Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

Neighbour and his cats are driving me nuts!

144 replies

BrokenDishwasher · 03/05/2021 08:59

We moved into our dream house at the beginning of the year. The house is nice, but the garden is perfect, it’s what sold the house to us really. It’s a long rectangle shape, with a hedge splitting it in half. One half is the ‘adult’ half. BBQ space, nice table and chairs, grass and flowers etc. The other half, we’ve made into the children’s side. It’s got the trampoline, mud kitchen, sand pit etc.

A few weeks ago, we dug up some of the kids side and planted sunflowers, carrots, pumpkins etc. The next morning we came down to find cats had dug it all up and pooped everywhere. I cleaned it up, we replanted it and hoped that was it. It wasn’t, it was just the start. The cats seem to come into the garden on a night and destroy it! They poo in the mud kitchen, the sand pit, the planted areas. The children have stood in it and walked it through the house. They’ve scratched the wood up marking the sides. Worst of all, they’ve started killing birds and leaving them in my garden, half eaten 😭

I spoke to the neighbour and he just kind of shrugged and said what can you do, they’re cats 😠. I’ve tried powder but it’s had no effect at all. I’m just so sick of it! What can I do? I don’t want to do anything that will hurt them, but I’m so sick of their mess and need to do something!

WIBU to see the neighbour again? I don’t even know what he could do, but I hate these damn cats!

OP posts:

AngelicInnocent · 04/05/2021 07:22

Wait until we have a few days with no rain and squirt a strong solution of jeyes fluid along all your boundaries and on any walls and fences.

Unfortunately, the DC will need to stay away from the area for 24 hours but it works.

Lasts for between 4 and 6 months depending on how much rain we have.

spaceghetto · 04/05/2021 07:29

Chop up some garlic and sprinkle tarragon. We had issues with cat doing this and have problems no more!

Quincie · 04/05/2021 07:56

What are your fences like. Someone mentioned fishing line on the fence or what about that lightweight plastic mesh you use in the garden - I'm sure it would stop them getting a grip of the top of the fence. Tangle them, cats aren't daft and would stay off.

Dohrehmee · 04/05/2021 08:03

All the neighbours cats do their pooin our garden despite their neighbour also having a freshly dug garden. They have three cats including a unneutered female And two toms , none of which are uneutered. They leave them out all day And even night. Last time my freshly planted sunflowers And other plants were dug up. It was squirrels who had done this. If you catch the actual
Neighbours cat doing this. Then take the poo and Chuck it in your neighbours garden. That way your neighbour can deal with his own cats poo . But yes other than that , water squirted, cat repellent and cat proof your garden

voovayclickwot · 04/05/2021 08:13

Your only real option is to keep them out, so impenetrable fence with cat proof strip on top. This would be for you rather than your neighbour to do.

I agree with Goodcat, cat proofing is the best option. The trouble with lemon juice, orange peel etc is that you have to keep replacing it.

Having said that, what works for my mum is used coffee beans. I bring her bags of the stuff from a cafe and she puts it around the sides of her garden, she says it does the trick, but of course the rain washes it way.

Lollypop4 · 04/05/2021 08:24

My SIL had this problem, she got the high pitch noise detterent- works v.well.
As a cat owner myself ( I have a catio) the only other option is cat proofing- can be quite expensive if you go for the full equipment eg brackets with wire enclosure though

Lollypop4 · 04/05/2021 08:25

oh and I'd be lobbing the crap back over to the neighbour every day

carolinesbaby · 04/05/2021 09:16

I am sorry but I find it really hard to believe that one cat from next door caused this much issue in one night. Are you absolutely certain that there isn't many cats, from all over the neighbourhood? They roam a very long way, much further than most owners realise. Or perhaps foxes?
Unless you keep your cats indoors, and don't let them out at all (which many consider cruel) there really is no fully effective way to stop a cat roaming.
I have got 3 cats. One is elderly and rarely goes out of the garden, the other two are young and big explorers. I am lucky that my neighbours on one side encourage them cats to visit and have no issue with the poos in their garden - they have laughed and told me not to worry when I apologised, and have since planted catmint!
On the other side the neighbours have tried everything to stop cats walking across their front garden - they've built a willow fence and filled the bottom with lemon peel, which has gone mouldy and IMO looks very unsightly. What they haven't realised is that the little track in their grass is not cats at all - it's a hedgehog!

The law says cats can go where they like, and if you start dumping cat shit over the neighbour's fence I think it would then be you in the wrong, not him.

carolinesbaby · 04/05/2021 09:17

Also litter trays - we have two litter trays in the house. One cat uses them - the others don't. It won't necessarily solve the problem.

BigWoollyJumpers · 04/05/2021 09:42

Someone mentioned fishing line on the fence or what about that lightweight plastic mesh you use in the garden

That is the worst idea ever. Very dangerous to birds. More dangerous than cats tbh.

voovayclickwot · 04/05/2021 09:48

I am sorry but I find it really hard to believe that one cat from next door caused this much issue in one night.

The OP says he has 'cats', so it's not one cat.

myusernamewastakenbyme · 04/05/2021 09:58

Im also surprised at the op blaming neighbours cats....every cat ive ever owned has been a lazy sod and only interested in finding sunny spots to sleep in....they also bury there poo.

carolinesbaby · 04/05/2021 10:01

@voovayclickwot

I am sorry but I find it really hard to believe that one cat from next door caused this much issue in one night.

The OP says he has 'cats', so it's not one cat.

The OP also says she has free range chickens, which of course aren't responsible for any scratching up of flowerbeds or poo in the garden at all/

BertramLacey · 04/05/2021 10:57

Cat owners are not expected to take any responsibility for the damage their pet is doing.
Instead, surrounding neighbours are given suggestions, many of which are costly both in terms of finances as well as time
Not one of those suggestions puts the onus on the owner of the cat. How about the cat owner buys and erects cat proof fencing?

Whilst I agree with the general principle that wandering cats are the responsibility of the owners, the OP has asked what she can do. She's already spoken to the owner, who won't take action. So in this case, people are left advising her on what she can do. Sure we could come on here and say 'the owner must erect cat-proof fencing' but that won't help the OP, since she cannot make him do that.

UnconsideredTrifles · 04/05/2021 21:49

@BigWoollyJumpers

Thank you, I didn't know that! I may now have to reconsider getting a cat, I've always loved them but assumed the environmental impact was bigger...

Elieza · 05/05/2021 08:21

Please don’t use fishing line.

If that gets tangled round a cats paw it will tighten like those horrific and cruel tiger traps, and the poor creature will need its paw amputated.

If it gets round it’s neck it will hang itself in a slow and painful way as the line slices through it’s neck.

Please don’t any if you do that to a poor little creature who has no concept of how annoying it’s poo is to you. It doesn’t deserve that.

Doing something like glass in the top of a fence or whatever is just cruel too.

Oh and presumably you can get prosecuted if you inadvertently harm someone through your attempts to prevent cats. The law is strange, but say if a child gets injured while climbing into your garden to retrieve a ball because of stupid things you’ve done like fishing line or spiked nails or glass in top of a fence you can get sued.

DancesWithTortoises · 05/05/2021 08:29

Pigeon spikes on fences are perfectly legal. If a human or cat is foolish enough to try to invade your garden even though they are in place then you are not responsible for injuries.

Glass and barbed wire are illegal but there are several varieties of spikes that aren't.

GammyLeg · 05/05/2021 09:35

"I don't understand why people get so outraged over abit of animal poo in an outside space."

Tell me where you live and I'll come and shit on your vegetable patch?

We spent two years battling the neighbour's cats, which really made themselves at home. They liked to dig up and shit in the strawberry patch, and after we covered that up, the vegetable patch, which was harder to cover. Neighbour did not give a fuck.

Then, we got a dog. He looooves cats!

How I laughed when the neighbour had a go at DH about our dog "terrorising" her cats ON OUR PROPERTY!

mrstt89 · 05/05/2021 21:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6