To really not understand why people are OK with cats

[Duvetstay]

Full disclosure, I'm allergic to cats and also very much a dog person but I really don't understand how it's acceptable for cats to go round decimating local wildlife and crapping in gardens.

I've lost count of how many times I've had to pick cat poo off the lawn and my daughter came in yesterday with cat sick all over her feet as a local moggie had vommed on our patio. I'm sick of it. It's a health hazard and you shouldn't have to wear a hazmat suit to go in your own garden.

We have tadpoles outside which are about to froglet and I've just seen a fat cat with its head in the water. I'm fuming, a few of the tadpoles are injured and this is the same cat I had to get off a terrified bird last week.

I'm not remotely sentimental about nature, if a hungry creature kills another then that's how life works. However I cannot understand how people can let these cats out knowing that they're injuring animals for no reason and causing health hazards to other people in their own home.

I couldn't take my dog for a shit in your garden so why can your cat do that in mine? They're not even natural predators as they just trot home to get their whiskers.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND!

Bobleywobley

Cats are awesome.

😺

I prefer cats because they go to the toilet in my neighbours gardens 😇and I don’t have to go for walks with them carrying a bag of poo around.

Cats are so soft and fluffy 😺😸

My car brings me untold joy, she purrs, sits on my knee, cuddles me, I can't believe you're even asking this OP

The cat will be drinking from your pond, not sucking up tadpoles.

Tadpoles are tasty snacks for birds and other creatures including newts, dragonfly larvae and water beetles to name a few.

At least cats don't roll in fox shit or eat other animals crap (I'm looking at you dogs) nor have I yet to see a headline saying another child was mauled too death by a moggy.

Plus they can be litter trained at a very young age whereas kids shit, piss and puke their way through their early years and fill up landfill sites with their non rotting disposable nappies.

I've got a fox and hedgehog that regularly take shits in my garden but I just clean it up and don't come onto MN to rage about them using my garden as their personal loos.

Cats don’t eat tadpoles.

YABVU

Tadpoles are cannibals, they eat each other.

Cats probably do shit in your garden because they sense your hostility. They're like that!

I live in a very rural location and my house is rodent free thanks to my girls. They also keep the adders out of the garden.

Hate cats. Ex next door neighbour had 4 who all shat in my garden. Hate their claws, the killing they do, at least put a big bell on their collars so the poor birds stand a chance.
My friend has a cat and has had half dead pigeons, squirrels and mice brought in.
Absolutely no redeeming qualities

What do you suggest? Kill them all? I have an elderly cat that refuses to go outside unless she's with me so lots of local cats shit in my garden. I just go out and stick in in a plastic bag along with the Fox poo and local dog poo and clean seagull shit off my windows and car without having daily hysterics about it.
Digs are much worse. All the lovely local beauty spits are covered in dog shit which I am constantly stepping in and it stinks.

I love burying my face in their bellies and touching their toe beans

I wouldn’t have a face left if I did this to my moggy! He did show me he loved me today by bringing me a squirrel. As I returned from putting it in the bin he came in with a wood pigeon! The air was blue!

Dh managed to rescue it luckily.

I have 6 cats.......

I have an amazing Siberian hypoallergenic cat. My husband was an anti cat person.... Until we got her. Now he fully gets why people have cats. Cats crapping in other people's gardens is often due to small gardens/hard landscaping. If an issue, post letters to your neighbours asking if they could provide outdoor little trays for them. Personally I've never had a problem with cat poo. Dog poo on the other hand.... Why don't people pick it up?? I'm a dog owner too and it drives me mad!

@BBCK

Is that a specific breed? How adorable

Our cats have a litter tray, they know how to use it but they hate it, they will literally wait it out on NYE or bonfire night when we dont let them out.

We have two cats, both adored. However one is a fearsome hunter and her life choices put us at odds, especially now. She has just decimated an almost fledged nest of goldfinches today, killed the thrush and blackbird earlier. She has a collar that we bought from the RSPB with added bells but it makes no difference.
If I got another cat it would definitely be a cat that I could keep happily inside.

I love cats, am not a dog person because they are noisy (a big reason for neighbourhood disputes), dirty, stinky, don't wash themselves, etc. They are too much hard work. I do question though the cats getting at tadpoles. We had a 3 feet above ground pool when I was growing up and several times I remember the pool going green when it wasn't maintained during the cold months, and frogs used to breed in there. Tails came of by themselves very quickly, sometimes you'd watch them then an hour later, there'd be no tail. The cat would have been having a drink. To eat a tadpole it surely would have put it's paws in the water to get one. And cats NEVER stick their paws in a body of water if they can help it. So I can basically bet my house and salary that it wasn't a cat that was chewing on tadpoles. Having always had at least one cat growing up and many, many tadpoles, as well as a fish pond, I can tell you a cat does simply not do that. Most likely it came off by movement, or a bird got it.

I feel like I’m stuck in Groundhog Day .
It’s just the same threads regurgitated every week

I was poorly for a week recently and isolated from the rest of my family, my 2 cats took turns snuggling up to me the whole time, it was so lovely, they aren't normally very cuddly, but they snuggled up all week.

I think that despite their annoyances cats and dogs are important for lots of people and I'd imagine that right now keeping lots of lonely people sane and a little less lonely.

Do I need to say more?

No, you absolutely don’t !

It reminds of something my parents often told me, and other people. When I was a baby, the neighbours had a dog and a fish pond. They were accusing our cat of swooping in the pond and taking their fish regularly. Despite anyone knowing even the least about cats knows that cats detest getting wet, will not dunk their paws in a body of water, and will not submerge their face in water either. My parents were over their house in their backyard one day, having drinks. All of a sudden, a big bird/parrot or something swooped down to the pond, stuck it's beak in, and less 10 seconds later, flew off with a fish in it's mouth. The neighbours just stared at it, looked at my parents who looked back at them, and there was a stunned awkward silence from the neighbours for a bit. Its just fate that my parents were over there at the time with them, to witness it.

They never complained about or mentioned our cat ever again.

My cat has hypnotised me. I think I love him more than I love my children.

I'm amazed you pick cat poo off your lawn. Cats usually bury it and dont use open spaces.

I don’t always pick cat poo off my lawn.

Sometimes I miss it and spray it into the air with the lawnmower.

Cats would be fine if people who liked them kept them under control and stopped them shitting across my garden. Foul feral creatures not suitable for an urban or suburban setting.

Cats are the best...natural born predators.

You cannot control cats. They are not dogs. They are free spirits.