Is having 5 cats in a council house anti social?

[fattybumbum]

We have had the same neighbours (semi) for 6 years. The woman in particular is a difficult woman but we have always made an effort and got on fine with her. We own our house but theirs is a council property. They have just acquired 2 more cats (kittens), putting their total up to 5. Their front and back gardens are beautiful but are all paved and full of tubs - so guess where the cats have come to shit? Yes you've guessed it!

We have recently done up our garden so it has a nice lawn and now it is full of cat shit on a daily basis. I'm 38 weeks pregnant so don't want to touch it and DS is 3 and has bad eczema. He is the type of child that if you told him to not go near a cat poo, he'd be over in a shot.

Dh said about it to our nieighbour tonight and she (rather sarkily) replied, 'Nothing I can do about it.'

Would it be very mean of me to report her 5 cats to the council as anti social? There is very obviously no place for them to poo in their own garden. I know we could go down the whole route of strips on the fence (though they own the adjoining one so could actually prevent us from putting strips on the most important one anyway) plus lemon plants, sonic devices etc but to be honest I am going to have a baby next week and we just don't have the time right now never mind that money is very tight. Any of the aforesaid purchases would have to be on a credit card.

Would I be an utter bitch to ring the council? They would know it was us for sure and I don't want to get into the whole war with nieghbours thing but I'm just really pissed off that they can have 5 cats in an 8m by 10m paved garden and act like it's OUR problem, not theirs. GRR!

bag it up and send it back to her

Actually, a neighbour down the road has 7 cats and 4 dogs and they are allowed to run loose on the estate (talking about the dogs as well).
Another neighbour is fed up with picking up dog poo in her garden and so am I
Nothing we can do, gets a big scary when the 4 dogs are out together as they form a 'pack' but I've worked out that they are cowards and if you run towards them then they scarper!
But they will bark and bark!

sit at the door and squirt them with water.

KIMI you are in top form tonight i must say

Hi,

I doubt the council will do anything, as cats messing is considered acceptable, and not a nuisance (though it clearly can be!) and five cats wont be an issue for the council anyway. You can get sprays and things that will deter the cats, but I would recommend either asking your neighbour nicely to come into your garden and clean her cats poop, explaining why you cant do it (if she is even halfway decent she would do this) but if she wont, scoop it and put it back in her garden yourself.

I really do feel for your situation. IMO people should be willing to clean up any mess THEIR pets that THEY CHOOSE to keep do, wherever it is. I would. But then I am a nice person.

No truly Mark round the garden with mail pee

I know it works as the fox has gone and the local cats have buggered off too.

male even

the thing about OP putting it back over the fence is that she cant as she is pregnant so she would stil have to wait for her DP to get home to do it, thus, keeping DS in all day.

Save it all, put it in a box stick a bow on it and leave it on her doorstep

get a cat! we used to have loads and loads of cat poo in our garden right up until we got a cat!!

Now we never ever have any, something to do with territory

that is because your cat will mark out its territory, back to your other half peeing in a bottle

I have to ask to all you lot that say check the crap back over, what a cheek they don't clear up after their cat etc...

How exactly do people check where their cats are crapping? You can't follow cats through gardens and clear up their mess.

OP what would you like your neighbours to do to resolve the problem. They have 5 cats, what can they do to stop them crapping on your lawn?

KIMI are you sure all male pee is effective though?

Now how many of us thought when we found a partner for life (or for whatever really),just how very useful he would prove to be?

Once you have had the baby you can hold him/her over the fence every time he/she needs to poop, thus letting the poop go it their garden.

Well it worked here, maybe I can see DPs pee on ebay

I think you should definitely look into that. Good sideline. Got to get a snazzy shaped bottle and a nifty name. Then you're set.

fattybumbum

What are you going to do?

Hi all

We have 4 cats and we sprinkle black peppercorns around our vegetable patch to deter them from pooping on it. My friend at work also uses black peppercorns and doesn't have any trouble with cats at all.

They are cheap to buy too (I am also on a tight budget - probably because of all the cat food I have to buy!!)

HTH and congratulations on your new baby

Will try the male wee first of all as it is free! My DH says he'll do it in full view of the neighbour when she is out watering her pot plants every evening! Will also try dangling some home made mobiles out of cds as it is also free. I've told my highly excitable 3 year that he is on cat chasing duty. He started running round the garden screaming about killing the cats in traps and eating them (within listening distance of my neighbour) ha ha. Perhaps she will discover that 3 year old boys can also be anti social nuisances ... (devious face emoticon)

By fattybumbum
"I definitely know it's their cats because I'm housebound with the pregnancy so have nothing better to do than watch themn invading my garden all day lol!"

Perfect, you get the chance to sit with a hot drink and a good book and every now and then, when a crapping cat appears in the corner of your field of view, you creep to the open window and zap it with a washing-up-liquid bottle full of water.

Tremendous fun.

sprinkle of black pepper in the grass and an old squirty bottle of water, for a quick zap when spotted.Did the trick for me, does kitty no harm but puts them off visiting again...

I tried some tesco cat repellant powder, and i think it's worked a treat... only put it on once, keep looking out on the front lawn to see if there are any more 'messages' but no, and that was a good month ago...

Green tubey thing, tesco branded..

YABU. We have the same problem but that's life isn't it.

Get Silent Roar - it's cat-repellant based on lion pee (really), and is non-toxic. Good garden centres should stock it. It works.