To not want neighbours cats in my garden?

[Rainbow3210]

Our neighbour has cats and they keep coming into our garden. They have also made their way into our house several times through the window and back door. I’m currently pregnant and have two young children. The children get upset when they come in as they don’t understand why they come and go (they want them to stay to play with). We have a lot of songbirds birds that sit in a bush in our garden and the cats are constantly trying to hunt the birds.

The cats are also doing the toilet in the garden which my husband has to clean with a hose. I believe it’s not entirely safe to clean up cat mess when pregnant.

I spoke to the neighbour and asked if they could stop the cats coming into my house and garden. They said there is nothing that can be done.

Is it unreasonable that this is bothering me?

Our neighbours cat spends more time in our garden (pooing and trying to catch the birds) than in its own garden. It constantly tries to come into our house despite us having a dog.

I read that they don’t like broken egg shells under foot so I now save all our shells and pop them on the garden. Also, they don’t like citrus so I cut up lemons and put them around the garden.

Another thing I found out was that cats apparently don’t like lavender (funny thing as cat owner neighbour has lined the edge of her garden with lavender and cat never goes into their garden) so I now have lavender plants to do the same!
Next thing will be a darn water pistol 🙈 😂

Turn the hose on them each and every time they step foot in your garden - that will put them off. Also the sensors from Amazon that put high pitched noise when cats come into garden. People can’t hear it but it does actually work

You can only drench the cat when you see it

Unless you use motion sensor hoses

Reported you

As a cat owner I really do sympathise. I wish mine would stay in my garden. Most of the time they do. It’s mainly males who wander, female cats tend to stay in their garden or at most go into one house away.

We have a couple of neighbours cats that come in our house and have gone upstairs, thankfully no mess left.

You could consider having a water pistol to hand and squirt them if you see them?

A woman moved to our village a few years ago, she had six or seven cats. She’d previously living in a cul de sac and her cats were used to lying on the road in the sun. They carried on doing this on the busy a road outside her house. Within months five of the cars had been run over. She was upset about it but said nothing could have be done to stop them. If that’s really the case then why not rehouse them? It must’ve been horrible for the people who ran the cats over too. I know one of them and she and her husband were really upset. She’s an older lady and it’s shaken her confidence in driving.

I don’t understand how your can be really upset when your cat is hurt or killed but do nothing about the behaviour that causes that death. And maybe have a thought for the poor driver who ends up killing your pet too

The other issue is I think their cats are female and seem to be attracting all the Tom cats in the area to our garden and our neighbouring houses gardens. Other neighbours have complained about the issue

Cat detterant included automated sprinklers

Spikes on the fence, electric fence kit, cat deterrent from homebase, mixture of pepper and lemon sprayed to the garden, motion detector water spray. It sucks when cats shit in your garden. There is a reason I don't have pets so i dont want to clean up after othera.If it is the next door neighbour then just put it on their side.

Where I'm from you need to keep cat on leash and walk them. When my bf first saw it when visiting family he thought it was hilarious. Now due to neighbours cat ruining his garden, he's thinking that the leash is a fantastic idea.

Hope you aren’t short of money OP!

I have several lillies in my garden, bought because I like them didn't know about other functions. I have currently 4-5 cats that made a habit of congregating in my garden, shitting, having fights in the middle of the night and constantly chasing the birds. I probably need to multiply my lillies by 1000s to get them to fuck off somewhere else, so far no effect.

There really is next to nothing the owners can do. Your garden just needs to be made as cat unfriendly as possible. I agree with giant supersoakers and I’m sure there are other things which repel them and a search of google would tell you what. I’m thinking citrusy smells? And if they are climbing your fence to get in you can buy spikes to put across the top.

By the way, not everyone has a fence to cat proof, a lot of people have hedges.

Or dry stone wall!

Lillie's are poisonous to cats, please don't use these, or spikes or an electric fence.

Someone further up the thread successfully cat proofed her own garden due to her neighbour. I have asked the poster how she did it but no reply yet.

You are another person winding yourself up with a fake version of reality! Have you any idea what a massive stray cat crisis we've got in the UK? That's your biggest problem, those are the cats that are killing wildlife because they have to in order to survive! My cats were ex ferals as little ones and they are happy staying on our property, my female has never killed anything to my knowledge, my boy was a bit of a sod for about the first 3 years of his life and the.urges to bring mice and birds in stopped and he's almost 7 now. Strays are nightmare to all of us and it's bloody heartbreaking at times when they want to get in because they've got nowhere to go thanks to someone else's neglect. There are no magic spells to take away the need to be outdoors for cats that have previously lived on the streets, they aren't inanimate objects, they can get depressed and frantic to get out of you were to suddenly lock them inside all the time. Rescue cats are a different thing to a tiny kitten that can be raised to be indoor all it's life.

Too late, I love em!

Best keep mr shnuggles away eh?

That is the dilemma, I love seeing the hedgehogs about, last night coming back home it made my day to see one on the driveway, running to the back garden when we arrived. But I am sick to the maximum of cats, the numbers are constantly increasing and it is not sustainable.

When people post that the next door neighbours cats are the problem, why wouldn’t you believe it instead of blaming it on stray cats. And you say people are winding themselves up with a ‘fake’ version of reality! The lengths you cat lovers go to is unbelievable. I had one neighbour with 5 cats all of which shit all over my garden and tormented birds.

We bought a roll of this very tall thin Bamboo fencing which looks quite nice and has stopped the cats going over and sitting on the neighbours gazebo. The rest of the fence we out humane spikes on - the neighbour put carpet gripper on which is brutal so we replaced it.

yes and be careful it can also harm your unborn baby as they can carry nasty parasites.

Thank you.

All bluetits are small.