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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To want to maim a cat?

23 replies

Daffodilly · 21/04/2009 21:54

Well at least to do something unpleasant to it!

In this lovely weather I have french doors to garden open and neighbours cat keeps walking uninvited into our house. This eve after I had closed up for the night I found said cat waiting at the doors to be let OUT about 20 mins later. Where had it been all this time???? Somewhere upstairs I guess.

I have a newborn DS and don't feel comfortable having someone else's cat roaming in and out as it chooses. Plus if I wanted my beds and sofas covered in cat hair, I'd get a cat!

So what do I have to do to teach it it isn't welcome INSIDE our house. The cr*pping in the garden is another thread altogether...

OP posts:

mrsmaidamess · 21/04/2009 21:54

Get a water pistol. It won't come back.

SoupDragon · 21/04/2009 21:55

Get a rottwieller.

stillenacht · 21/04/2009 21:55

no YANBU - they are eeeeeeeeevil

Original poster

Daffodilly · 21/04/2009 22:01

Oh water pistol is a good idea. Not sure if I can justify in front of DD (2.5) though. She thinks it is GREAT when the pussy cat comes to visit .

OP posts:

KingCanuteIAm · 21/04/2009 22:05

Has anyone tried those sonic things that are supposed to deter cats? Perhaps you could set one up close to the doors?

Or, a large water tray in the door way she cannot jump over so would have to go through...

Erm, tbh the water pistol will work best long term but you will need to sit hidden by the doors and get her every time she even comes close!

I hate cats - well, except mine of course but he is different

Hangingbellyofbabylon · 21/04/2009 22:07

it's a cat not a lion - get a grip. It's an urban myth about cats climbing on babies anyway. But if you do want to deter the cat, I recommend everytime you see it clapping loudly and stamping feet etc. It will scare the bejeebers out the cat and hopefully they won't keep coming back. And you can't let dd be at all affectionate to the cat in or out of the house as the cat needs to have a clear message from you all.

Gentle · 21/04/2009 22:08

Hiss at it and stamp. May need to repeat a few times. I don't like cats either.

stillenacht · 21/04/2009 22:09

A cat climbed into my DS' moses basket (cat of MIL) Hideous thing.

stillenacht · 21/04/2009 22:09

DS was in the moses basket at the time btw - eeeeeeeeeevil creatures

AliceMumma · 21/04/2009 22:09

Next time it comes inside, lock it in and chase it arond the house making angry noises and hissing etc, (or chuck it in the bath) and finally let it out and i bet it wont come back!!! Basicly just make it hate you.

Or just ask your neighbours to keep an eye on it?

MoreLikeMiranda · 21/04/2009 22:11

yabu... you want to mame a cat.. are you sick. just do as hangingbellyofbabylon suggests, it'll soon bugger off.

Sorrento · 21/04/2009 22:11

PSML at keep an eye on it, you cannot control a cat, you live in their house/world not the other way around.

Original poster

Daffodilly · 21/04/2009 22:13

Oh AliceMumma - I am liking your idea about the chasing and bath dunking (simulated drowning a la USA maybe...).

Perhaps I can re-train DD from affectionate animal lover to torture device.

DH is THRILLED, he finally sees a way to get me to agree to the d.o.g. he has always wanted.

OP posts:

MoominMymbleandMy · 21/04/2009 22:18

I'd echo hangingbelly about the clapping and stamping, and especially the mixed messages - if you let your DD welcome it it is going to come back.

I love cats and had them as pets with two newborns. They behaved impeccably, even when the said newborns became toddlers and wanted to cuddle them.

pingviner · 22/04/2009 01:10

you need to intimidate it
Water pistol good

Or try using cat language
outstare it until cat slinks away- I know this sounds daft but thats what cats do to each other to assert dominance
learn how to do an aggressive fighting cat yowl while you are clapping and stamping

these strategies of course may make you feel like a loon, but might relieve frustration too!
but seriously, staring works

AliceMumma · 22/04/2009 05:15

What ever you do end up doing to it, do it inside your house with the doors shut. Thats the key. Yowling is good Pingviner!

UndertheBoredwalk · 22/04/2009 06:30

Second the staring. Have had a cat since before I can remember so am well versed in catty behaviour
If you can catch cat in a 'stare off' (if you start staring they will stand still and stare back at you) give it a min or so, until staring becomes intense and then make V V loud noise preferable coupled with fast lunge towards cat, you will scare it, and it will stay scared of you.
It may still try and sneak past you and get into house, but sight of you will scare it off, and after a short while of you chasing it, it will give it up as a bad job. You're bigger and scarier than it is, so will go find someone who isn't

UndertheBoredwalk · 22/04/2009 06:32

Oh and have to disagree with Alice, scaring a cat while at the same time blocking it's escape completely is not a good idea.
They may be small but back it into a corner and a cat can be V vicious. Is also pretty cruel to scare a cat without letting it get away.
By all means stand in front of escape route to get the message through, but don't shut doors.

JollyPirate · 22/04/2009 06:49

Echoing all the "don't shut the doors" advice - give it an escape route.

I have a cat too who I adore. The last thing I'd want her doing is going into other peoples houses - for one I don't know who these people are and would hate her to end up in the home of some unstable cat hater. You could be doing this cat's owners a favour by instilling some wariness of homes which are not it's own.

It's being too friendly and seeing your place as an extension of it's territory.

Staring is a good one - probably your best bet in scaring the cat off so it does not come back. As everyone else has said hissing at the cat will work too.
Water pistol will be quick and it won't hurt to give the cat a quick squirt if it comes into your garden (please note I am not talking about one of those water blaster things).

Baisey · 22/04/2009 08:37

A few hisses and chasing it in the direction of the door will do.
All well and good that cats smothering babies is a myth, but this cat is not the OP pet, so it being in the house with her baby is basically a piss take.
Im a dog person myself, my dog was/is fine around my son, but I wouldnt want some other dog wandering in and making itself at home.
Biased against cats though, they make me sneeze

duchesse · 22/04/2009 08:51

Heard recommended once to catch said feral cat with gardening gloves and dunk it in the water butt- it will avoid you and your garden in future. This piece of advice was issued to someone who had a deranged giant tom breaking in through their cat flap and terrorising their own 17 yr old puss and eating her food. If your intruder looks more like the cat in Shrek you may have trouble looking it in the eye whilst dunking it...

AliceMumma · 22/04/2009 09:22

I say shut the doors, but only for a minute or so.. Im not talking about some half an hour terrorising rampage thru the house...

Just so the cat will see your house as a trap for a litle while, it will be scared to come back. If it always has a way out, it will venture inside...

My cat that i own wont come inside anymore since my dd started crawling, because we have no cat door and he hates my dd, so he just stays outside!

Original poster

Daffodilly · 22/04/2009 22:04

Loads of good ideas - from dog and cat lovers alike - thanks. Think I'd struggle to keep a straight face while staring him down, maybe I'll fire up my water pistol first.

(Un)fortunately he hasn't been seen today so I couldn't try any of them out. Perhaps he got wind of this thread!

I do think I need to deter him for his own good too, as we don't have a cat or therefore a cat flap he could easily get stuck in the house all day if we locked up and went out, or when we go off on hols next week...the mind boggles at that one.

OP posts:

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