To want cat-owner to acknowledge impact on me?

[SafetyLady]

My neighbour's cats use my garden for a toilet. I'm sick of having to deal with it. On top of plant pots, in my veg bed, etc. They make no attempt to bury it so it sits there stinky until I pick it up. Properly turns my stomach and spoils my enjoyment of my garden on a daily basis.
I know they can't be kept out or trained not to. I'd never want to harm them - they're just being cats! I'd just like some acknowledgement from neighbour that their choice to keep outdoor cats is causing this.
I did ask if they would be willing to take a turn dealing with it, and got told no, cats bury it so you can't even see where it is (some do - theirs doesn't), and anyway that's why they don't keep them in - they don't want to deal with litter tray (were originally indoor only kittens).
AIBU to be upset?

I have a neighbour cat poo on my lawn, it's infuriating but I've no idea where it lives to ask the owner to pick it up, if i see the cat I squirt it with a water pistol (not a powerful one)

Return the cat shit OP. Your neighbour can clear it up before her kids play out.

Selfish people like this neighbour often don’t look after their own homes/garden. So probably wouldn’t pick it up anyway

Why on earth do you have 9 cats? Your house must be terrible. Threatening to report someone to the council when you are the problem is very embarrassing for you. 9 cats is excessive and very unfair on your neighbours

If nothing else works, pick it up in bags and put it on their doorstep for them to put it in their bin

Do you like cat poo too? Is hating clearing up some random cats shit a personality defect too?

I find it particularly disgusting. It's stinks and can get almost sticky. I think it's almost worse that they try and bury their shit and it ends up getting mixed up with my plants.
I use a motion activated automatic bird scared that shoots water at the cats and it works well.

Hopefully you have them all spayed and neutered and aren’t adding to the problem even more. Would you like it if your neighbour got 9 cats and they all pooped in your garden, or don’t you clean your garden?

BTW Cats 100% definitely shit and DONT always bury it. They also 100% definitely shit on lawns. I know because I have seen cats do it. Different cats on different occasions.

I’m also here to say that cats will shit in your lawn on or oath quite happily, as our neighbours, cats do and it’s caught on our ring camera. They seem to like a particular area of my lawn, but have been known to go in the path too. Our Facebook group for the estate often has people going mad about dogs shutting on people’s gardens and I’d say it was a car most of the time. I also think some of my neighbours don’t have litter trays for their cats either and so the cats have to go in the nearby gardens.

It's interesting that you admit you'd openly lie to the police to suit your own agenda and yet the people who hate cats are the ones with a 'negative indicator'. Ok.

Dogs aren't generally hopping over the fence into the neighbour's garden to shit all over it though?

You’re not BU. I’m a big cat lover & we have an outside sand box for our cat, and an indoor litter as she’s in at night.
Cats will be cats, but owners needs to take some responsibility for where they shit or help clear up mess if in someone else’s garden.

I have a cat who thankfully does her business in our garden! There is a horrible fighty cat a few doors away who we deterred from our garden by squirting it with a water pistol each time it came in the garden. It’s never returned! Might be worth a try?

As a cat owner (indoor but have free roam of our good sized garden when we are home and stay in our garden as we have trained them to) I love cats, but we have two visitors that like to poop in ours at the moment and it drives me up the wall as SS wants to be out there playing football when he is here!!! I don’t know who they belong to, so we are going to get a motion activated sprinkler in the first instance and then resort to fence spikes if that doesn’t work.

I get cats are cats, but I am against inflicting cat poop on your neighbours which is why we have trained ours. If ours couldn’t be trained we would have fitted the cat safe overhead netting!

I have not read the whole thread so this has probably already been suggested but your best bet is a super soaker. A long distance one works well with very cold water. It won’t hurt the cats but it will scare them and put them off from going in your garden (they will then go in someone else’s but that’s not your problem)

You may have to hang around in the garden for quite a while and keep doing it to get the message home. Cats are creatures of habit and will have a preferred route they use outside and favourite toilet spots where they feel safe (ie they won’t go if there’s a scary dog in that garden) so make it unsafe for them to go in your garden

I have cats and we did this to get rid of an aggressive cat that was coming in and attacking our cats - it worked.

How many are there? My two have been trained by me to come in and use their litter tray and I have a sand pit style area in my own garden which they don't actually use. Cats can be trained and I always train mine.
My neighbours have confirmed that my two never crap in their gardens.
Anyway the electronic devices are pretty good, you can get one for £16.99 on Amazon and spiky plastic matting cut to size helps too, you can get it on temu. I put some down when I'm planting seeds as there are loads of other cats in the neighbourhood.

Came here to say the same - it’s genuinely very unusual for cat shit to be visible, and I’ve had a similar misunderstanding re foxes.

Bamboo works brilliantly but apparently you can buy lion shit online that scares cats away! There’s also spray called “Get Off” that you can put on your pots and planters, only long enough to break the habit (they go back to the same place over and over so will find another victim and forget your garden altogether.)

You could ask your neighbour to cover the cost of the stuff.

Silent Roar Lion Manure - Cat Repellant https://amzn.eu/d/dxlb5zp

Um...It's a public forum?

Why on earth would my house be terrible because I have 9 cats? I have a big house and it’s clean and tidy thanks. What a bizarre thing to suggest.

Yes, they are all neutered, flead and wormed. It costs a lot to feed and care for them but I can afford it.

I’ve not read the entire thread only OPs comments but @SafetyLady have you considered cat proofing your own garden as it will keep them out as well as keep them in .

it sounds like you are a very keen gardener. I have heard that Rosemary, lavender and lemon thyme are not pleasant smells to cats. Certainly, I never find cat poo in my herb bed but I do in other parts of our garden. Of course it may just be a coincidence! Perhaps you could try a few of these plants and see if that helps. It’s a shame your neighbour won’t step up but as they won’t then trying other things might help restore your garden to a cat free sanctuary. Good luck.

It's perfectly normal to not like cats!

I’ve never really liked dogs.
>misses point of thread<

I used to chuck it back onto my ndn garden after she laughed and brushed it off when I mentioned it to her. After a few weeks she came over with some Lions Poo to put in my garden to deter them.

I know it's difficult as a cat owner, but my ndn attitude pissed me off even more which is why I chucked it back in her garden

The Lions Poo worked by the way.

Think you may be the one with a personality defect if you can’t respect that different people like different things. I love cats wouldn’t love any of them shitting in my garden tho!