Cats! aargh - a rant (feline lovers don't read this)

[knickerelasticjones]

We live in a lovely street, little houses, little gardens all very victorian and charming.

Except....

Why? WHY? do all of my neighbours persist in getting cats? Seriously almost everybody has not one cat, but TWO. And I am fed up - every single morning my garden is covered in cat poo. I've tried cat pepper, lion dung (yes really) all sorts of things to keep them out but nothing works really. The thing that really pisses me off is that the cats use my garden as a latrine as I have lawn and plants - as opposed to most of my cat owning neighbours who have thoughtfully paved / decked their gardens so the cats CAN'T GO TO THE LOO THERE.

It's not the cats that I'm annoyed at really - hey they're just doing what comes naturally. It's the neighbours. And I like my neighbours, I'm just so fed up of this.

I had to remove cat shit when I was pregnant, in spite of the risks just to allow my DD to play in the garden.

My DDs pop up tent and tunnel thing has now been ruined as a cat sprayed/peed all over it and it stinks. But what can I do? I don't know which moggy is the offending one so I can't very well go and bill the owner (not that I would anyway - I'm not really very assertive about such things).

I think the only answer is for me to leave some of DDs dirty nappies in the cat owners gardens. As a king of payback - now that's not unreasonable really, is it? is it?

Ground-covering plants might well be the best way to go in the long run, or maybe you could leave a covered litter tray in the garden and they'll use that? You'd still have to clean it but at least it'd be in one place.

Re the sonic things, I bought plug-in sonic rodent repellents when we had a small invasion (they're pretty good, actually) and it turns out that an "ultrasonic" noise which is too high-pitched for adults to hear, is not too high-pitched for teenagers. It might make your garden a no-go area for your dc too.

Re the squirty water. Use a decent water gun (the big ones you can get now will shoot water for yards) and add a squirt of washing-up liquid to the water. Cats (obviously) hate the taste of the w-up liquid when they are licking their fur dry.

Just an extra tip!

can i remind you that harming a pet will get oyu introuble wiht the law

do not put washign up liquid in it
htat is an offence

Aaah, but you need orange juice in water pistol.....citrus you see.

I never found bottles of water worked at all.
But clippings from the hawthorn hedge were successful, although that was unintentional...too tired to clear them up.

Have read silver foil is meant to be good too.
I believe in Australia cats are regarded as ferral animals and are not allowed to roam free. (I think, not 100% sure, but know they are regarded as ferral in other countries too)

cruelty to animals act 1911

to terrify an animal

is an offence

finbars niebours poured dirty water over hers

they then retched when celanign themslves

thast nice sint it?

Just a thought but maybe a charity like the cats protection league may be able to help/advise.

fizzbuzz.... some cats are feral, just like some dogs are feral feral means they've gone wild.... they're no longer domesticated. cats as a species cannot be feral as long as they are kept as pets... i think you may have read something about feral cats and misinterperated.

knickerelastic, are there no bushes anywhere that they could go under..... most cats don't like to do their business out in the open like that, it sounds like there's a definite lack of available toilet areas. how about planting some bushes down the end and filling the rest of the garden with lemon verbena and other plants that deter them?

there are also little devices you can get in garden centres that emit a sound that humans can't hear but animals hate. there are specific ones for cats iirc and they are supposed to be quite effective.

i would stop leaving kids toys lying around the garden anyway tbh, there's more than cat pee that could make them dangerous to play in, any material that can hold a smell can hold bactertia as well and you don't know whether rats or other nasties are running around peeing in them at night.

We had this problem, we got a Dog. Dog got hold of a cat once now our neighbours catsavoid us ..Cat wasnt hurt btw but was absolutly terrified and obviously put the word out.

You need to borrow a Dog.

Oh ok, as I said wasn't 100% sure. I think they have some sort of controls over them though, domestic cats that is...

We found a friends male neutered dog over for a few hours twice a month to water the garden worked a treat.

Citrus peelings are good.

Mint / other strong herbs / lavender.

Found these :

"Try planting pungent smelling plants around the borders of your garden. Cats hate strong smells on themselves and will avoid areas where they might pick something up on their fur.

Another smelly solution maybe to put a few drops of eucalyptus oil on some used tea bas an spread these around your garden. The oil tends to last longer than curry powder and pepper which cats also hate the smell of."

My Mum bought some plants from the Garden centre that apparently the cats don't like the smell of( they stink of cat wee tbh) but they have worked might get some next year when garden is not just a rubbish dump coz sick of cleaning cat poo off shoes after hanging washing out. My Dad also has a catapult!!

I don't like cats. the previous owner of our house had a cat, which had infested our house with its fleas! I mean infested! Big Time - We called environmental health 7 (YES SEVEN) times to deal with it and then we paid stupid money for a company to come and get rid of them.

It wasn't the cat's fault - the owner just didn't de-flea the cat - poor thing. It was AWFUL I tell you - AWFUL!!!

Also, my grandad uses a sling shot to scare cats (NO HE DOESN'T HIT THEM) but it frightens them away! lol

And those things that emit sounds that cats hear but humans don't - I HEAR THEM AND THEY ARE HORRIBLE HIGH PITCHED sounds - It kills my ears - I have strange ears that can't hear low pitched sounds, but can hear hight pitched sounds - very well. Enough that i would have to move house if my neighbours got one. My MIL's neighbour has one and I get dreadful headaches when we stay there.

have just googled.

the feral cat colonies over there are killing native species to the point of extinction as they're not a native species and are therefore disturbing the natural balance (same as mink are doing over here and goats and rabbits are also doing over there). there are initiatives in place to catch, neuter and release them in order to eliminate the feral cat colonies within a few generations however most feral cats are killed.

i think you must have read something asking people to be careful with their pet cats to ensure they aren't killed when mistaken for feral cats as when controls were called for in relation to domestic cats they were rejected.

cat mint helps, nice mauve flowers too, self seeds easily, its deciduous though so only works in late spring, summer and early autum, sadly I am starting to have this problem already, my dog only died on wednesday and my neighbours cats are moving in already. my neighbour has 5 cats and a dog, they are ok with him but my dog kept them away quite nicely. I am going to get an RSPCA cat watch thing, the silent burst of audio that scares them away as I have many birds nesting in my garden too, have got cat mint in 2 places but I will allow that to spread this year instead of pulling up the seedlings like I usually do

if a cat or animal is damaging your property it is not an offence to terrify scare them off. washing up liquid in water is an acceptable way of deterring cats as it is not classed as a noxious substance. a cat shitting in your garden is not good, a dogs poo can contain many organisms that are harmful to kids and the leaving of dog shit in public places is prohibited by law, cat shit can be just as bad and sometimes worse, therefore to protect your kids from cat shit bugs, scaring them off is totally acceptable in whatever way is necessary to achieve this

redhead81, same here with the hearing, can hear higher pitched sounds easy but not low pitched sounds, when having a medical many years ago for a job, the doc told me my hearing was shifted so many whatevers up, so I had the same width of sounds as others but with a different range, can be very annoying sometimes huh?

God I feel for you - our last house had this problem and it was HELL!

I remember one piece of advice - which I never used. Capture the cats (individually) and take them to a cat rescue place- tell them you've found them and that they are strays. Make sure you take them to a far away cat rescue place so they don't get rehomed close to you. And don't go to the same rescue place too often or they will cotton on to what you are up to.

MIL has one of those high pitched things in her garden and it works.

Cats try to stroll in my house as there's been cats in there before we lived there (yuck) I throw water at them I not only don't like them, I'm quite scared of them because they look/act evil. They're freaky.

Definately feel for you. Can't see the point of people having cats when all they do is walk round pooing in other people's gardens. It's awful that they're ruining play time for your little girl. It's so filthy isn't it?

I like shitting on your garden.
You squirt me then I'll press charges.

RedHead81- they hurt my ears too! Do you hear high pitched noises when you walk past displays of televisions in shops? Or just from some people's t.v's in their homes? I do.

i have a map at home wiht unshitted on areas. You are this quarter's project.

If you want an unshitted on garden, then you must provide us with toilet facilities.

We don't want any one ply crap bum paper either. It's double quilted or your flowerbeds get it

I like those wet wipes.

For freshness

And we want bidets.