How is it possible for the horrible neighbourhood cat to have pooed inside....

[IlanaK]

a small plastic water toy???? I am totally serious. It is about the size of a mug and was sitting on the grass. This morning, a nice fresh cat poo right inside it. I kid you not! I hate hate hate cats.

Are you sure it was a cat poo? Could it have been a fox/badger/hedgehog?

Badgers do poo territorially and like to mark in prominent places so on a piece of plastic left outside would not be that unusual

I hate 'em too. DS trod on a huge pile of cat shit deposited on our new gravel drive yesterday - just as we were about to go out.
Horrible cat over the road thinks it's new cat litter.

Does anyone know of a truly effective deterrent.The particular offending cat is one of those big fluffy ones, which I gather can be a bit deaf, so not sure if anything sonic will be worth the money...

Water pistol - seriously. Does not harm but they don't like it. You have to catch them at it though.
If you live near a zoo - try and get some lion dung. They don't like that either!
Don't be tempted to wash the area down with disinfectant either - it does something with the urine and the scent marker remains, thus more poo will arrive. Clean with detergent.
Pepper/chilli powder can also help in some places - the strong scent will put them off.

None of you think it is odd that a cat (it was definitely cat poo) actually squatted over and aimed into a small plastic cup??? Really??? Surely I could get this cat into the world record book!

Yes we do go out with a water pistol when we see it, but we are not often about in the front garden to catch the blighter.
Well we do live near Whipsnade as it happens...

As for the cat doing precision pooing - I suppose it does seem unlikely.

Could you leave it out and see if it happens again - in the interests of science?

It is a bit odd I grant you - but I now have this mental image of a cat squatting intently over a little cup...
My old cat was very particular about standing in the very corner of her litter tray and trying to poo in the corner (she often missed though and was totally foxed by finding her poo on the floor)

It does seem so unlikely - I know. But our back garden is fenced, gated and locked. It could not have been anyone else. And this was a soft fresh poo - so it could not really have been thrown over the fence and landed in there either (though I would not put it past my neighborus!).

Maybe I could try leaving a plastic cup out for our offender.
Although I think it's too big and thick to try anything clever.