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?

Chilli flakes, orange peels, water pistol, a good "shoooooo", scary cat deflectors, those horrible sonic noise things....lots of options that don't require you hitting the actual animal for needing to relieve itself..

Lob the crap back over the fence. I wfh and one thing that seemed to work for me was banging on the window or going out and just shooing the cat away, my neighbours cat stopped coming in when I started doing that. He was suspicious of me although I’d never hurt an animal.

@septembersunrise ‘Cats will never poo on a lawn…’ oh, yes they will, my old cat used to poo on our lawn!

You have my sympathy OP, I love cats but hated when someone else’s was using our garden at the front of the house to poop in (I knew it wasn’t my own as she never went there being too old to jump the back fence). If she’s outside, my current cat comes in from outdoors to use her litter tray then goes back out again!

In fairness, I’d be pretty shocked to see a tiger in Africa too.

Ive had countless conversations throughout this thread. Do you have anyone better to speak to because I really have no desire to carry on with your pointless nitpicking.

Makes a change from yet another dog post.

How many this week? 10?

Definitely give this a try

Give it back to them. Make it their problem.

Godamit, I was gonna put lion but tiger sounded more fierce. I accept the shame I have brought on my family.

What utter rubbish, the neighbourhood cats in my area were shitting on top of my plants and heather YES directly on top and it stunk. I watched them numerous times on CCTV.

Bugger all to do with Foxes.

In the end I have grown thick rose bushes all over my fencing and walls after 5 years I now have zero filthy cats in my garden as they cannot get through the roses on my fences and my garden is teaming with birds.

Many cats don't bury their 'doings'. I feel for you as I couldn't risk gardening at all whilst pregnant with my DS as it seemed that all of our local cats had chosen our garden to be the collective 'dumping' ground, including on the lawn. The owner is unlikely to see it as an issue, sadly. We tried a few things to deter cats but the best thing we found were a few toy rubber snakes strewn about the garden, my in-laws suggested it as it had worked for them. Luckily, nowadays we have just one cat that hangs out in our garden as all the others seem to be scared of him! And he seems to have refined toilet habits.😁

Well, pointing out actual facts isn't actually nit-picking though.
Also, your countless conversations are all basically on the same theme of how wonderful cats are and nobody should dare not like them.

We had an elderly rescue cat who started being attacked in his own garden by another cat who suddenly appeared in the area. We bought a motion sensor sprinkler and when our cat was inside, we switched it on.

The cats movement triggered it and cat got a soaking. It took a few goes to get the position right but once we had worked out the cats route, it worked a treat.

You're a solid bore at this point.

Wow, it's really nice to see that people with cars too don't think I'm being unreasonable. Thanks!

Again, right back at ya. Tschüss.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Who is the pot and who's the kettle in this scenario? 🤔

Offer to dogsit for a friend periodically - ideally a dog that chases but doesn't catch cats. A terrier rather than a greyhound for instance.

The cats will learn, though the effect wears off after a while.

You are definitely not being unreasonable here, I don't think there is any doubt on that. We've been there - even when we owned a cat other cats came to our garden to poop, and they did it on random places (under washing line for example). It was extremely annoying.

Well if you read the posts from the start it's fairly evident, to me at least. Anyway, got better things to do than continue that conversation. :)

I’m an animal lover but have no interest in owning a cat because of this. I would hate to upset my neighbours because my animal chose to use their garden as a toilet. An animal burying their poo in your flower beds is even worse! It’s revolting when you’re weeding and dig up cat turds. Luckily the way our new garden is designed cats can’t get in but I get how OP feels. Definitely scoop it up and drop it back over her fence.

I've tried so many things! The trouble is that they - and one in particular - 'go' everywhere. So for instance I stopped it happening in the strawberry patch with net + cocktail sticks, but then it was in the herb pots, and actually on top of some other plants!

I love cats wish i could buy a farm and fill it with cats but it's

err - I have two cats. One will bury her poo in the litter tray, one prefers to poo outside - on the grass.

You really can't generalise like this :)

I'm on your side @Nevermind202020