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 second that! These are the only things that work for us. We literally tried everything to stop both sets of NDN's cats shitting in our garden.
It's so nice now to open the back doors and not be hit with the smell of cat shit.
We didn't put them on the fence, we just placed them on the floor, between the borders etc.

Having had cats for over twenty years, I have never known a cat not to cover it up. I have known my cats not to cover up their vomit and to be frank a cat's vomit can look like a turd. We kept our cats inside for 7 months before allowing them out, two years later they will come into the house and use the litter tray then go back outside to continue their play.

Having cats hasn't given you any keen insights into their habits then @Defacto24. It's really quite common for cats not to bury their mess.

We had this issue

After trying a variety of methods with zero success, I read cats hate the smell of lemon. So I bought a bag of lemons, cut them into quarters. Pricked the flesh so the scent was strong. And then scattered the quarters all over the garden. I condensed several quarters around the cats favourite toilet area.

Wasn't expecting it to work, thought it was potentially an old wives tale. But no cat has used my garden as a toilet again.

One likes to curl up and sleep on our front doormat. But I've no issue with that, as long as it refrains from shitting in the garden!

I voted yabu simple because no, you really can't stop cats doing that. You can get stuff to put down to deter. Alarms only they can hear, they dislike citrus etc. I'd just put it back in their garden every time. The thing is also it might not be their cat every single time doing it. Just because you've seen them do it frequently, other cats definitely are doing it too to try and mark their territory over the other cat. Even if they somehow stopped their cat, another one would take its place.

I don't have cats now, but have had two in the past (both passed on now). They didn't bury theirs. And my NDNs cats don't either. NDNs cats both decided a specific area of my lawn was their toilet. It couldn't be buried because it was a lawn and not gravel or loose soil, but it didn't stop them using that spot constantly.

Cats poo as well spray to mark their territory. They don't always bury.

You do relalise that this is classed as antisocial behaviour dont you ?, and could get you into trouble with the police. I know this because my neighbour took it upon herself to do this with my cats poo, instead of speaking to us about it she took it upon herself to pick the poo up and leave it on our door step or throw it over the garden wall. She wouldnt stop, despite me constantly telling her that if she told me that my cat had been in her garden I would go and pick it up. In the end I informed the polixe and she got charged and had an asbo against her.

I have a border in my garden where cats poo and don't bury it it's disgusting
I use cocktail sticks in the mud it helps stop it. Tried orange peel, scarers etc they don't work.

You need two things. Hosepipe + sprinkler.

I have a cat (who shits in our garden and the neighbours). I use the hosepipe to give him a light sprinkle if I catch him in the act.

They are cats, nowt u can do I'm afraid 🤷‍♀️

Just read this as I'm facing the front window, watching a cat from down the street sh*tting in the middle of my driveway... 😂

I've got 2 outdoor cats and DH made them a toilet mound in the corner of our garden. It's mostly sand, a few bags of soil and some grit. DH rakes it over and adds fresh sand about once a month. The poo just rots down over time. I see them using it. I don't know why more people don't do this.

With you on this, its disgusting, whether left or buried, you still have to deal with it.
I would save it all in an old bucket and take it round drop it in their garden.
I hate cats for this reason alone, i dont see why we have to pick up dog mess and not cats.

I use a motion activated water sprayer off of Amazon in my garden, stops cats and foxes, it works great!

Cats like soft sand more. Ask neighbor to make a large sand box in their yard. This will help deter them from trying to find hiding spots they can't easily dig in. Do what you can to make yours less easy to dig in.

Some say to put moth balls down and that will help deter the Cats. In some areas put forks that stick up or rocks.

As for the spray, it's too much ammonia for the plant which is why it's dying from root burn. If you put a drip water hose and keep it moist it might help to keep the ammonia broken up. Hopefully not too much to cause root rot. It has to dry periodically. So use when Cats are most active, early am at night. (Someone mentioned motion sensor waterer)

It sounds like they have too many cats. If that's the case you might want to consider reporting them to animal control because if there is too many it's almost impossible to keep their vet care.

I agree, if they all buried it how would it be just laying on my soil? Bloody awful!

Some of them don't. Our neighbour's cat craps on our driveway/garden and just leaves it without burying it. We have seen her do it multiple times.

A neighbour’s cat pops on our lawn!

There is a cat who lives in my street who is often in my garden. I don't really care if he craps in my beds etc, but he is a vicious little knob, and will attack me if I dare to walk past him. He even goes for my dog. He is genuinely terrifying.

100% this!
I’d buy a poop scoop and throw it back over onto her garden!
My neighbour has a gravel drive and the cats used to poo all over it…. She got some ultra sonic scarer and it seems to work!

how is throwing YOUR cat shit back over onto YOUR land harassment?
9 cats?… you’re the nuisance!
we have someone on our estate like you, cats out every bin night ripping open the bin bags (we don’t have wheelie bins yet)… they’re a bloody pest.. thankfully they don’t tear mine as I spray the bags.

Boggling at someone foisting NINE cats on the neighbourhood to shit where they please claiming it would constitute "harassment / nuisance" should anyone deliver the shit back where it belongs.
Some people astound me. Not in a good way.

I had exactly your problem . Upstairs neighbour got two cats . He ripped a hole in a shared door to our gardens so cats could access his garden without discussion. Their first port of call was my garden which had a gravel surround border My outdoor space became and was their litter tray and my bedroom windowsill was where they jumped and thumped at 2 am . Upstairs man would not clean up his cat mess he would agree to but never actually would and as two cats it was quite the shitshow in my garden. Flies were now all around my kitchen window . I started worrying about the diseases cat poo/ flies carry as my mother was going through Cancer treatment with zero immune system. I was then having to clean up the mess as he just never did. So as suggested here on a day of built up frustration I lobbed the cats crap it into his garden with a spade. He went ballistic at me in my driveway and another male neighbour joined in ganging up on me saying it was foxes on my windowsill . Lesson there was living alone as a woman in a ground floor flat wasn’t the greatest oh and lobbing shit back to cats owner wasn’t a smart move! I had the garden relandscaped by getting a loan and the gardener saw first hand what I was having to put up with.
Man upstairs then moved so making garden work completely pointless expense but letting out his flat to tenants that had a dog and a baby and both were at home 24/7 and flooded the bath through to my kitchen ceiling twice.
I sold to a property developer at a loss and have never been so grateful for having more rational considerate neighbours as still can’t get over being ganged up on.
I don’t advise throwing shit back to cat owners garden

Apparently sprinkling chilli powder on the flower beds will stop them.