To put spikes on my fence!

[IgnoranceNotOk]

Next door’s cat is driving us mad. It’s using our garden constantly as it’s toilet!

We’ve tried chasing it away, when we see it. And I’ve got a spray bottle of citronella and white vinegar I’ve been spraying around the garden (and would love to spray the cat!).

So I’ve seen little plastic strips of spikes you can put on the top of the fence (it’s our fence) and I was wondering what others think about putting them up? I know it’ll look horrible but hopefully it won’t be forever and will put the cat off and then it’ll get in the habit of going somewhere else.

AIBU?

Can’t cat proof your garden for whatever silly excuse you come up with? Don’t get a cat simple

Unbelievable that people are coming here to tell us how great their cat is for 'mental health'.

Do these people not realise that it's only they who get any benefit from their bloody cat and everyone else just gets the cat shit and slaughtered wildlife in their garden?

There are days when the fact that I have to stick around to feed DCat is the only reason why I don't step under a fast train going through a ghost station. Suicides and the loss of taxes paid by suicide victims cost the country money and impact upon you.

Your lack of comprehension of the impact of mental illness on both the patient and wider society is noted.

Thought experiment: everyone with a cat is mandated to make it indoor-only or have it euthanised by end of March.

Do you really think that your garden will become a clean safe and sanitary environment for pregnant women and toddlers from April onwards?

• Feral cats will still exist.
• Foxes still exist.
• Rats, which carry Weil's Disease, still exist, and now have fewer predators.
• Weasels and stoats still exist.
• Birds, which crap in-flight all over my washing, still exist.
• Glass bottles, used syringes, and used condoms still exist to be thrown over your fence.
• All the biting stinging insects still exist.

You can't make a cat use a tray if they don't want to.

My cat has always had a tray. She will use it to pee in but absolutely refuses to poo in it.
She wants to go outside for that.

So my husband dug a border in the garden for her which she ignored in favour of shitting in my strawberry patch 🤬 so that's hers now. We have made it private, allowed the grass to grow a bit and we clean it regularly and turn over the soil.

She's not allowed out at night and she only goes out in the day to use the loo, do a circuit of the garden and then she's back inside.

I don't think you have to make your cat use a litter tray if they find that distressing but you do have to ensure that their toilet space is in your own garden, is suitable for them, is kept clean and that they are not causing a nuisance to others.

It wouldn't for my late Cat. He merrily licked the stuff off the Christmas tree when I was trying to deter him from chomping on the branches

Completely agree.

And @VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia point about suicide and loss of taxes is so ridiculous it's beyond contempt. Besides, the majority of people are net benefactors of, not contributors to, the country's finances so can't begin to imagine where that notion has come from.

We don’t have lots of those issues where I live - no rubbish thrown over fences , no feral cats ( or none I’ve ever seen ) , no stoats or weasels ( I’d like them ) . I’ve never seen a rat in my garden although I’m sure there must be some nearby and I doubt any of the fat lazy cats round here could catch them . The insects are fine - I have fly screens on all my windows . Most of your list we can do nothing about - roaming cats we can , it’s not a case of indoor or nothing people can have catios or cat proof their garden to keep their animal in . When I was a kid , in some places people still let their dogs roam times have changed for dogs so why not cats

CATS HAVE OWNERS, THEY ARE A CHOICE SOMEONE HAS MADE TO GET

none of the other things listed do. Not sure why that is so hard to understand

I’ve never seen a rat in my garden although I’m sure there must be some nearby

Definitely.

Saying because we can't control everything, we have no obligation to control those things we actually could control is the weakness fucking argument I've ever heard.

Catio. Cat proof fencing. Leash training for outdoor toileting. Trellis in front of low fence owned by neighbour or centuries old hedge.
There's a difference between can't and don't want to and can't does not included those things that are perfectly possible.

I can't grow wings and fly to the moon. I don't want to rob a bank.

That said, it's fucking disgusting to want to hurt an animal or be happy an animal is insured because its owner is a twat.

Go hurt the owner if you feel someone needs to be injured to bring about change.