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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To throw cat poo over my neighbour's fence?

387 replies

Sixofone · 20/06/2007 22:17

I suspect I probably am but have had a few glasses of wine so here goes!

My neighbour's cat turds all over my garden and it's really pissing me off, especially as dd crawls around out there and will eat anything. So, DH stalks the cat, surmises that, because it spends an inordinate amount of time statistically on one particular neighbour's flat roof, it must belong to them.

So, I tipped a whole bucket of saved up cat poo (I mean, what else can you do with it - it surely isn't nice to put it in the black bin with your food waste?) over the fence, so it is now sat there in a rather suspicious looking mound. Some of the turds have gone mouldy. I expect my neighbours will see it in the morning. I have now had to throw the bucket away. Do you think they'll think it's me, or just a rather large cat? AIBU for being a cat poo thrower?

OP posts:
ViciousSquirrelSpotter · 21/06/2007 12:11

This thread is hilarious

I hate finding cat poo and fox poo on the grass, but I hate pigeons even more so am glad if cats massacre them.

I do think there's an extraordinary amount of intolerance around now. To stop a cat from hunting jsut seems very extreme to me. I don't like the little blighters particularly, but hunting is one of the things they are designed for. And yes it is horrible finding cat poo on the grass, but really, to argue that cats should be kept in all the time just sounds wierd to me.

CatIsSleepy · 21/06/2007 12:19

and we have the same problem except the main suspect is 2 doors down...need to rig up some sort of giant catapult

Squeakybub · 21/06/2007 12:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

LilRedWG · 21/06/2007 12:29

My brother's cat was poisoned by a nasty neighbour Our cat is fairly considerate in that he always digs a hole and buries the evidence (not that I follow him round and check) but even if he didn't, I wouldn't keen him locked in the house.

LilRedWG · 21/06/2007 12:30

Oh and to answer to OP. You are being extremely unreasonable, especially as you don't even know for sure who owns the cat! Our cat spends a lot of time on our next door neighbours garage roof - I just hope someone doesn't deliver a load of poo to her!

Original poster
Sixofone · 21/06/2007 12:34

Hi all, well lunchtime now and still nothing. I have discovered that if I lean out of the back window as far as my fanny, I can JUST about see the poo (and now weeds) dump site. I've checked 4 times this morning to see if it has started to biodegrade yet. I don't think it has. I have even checked with binoculars. Not a nice image, especially the big one in the middle of the lawn.

I am also less convinced than I was last night (and yes I was a little bit pissed ) that we have actually got the right garden. I've seen Crappola (I don't think the cat is really called that, but it's what we call it) out in the street so maybe it lives like somewhere completely different?

I don't think they have been out in their garden yet as they've been out at work but, and I was thinking this earlier, surely it is so unbelievable that someone would chuck a bucket of mouldy cat turds over the fence that they won't actually think it is us?

And not only that, but they know we don't have a cat so they would be wondering where we had managed to get a whole bucketful of mouldy turd from and therefore it couldn't possibly be us?

Do you think if I dug up some worms from our garden and pushed them through a hole in the fence that they woud eat the poo and it would disappear more quickly, say, by the time they get home from work?

I reckon we can brazen this one out

OP posts:
Original poster
Sixofone · 21/06/2007 12:37

And just for the record, please could I say that I don't dislike cats, just their doings, and i wouldn't even mind about those if they didn't happen somewhere where my 1 year old can pick a shrivelled one up and wave it like she has a new toy?

OP posts:
MamaMaiasaura · 21/06/2007 12:39

PMSL at this thread. lolololol

probably totally inappropriate to find this hilarious.. but i do

MamaMaiasaura · 21/06/2007 12:40

loved st georges post. Perhaps the cat was being kind and adding to your collection

lol at description of your daughter waving turd like is newest toy

LilRedWG · 21/06/2007 12:43

I think, Sixofone, that maybe you just need to check the garden before you let DD out!

Original poster
Sixofone · 21/06/2007 12:47

I do LRWG. But that doesn't solve the problem of what to DO with the poo or stop it happening, and that is what I was trying to do!

OP posts:
Soph73 · 21/06/2007 12:47

ROFL - have now got wonderful mental image of sixofone leaning out of window to inspect "dump" site and trying to convince worms to eat cat poo before 5pm

Soph73 · 21/06/2007 12:48

Awen - I´m with you in finding this hilarious

Soph73 · 21/06/2007 12:53

Have just had a thought - what would really be hilarious is if, when the neighbours get home, they find this pile of poo and think "who the bloody hell chucked this over here" took a sneaky look over their shoulders, collected it up in a bucket and threw it back over the fence into sixofones garden

Original poster
Sixofone · 21/06/2007 12:53

No it wouldn't

OP posts:
Original poster
Sixofone · 21/06/2007 12:54

Oh god, what if they did do that though, what would I do then!!!

OP posts:
Katiekin · 21/06/2007 12:59

How about a poo throwing contest, it could be a new olympic sport!

CatIsSleepy · 21/06/2007 13:01

this is going to end up on one of those 'neighbours from hell' style TV shows isn't it...

kiskidee · 21/06/2007 13:03

cats are partly responsible for the demise of songbirds greebos. in addition to all the other things you named.

and i can't believe you willing to downplay the effect they have not just songbirds but on protected and very endangered species like voles and dormice. (did you find it convenient not to address those two in your last post or was it just happenstance.)

do you know of any research that has looked at what effect if any or none that cats have on bird populations?

I have worked in the tropics with migrating birds and seen studies on this kind of thing. the cat population in nice american touristy resorts in the caribbean have a detrimental effect on the migratory bird population.

birds land after 2000 mile non stop flights from across the gulf of mexico and are completely oblivious to all predators. I have walked behind warblers which are canopy dwellers and never normally come down to the ground. they peck on the ground like little chicks, completely oblivious of ME!

fwiw, i wouldn't shoot a cat. I just entertain fantasies of it as I think the owners should be more responsible for them. Oh, i come from a culture which hunts and eats game so shooting animals is not such a vile thing to me.

nice to hear you bell and neutered your cat. Now can you work on the other 10 million or so cat owners in the UK?

and if you can't stand locking up a cat, then don't own one. I don't want them in my garden and don't want to waste my time chasing them either. hence why shooting them is an win-win solution in the best possible scenario - for me.

I hated it when i lived in a terrace house and found cat shit in my plant pots and tiny terrace. Then there is also cat wee which you can't scoop up an throw back at the neighbours. Your toddlers still play in that. YUK!

Soph73 · 21/06/2007 13:05

Katiekin - great minds think alike, I´d just had that exact thought

kiskidee · 21/06/2007 13:08

anyway. had fun on this thread last night. glad it brought lots of laffs. still think cats don't belong outside and should be litterbox trained.

enjoyed the shit stirring meself.

no weak excuses about semi-wild or need to roam...

prettybird · 21/06/2007 13:50

I'll have to agree with Kiskidee about onlyhaving cats if you keep them indoors. I presonally disagree with keeping (as someone else has sadi) an wandering animal constrained like that - epscailly after seeing the state of the walls of house full of "indoor" cats when we were looking at Siamese cat breeders before buying our first two.

We now have three Siamese (one just a 5 month old kitten) who are free to go outside. They also have a litter tray inside which they use the majoirty of the time. They never use a lawn to do there business - it is just not soft enough for the them to be able to bury their poo/pee. When they do go outside, they look for a peice of soft earth (and I beleive usually go in our own garden - which is fortunately very large - but I can't guarantee that they don't go elsewhere) Our neighbours either have dogs (and back garden covered in dog shit) or are cat owners themselves.

I have however frequently found dog-like turds on the lawn, which we have worked out is from the (many) foxes that frequent the vicinity. (Our part of Glasgow is infested with urban foxes - and I don't think it is unique for an urban area).

Are cats have alwys been neutured (and the kitten will be as soon as he is old engouh), partly to stop breeding, but also to reduce the range that they wander and to stop the males "spraying" smelly stuff (they still do it, but it is not as smelly).

I can't commnet on the killing of birds, as I don't know the research. I do know that in the 12/13 years that we have owned two Siamese, we have only three times had to deal with birds/mice brought inside.

We also have 4 large fat magpies that live in the garden (which my dad, at his place, does kill to protect the local songbird popultation - he also owns an old Siamese and a young Oriental) and terrorise the cats if they come close, eight large pigeons (four very fat ones, and four slimmer ones which we presume are the "new" generation), I think the birds are pretty safe from our cats and have more to be concerned about by the magpies.

And as for the OP, PMSL! And yes, YABU - you can't know for sure the cat was theirs. And all you were doing collecting the cat crap was encouraging the cat to come back as they return to their "own smell".

SomethingIncrediblyWitty · 21/06/2007 14:44

Have been ROFPMSL but...
Two things occur to me...what wouldhave happened in ye olde days gonne bye when there were loads of foxes, rabbits, deer, hedgehogs, rats, whatever...all pooping and peeing all over the place?
What makes us so special now that we think we can't share our space with other animals..that goes for the anti-cats-hunting (not the anti-cat-hunting) people too...birds surely would have had more natural predators in the past than the odd fox or bird of prey.
Before i get a good roasting from you, Kiskidee, i am only asking!

donnie · 21/06/2007 14:48

pmsl at this thread!!!!

caterpiller · 21/06/2007 14:51

Get a dog. Our dog caught next door's cat once, and gave it a good shake. It never came back.