To Tell My Elderly neighbours about their cat shitting in garden.

[thesagarollson]

I will start off by saying I love cats before anyone bashes me as a cat hater .

I live next door to an elderly and frail couple who have always had cats but after their last one passed away I thought there were too old (80’s) to take on a new one.

I noticed a couple of weeks ago they seem to have a new one which also coincided with shit appearing on my front lawn. Every morning I pick up at least one 🤢.

I have CCTV and had a look just in case a fox but no it was their cat.

I have spent money on various deterrents but to date nothing works and tbh I really don’t want to spend more money to try and resolve it .

People have suggested throw water but it always shits at night ffs and we also now have our bins emptied every 3 weeks and the amount of flies and the smell is awful.

The wife is extremely frail and has just come out of hospital and has carers coming in so I really don’t want to give them more grief, but I chose not to have pets and it really pisses me off spending time , money and the smell especially in this heat.

As extra information I have always generally got on well with them but I need advice on how to approach this. Do I just accept it or try and discuss and tbh can they as cat owners really stop the cat?

Thanks

Absolutely. Asking them to keep it in at night is perfectly reasonable.

I wouldn’t chuck it over the fence but I would put it in their bin wrapped up in a couple of nappy sacks.

They should keep their cat in as should all cat owners and no I don't believe millions of Americans and Australians are cruelly mistreating their cats by keeping them indoors they're just responsible owners willing to put effort into their animals.

That is not happening and it is not true - apart from cat owners who live in cities perhaps?

I very much suspect the OP is not coming back for a while.

It is actually ‘that unpleasant’ ! Why do you think it’s not? Maybe you’ve never had to pick it up?

I picked up my neighbour’s cat’s sloppy cat shit from my lawn most days for an entire summer practically and it was absolutely disgusting. Far worse than dog shit for some reason. It always went on the grass so I couldn’t pick it up ‘cleanly’ and it smelt so bad.

And it isn’t a minor inconvenience each day, it’s disgusting and a bit soul destroying after a while tbh.

I’ve a dog and picking up after him when out and about is nothing like that.

Sprinkle or spray the area with jeys fluid

its not harmful but cats don’t like the smell

spray the area they come onto the lawn and the area they relieve themselves

Yes it is harmful to cats.

Would you installing a KittyLitter tray be better?
You could set it up just inside neighbours' fence.

Do you have a friend who wants their little dog minded for a few weeks?

I think you should mention it to them. If they’re in their eighties they are of a generation where cats were routinely put out at night and indoor litter trays were not provided, so it’s worth checking what arrangements they have.

What they need to do is provide an indoor litter tray and a cat flap so the cat can come and go. You can’t really stop cats shitting where they choose to unfortunately but they should at least provide “facilities”.

It's like "cats shitting in the garden" bingo around here at the moment. I've nearly got a full house.

Cats poo in my garden all the time, I simply remove it, there is no great effort required What do you expect your neighbours to do? Unless they keep the cat indoors - which is no life for a cat in my opinion - it will just do what cats do.

Australian here - while there are councils which have rules about cats its not at all universal. We have two cats - one goes into our back garden and does their business. The other does roam more - but he was a stray and that it what he is used to. I don't think he poos on anyone's front door step - he also does his business at home. More Australians use kitty litter though. It just doesn't seem to be as big an issue here

Yes, this worked for me. I used to shovel it back into the owners next door’s flower beds. I hardly had any after that. I’d just chuck it back rather than have it in my bin.

You need to keep the grass very short. It’s the best hope of deterring them.

The other thread about this recommended squirting cat with a water pistol, you could try that.
Other than that, I agree with putting the poo onto their lawn. They made a choice to get a cat, they can deal with its excrement. They don’t get a free pass just because they are elderly.

Perhaps they can't do anything about it, but it's entirely fair for you to let them know it is happening, and that you're not happy about it. That knowledge doesn't have to spoil whatever relationship you have with them.

Why do people keep saying ‘What do you expect them to do’ on these threads?

Theres plenty of things cat owners can do to prevent their pet being a nuisance to others, they just choose not to bother.

Noise detector deterrent works with cats. Get them off amazon. In the meantime I’d put the catshit in their bin.

The cat gives them joy but no to OP.
Id hate to clean up some cat's shit. This is also why I hate cats and their selfish owners, get one, keep it in your house isntead of expecting other people to have t oclean gardens and whatnot.

I think you’re not supposed/advised to flush animal waste down the toilet due to pathogenic content. Though I can get why one might want to as it tends to reek much worse than dog poo in my experience. 🥴

We have one kitten that’s nearly an adult now and he used to exclusively use his litter box but does go in our flower beds now. I hope he doesn’t use the neighbours’ gardens and have been up front with our neighbours and told them to let me know if he does and I will go round and pick it up. Not sure what else we can do and we love our cat. I wouldn’t mind if they sprayed him with water though. I would not keep my breed of cat indoors unless he was causing a real nuisance.

Key difference is that by law a dog must be controlled whereas a cat can roam. You don’t have to like it but it’s the way that it is in this country.

I wouldn’t fall out with my elderly neighbours over this. The cat obviously brings them comfort and most people’s gardens are usually full of some sort of wildlife shit.

They don’t have to. They aren’t legally required to. You don’t get to tell people what to do.

To answer a few points :

1. Maybe there is a few cat shit posts cause it’s summer and cats are out and about 🤷‍♀️given the amount of people using MN is it that unusual or is their some kind of cat shit troll (which I defo not ).

2. Yes it is most definitely unpleasant especially picking up shit that’s been baking in the sun all day with flies to then lie in my bin.

3. Why would I not be coming back to the post immediately apologies for working FFS 🤦‍♀️

4. I have ordered motion activated sprinklers and we’ll take from there.

Thanks

They tend to go where they can smell they've been before so just discreetly tuck it in to the neighbours front garden and it will shit all over theirs eventually.

Not only elderly but at least one of them is 'very frail'.
Let's say they were both born in 1945 ish so they would have been in their prime in the 60's, virtually every household had outdoor cats as they helped control the mouse/rat population.
People were far less precious about outdoor spaces, it's a recent phenomenon with the mass marketing of (sodding) bi fold doors meaning everyone wants to 'bring the outdoors in' BUT what they really mean is a sanitised version of the outdoors.
I am old enough to remember when picking up dog poo was just not a 'thing'. I still feel conflicted picking up my dogs poo and wrapping it in plastic bags to go to landfill when the rain and mother nature would have mostly taken care of it not too many years ago.
Regardless of people's opinions on the cat, it might be nice to remember the world may as well have been a different planet when OP's neighbours grew up, we all might appreciate a bit of compassion when we get to that age and the world around us ceases to make much sense.
But go ahead, start flinging cat shit in an old, frail person's garden, really make their last few years miserable because they chose to get a cat.

Absolutely spot on. If only more people were able to think critically like this instead of focusing on their own entitlement. Yes it’s not ideal to have to pick up cat shit but when you live in a community you do sometimes have to face the consequences of other people’s choices and lifestyles. You can do it graciously or you can moan about the inconvenience and fall out with people.