to pick up her cats' shit. If dogs were as discriminating as cats in where and how they dump their load, there wouldn't be the need for dog owners to trail round with steaming bags of excrement in their pockets.

Every animal alive shits somewhere. Seriously, have a word with yourselves.

You have a word with yourself about not giving a cat shit about DCs getting blinded by cats shit in their gardens.

You want a cat? Either keep it in your garden or clean its shit up.