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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU - my neighbour's flower bed is my dog's toilet

357 replies

SevenWaystoLeave · 14/04/2022 12:36

I routinely let my dog wander unsupervised around the neighbourhood and he's taken to going into my neighbour's garden, digging up their flower bed and taking a massive stinking dump there. It's his favourite spot to go. This has become a daily occurrence, but I can't stop him, he's an animal and needs his freedom, and I'm not going to clean up after him either because they can't technically prove it's my dog, and not someone else's free-roaming unsupervised dog.

...Yes this would be really fucking unreasonable wouldn't it and people would be quite rightly calling the authories on me and I'd get fined and a control order slapped on my dog. So why why why the ever living fuck is it considered okay and normal when cat owners do this?!? It's absolutely disgusting and I am so so sick of cleaning cat shit out my garden on a daily basis. AIBU?

OP posts:
gingerscot · 14/04/2022 13:38

And yes, take responsibility for training your own cat with your own supersoaker. I don’t have time to be on patrol all day to catch your anti social pet. Just keep it out of MY garden.

gingerscot · 14/04/2022 13:39

Yes!! All pets would wander if we let them! Keep them under your control. Anyone who lets a cat out - your neighbours hate you.

Original poster
SevenWaystoLeave · 14/04/2022 13:40

@AryaStarkWolf

cats are just superior animals I'm afraid
If cats are such superior animals, you'd think their owners would want to look after them a little better. Quite aside from the nuisance, a significant number of free-roaming cats end their lives under the wheels of a car.
OP posts:
Suzi888 · 14/04/2022 13:40

I have a dog not a cat but YABU.

Ideally cats should poo in their own garden, or the owner should pick it up. But they don’t. Like a lot of dog owners don’t.

Ishacoco · 14/04/2022 13:41

@wanttomarryamillionaire

I agree op. I don't get why cat owners think its ok for them to let their pets wander wherever they please shitting and killing small animals and birds as they go. They should be responsible and cat proof their gardens.

What a ridiculous thing to say! Cats are hunters, that's what they do, they have a high prey drive.

You can make any alterations you like to a garden but a cat will always find a way out. If the cat is an outdoor one, It's impossible to control where they poo.

7eleven · 14/04/2022 13:41

@gingerscot

Yes!! All pets would wander if we let them! Keep them under your control. Anyone who lets a cat out - your neighbours hate you.
My neighbour knocks on my door and asks me to let my cat out so she can give it a cuddle.
DrManhattan · 14/04/2022 13:42

Not acceptable. I don't like cats either.

CurbsideProphet · 14/04/2022 13:43

@IndigoC

Dog shit is big. I have two cats that toilet in my yard and multiple others that visit and use my yard as a toilet but I have barely ever seen the evidence of this. Cat poo is smaller and usually buried because unlike filthy canines they are clean creatures.
Cat poo is not always small. I don't know what my neighbours feed their cat, but christ it has been known to leave massive shits on top of our flowerbed. Before anyone questions whether it's fox poo, I've seen the cat do it.
Jericha · 14/04/2022 13:43

YANBU

7eleven · 14/04/2022 13:44

You can’t tame and imprison a majestic beast, I’m afraid.

Original poster
SevenWaystoLeave · 14/04/2022 13:45

@ElenaSt

Our neighbour had an area of his garden that was previously stone clippings, fitted with artificial lawn because of a particular cat from another neighbour who was doing his business was there on the stones.

After we were shown the latest landscaping in his very nice garden we went inside and had a pleasant time chatting. At some point he went into the kitchen and there was a scream. The kind of scream a young girl might make and not what you would expect from a fairly large manly man.

He came rushing back to us in a very agitated state as the cat had walked onto the new lawn as he looked out of the window and appeared to smile at him before having a poo on the lovely new ‘grass’.

That area is now replaced with slate chipping and so far so good. Cat apparently does like to sit on the fence and watch him in the garden or sit on his kitchen window ledge and watch him in the kitchen!

We reckon the cat is someone he wronged in a previous life that has been reincarnated!

Yes, this story absolutely exemplifies the problem. This man spent a huge amount of money and effort to make his garden nice, it got ruined by someone else's cat, and he had to spend yet more effort and money to deter said cat, and now can't have his own garden how he wants it. Because the cat's owner is content to make the cat his neighbour's problem. It's disgusting, entitled, anti-social behaviour.
OP posts:
whenwillthemadnessend · 14/04/2022 13:46

My cats or at least one of them poos in my garden I wish I could encourage them to the fields behind but she won't.

Original poster
SevenWaystoLeave · 14/04/2022 13:46

@DrManhattan

Not acceptable. I don't like cats either.
I actually like cats, I just don't think this means I should have to be clearing up after other people's pets on my own property.
OP posts:
youngestisapsycho · 14/04/2022 13:46

I have no idea where my cat poos! My neighbour has 4 cats... never see them in our garden or find poo anywhere... how do I make my cat only poo in a particular place in our garden?

Pissyduck · 14/04/2022 13:47

Some cats are a pain the ass and will shit in flower beds and generally be a pest.

Just like some dog owners let their dogs shit all over pavements, cause a noise nuisciance, run off lead in unnapropriate places and attack people/children etc.

If you wanted a ban on cat owners letting their cats leave their own gardens, then you'd also have the ban people walking dogs on the street (in case they leave the shit there) or letting them outside at all incase they cause anti social noise.

Hopspinach · 14/04/2022 13:47

YANBU. Also, cat poo is the worst type.

Tangelablue · 14/04/2022 13:50

My neighbour and I have this issue. She's found chillies work for her and I like using white vinegar on a cloth. My son moans about the smell of the vinegar that. Good luck

SoFriendless · 14/04/2022 13:50

Another cat owner voting YANBU. At all. I have indoor cats but a catio takes up most of our garden, except for a small flower bed at the back that a neighbour cat has taken over. It’s grim

Original poster
SevenWaystoLeave · 14/04/2022 13:51

@whenwillthemadnessend

My cats or at least one of them poos in my garden I wish I could encourage them to the fields behind but she won't.
Huh?! It's your cat. It should be pooing in your garden so you can deal with it and clean it up. Encouraging it to poo off your property so it becomes someone else's problem is really disgusting. If you don't even want to pick up your own cat's poo from your own garden, then think how your neighbours feel about having to pick it up when it's not even their cat.
OP posts:
7eleven · 14/04/2022 13:51

@youngestisapsycho

I have no idea where my cat poos! My neighbour has 4 cats... never see them in our garden or find poo anywhere... how do I make my cat only poo in a particular place in our garden?
We have a nice secluded patch that we keep freshly dug. We trained our kitten by placing it there when it showed signs of needing the loo. Trouble is neighbour’s cat comes and uses it as well, but hey ho.
BibiBlocksberg · 14/04/2022 13:51

Totally agree OP & I say that as someone who has shared her life with Cats for many years.

No matter the niceness of their own garden they will insist on using the neighbours flowerbeds as their toilet of choice.

Drives me bananas & is deeply embarrassing too. No one wants their hands covered in Cat shit while trying to plant flowers etc

The only solution I ever found that worked (after trying all the citrus peel, coffee grounds etc ideas) was to buy my neighbour a motion activated water sprinkler.

Also, water pistols to be deployed when necessary, won’t harm them but even Cats need to know that there are places where they (& their effluence!) don’t belong.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 14/04/2022 13:52

Ah we've not had a cat shit thread for a while!! Mine were all strays. They can't be kept in. Be impossible and cruel!

They have litter trays and they all do poo in our garden but can't say they don't poo elsewhere too.

Just life. If my neighbours knew it was my cats I'd go round and pick it up. But none of my neighbours care. They all feed and allow mine in their homes!

Bryterlayter1 · 14/04/2022 13:52

The rescue centres in my area will not rehome a cat with you unless you have a cat flap and allow them outside (except of the cat is FIV positive then it needs to be kept indoors).

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 14/04/2022 13:53

I'd just washed the car when somebody's owl...

chisanunian · 14/04/2022 13:54

@Trulyweird1

YANBU, but cat owners will be on to tell you that cats have a ‘right to roam’ etc. Only thing that seems to work for me is covering the flower beds in Defenders cat-off. That and sending my dogs out to the garden when the little crapper thinks it wants to pay us a visit. It tends to skirt round our property these days .
It's not cat owners who say that cats have the right to roam, it's the law.
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