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?

Cats HATE vinegar. Not sure how you would use it. Google it and see what you can find. Good luck.

Unfortunately not all cats do. Mine likes to have a dump in the litter tray then leave it for all to see like she's too good to be covering it up 🙄

We had a regular stream of cats go through our garden until we got new neighbours with 2 dogs. The dogs are good, but they have stopped the cats. The other day, I saw a rat in the garden, first one in over 20 years. I am now trying to encourage the cats back.

Cats hate citrus. Lemon peel in the soil!

Have you thought about getting a cat yourself? A big tom cat to ward off unwanted visitors (and shit in your neighbours garden)

I throw orange and satsuma peel by the entrance to my garden, grapefruit and lemon peel would do as well. They don’t like the citrus smell. Seems to work. Free and non toxic

As a cat owner I agree(ish). I wouldn’t get the cat wet but I’d squirt near enough against a fence or something so the sound/splash would scare it off. They’ll soon get the hint

Our lovely neighbour made an outdoor litter tray for hers. Her cats use that now

I’m very much a dog person (don’t dislike cats but would always owned dogs and never considered a cat). Though loads of my neighbours have cats that 100% poop on my grass (their poop is 1/4 of the dogs), I just pick them up when I’m picking up my dogs poop because it’s not too much and I’m literally picking it up poop anyway 😂 but I know if I said to any of my neighbours their cat has pooped in the garden they would come and pick it up 100%…. So for me YANBU xx

Though I will add, overall I’m an animal lover and the only animal that isn’t welcome in my garden is the angry badger that tried to fight my dog….and before anyone jumps on me with it’s just doing what’s natural, neighbourhood cats aren’t scared to walk through the garden while the dogs in and know the worst she will do is follow them about to have a nosey at what they are doing so it’s not that it was intimidated/attacked.

Cats do not always bury their poo. I have a neighbour with 4 cats who all shit in my garden. I find the cat alarms go work but you need a lot of them. I’ve tried chilli, coffee, garden centre lion poo and everything else. It is on top, it is the cats and it does stink. If I can get them with the hose I will, and have. Yes, I’m a cat hater.

I have a cat. I've not had cats for 30 years because we lived on busy roads.
I've added lattice panels to the top of my fence and moved garden furniture so he can't get out of our garden. I pick up his poos when I poo pick after my dog.

I must have the only cat that likes to poo inside. i think he's broken. 🤣 he will literally run inside and upstairs to his litter tray to poo then go outside again. I've even tried removing the litter tray but he will pop in the bath. 🤮
Anyway have you tried a sprinkler or water gun to scare them away. If my cat was pooing in someone's garden I'd feel terrible and pick it up.
Since you've got camera footage and know it's not a fox I'd throw it back over their wall. It's not your cat after all.

Not true my ex-neighbours cat used to poo on our lawn all the time, usually right next to our washing line post, we caught it in the act.

Really! I love dogs but don't want them doing their business in my garden either! I appreciate that cats are more difficult to control but if I had cats and they did this I would put a litter tray outside for them.

Years ago we had an outdoor cat and a neighbour from three doors away came round to complain our cat was pooing in his flower bed. As there were at least three similar looking black cats nearby I'm not sure how he knew it was ours but he was adamant it was. I let him rant on and then calmly told him that I'd have a word with the cat and tell her not to poo in his garden, and closed the door. A few weeks later he walked towards me on a path and I couldn't avoid him. I was expecting another rant but he smiled and told me that what I'd done had obviously worked as there had been no poo since. I assured him that I had actually told the cat not to poo in his garden again but to use ours as this was her place. She obviously listened well!

Put orange peel , chilli powder or moth balls around your plants, that should deter them there are also sprays ,you can buy online to deter them too .

We had this problem until we ordered one of those deterrent sensors. It’s solar powered but takes a battery as well. When it detects movement it flashes and emits a high pitched sound. We haven’t had any problems with cat poo since.

Lemon balm deters cats visiting gardens. And citronella oil, diluted and sprayed in the area they favour. It doesn't take much and it works.

I’m an animal lover but I have to say the cats shitting in my garden drives me crazy. They poop in all my plant pots and beds - the lawn, the whole garden is almost unusable due to the smell. I get so pissed because I can’t imagine my neighbors would put up with my dog shitting in their garden. And they don’t bury their poo :( Also have tried every kind of deterrent. I’m not sure what people should do but I find it outrageous that my child can’t go in the garden because of someone else’s pet.

Sadly, one of my cats always poos on the lawn in winter! She does try and scratch grass up over it afterwards but it makes a right mess and I have to pick up as best I can. She has just started again now and it's not even that the soil is frozen which would make it understandable.......

Cats absolutely can and do poop on lawns, even driveways. I know because my neighbours’ cat does and I see her doing it! I have cats too but they come in to poop in their litter tray.( Wish they’d go and do their business in someone else’s garden sometimes!😂) We also have foxes and badgers that poop in our garden too. There’s nothing to be done about any of them apart from some natural deterrents eg. Male urine, lion poop, solar lights, metallic windmills, high pitched noise emitting machines (they are horrible when people use them on their front lawns and they upset small children!)
Put cuttings of Holly in the flowerbeds, they don’t like getting spiked in the butt.

Sorry, this is nonsense. We have a whole lavender border edging the lawn - our cat shits on the grass right beside the lavender. Agree that neighbour should deal with the shit, though.

Just seconding Neverland's post. We got one for a neighbour's dog who was using our front garden as his loo early in the mornings. It works. Another neighbour put me on to it as it had worked for her deterring her NDN's two cats coming into her garden.

I'm a cat lover, but like other posters, I would be tempted to lobb the rude neighbour's cat's poo back over the fence

I love cats. That's why mine is an indoor cat; he won't die due to getting hit by a car or attacked by a wild animal. It also has the pleasant side effect of not finding his shit in my garden, and nobody else has to deal with it either.