Keep your filthy disgusting cats at home!

[SelkieQualia]

My 3yo son just ran across my front lawn and jumped in the car. On the way, he's trodden in cat poo ( there's a regular offender, and no, it's not fox ). There's now cat poo all across the back seat of my car. I'm first trimester, and horrified at the prospect of toxoplasma, even though I know the risk is low.

This is on the background of my aracuana chicks being stolen by cats from my own back yard. I don't care how lazy you think your cat is - research has shown that even the most placid cat will kill 2-3 animals per night if allowed to roam.

Keep them locked up ffs! If you can't keep them inside, make a run. If you can't do that, keep rabbits instead.

Sounds like you should have been watching your child more closely and had better protection for your chicks op

Cats are great. Fact.

@Plussizejumpsuit

Sounds like you should have been watching your child more closely and had better protection for your chicks op

So if your cat comes into my back yard, it's fine for my dog to kill and eat it?

I quite like dogs.

I adore cats.

I'm not doing dogs down.

They aren't clean. They lick their bottoms first, pick up germs, and then lick them all over their coats.

[crikey]
This is nonsense. Also very weird.

You have to pick up after your dog and keep it under control because dogs and cats are classified differently. Cats are considered to be free-roaming animals and dogs are not.

Why do you allow your child to walk on the car seats?
Do you not worry about mud or soft chewing gum he could pick up on his shoes?

I would personally prefer to clean up cat poo than tackle a wad of gum stuck to any part of my car.

I don't think your dog would eat my cats.

Dogs don't generally eat cats.

I did have to extract a cat from a dog's mouth once, I had to wrestle an excited dog, I shoved my elbow in the Dog's mouth whilst the cat went to town on my leg and then booted the dog quite hard to let the cat escape.

For my troubles I got a very nasty cat scratch and a dog bite.

I didn't hold it against either of them.

In between the outright aggression, there are some passive aggressive classics on here.

@ShrikeAttack

I don't think your dog would eat my cats.

Dogs don't generally eat cats.

I did have to extract a cat from a dog's mouth once, I had to wrestle an excited dog, I shoved my elbow in the Dog's mouth whilst the cat went to town on my leg and then booted the dog quite hard to let the cat escape.

For my troubles I got a very nasty cat scratch and a dog bite.

I didn't hold it against either of them.

My sister's lurchers would definitely kill a cat - they are lovely soft, gentle dogs, no aggression at all, but are bred to hunt. Kind of like cats in that regard. Imagine the uproar if one of those dogs got loose and killed a cat in it's own backyard - there would be calls for the dogs to be euthanised!

It was a Lurcher!

And she was very soft with people, but had been used for lamping so a cat was a furry target.

It was quite awful, she got my very quiet cat by the tail, she would have killed him.

She was wragging him like a terrier shakes a rat. I leapt in when she opened her mouth to get a better grasp, shoved my elbow in her mouth and my cat ripped the buggery out of my leg in panic.

I like cats and dogs. I don't like cat and dog shit. I don't have a cat or a dog because I'm not in a position to properly take care of one and that includes picking up their crap (I don't have a garden). I cannot believe the number of cat owners suddenly not giving a fuck about the effect it has on others. Replace 'cat' with 'child'. If a child shits in someone else's garden several times a day nobody on here would say it was all right because 'they like to roam'. If a child digs up someone else's garden, nobody would think an apology wasn't necessary. If someone fit a fence and a gate to their garden to keep the kids out, who would throw a hissy fit?

Like it or not, just because it's not against the law to let a cat roam and shit in other people's gardens it doesn't mean that it's okay. Cat owners should do everything possible to stop this, although I accept that it is difficult.

Nobody should think poisoning a cat is acceptable. It's not the cat's fault. Use humane deterrents.

As a cat owner, if someone asks you to pick up the cat shit out of their garden and you can't prove it wasn't your cat, just bloody pick it up. Maybe that would encourage you to make more of an effort to provide a cat shit corner in your own garden.

@ShrikeAttack

It was quite awful, she got my very quiet cat by the tail, she would have killed him.

She was wragging him like a terrier shakes a rat. I leapt in when she opened her mouth to get a better grasp, shoved my elbow in her mouth and my cat ripped the buggery out of my leg in panic.

Poor cat, I'm glad you got there in time.

Legally cats and dogs are different. Cats are considered free agents, their owner is not responsible for what they do because generally they can't be trained. Dogs are and so the owner is responsible for their actions.
As a child I frequently stood in dog poo, not so much cats.
My cats are indoor cats not because I worry about their actions but because people are cruel and unkind.

It was a bit hairy! My husband and children were just standing round frozen, it was a 'fuck this dog might hurt me' situation, but what do you do when it's your beloved pet in the jaws of another? You get in there.

And it

Wasn't the dogs fault, but she was in the zone.

You really shouldn't have chicks if you can't keep them safe which clearly you can't. You sound delightful

Cats may bury their poo but when that's just a couple of millimetres of earth over a poo in a flowerbed it does not make for pleasant gardening. No doubt the neighbours think it is clean, cute and only uses its litter tray

My sister's lurchers would definitely kill a cat - they are lovely soft, gentle dogs, no aggression at all, but are bred to hunt. Kind of like cats in that regard. Imagine the uproar if one of those dogs got loose and killed a cat in it's own backyard - there would be calls for the dogs to be euthanised!

Cats are not 'bred to hunt'. They just hunt.
Various breeds of dog otoh are bred to hunt, retrieve, kill rats, etc. Mutts can have traits from several ancestors. Dogs all have a predatory instinct - it's not aggression or territorial; they used to hunt in packs in order to eat - and they tend to chase. (This is why sheep farmers hate dogs on the loose). Society seriously considers euthanising dogs who get a taste for blood and killing because they pose a danger to people and also to other dogs.

Selkie: So if your cat comes into my back yard, it's fine for my dog to kill and eat it?
........
I know someone to whom that happened; more precisely, it happened to her cat and it was a pair of small dogs who caught the cat.

Of course she didn't think it was 'all right', she was upset but didn't blame the dogs who were just doing what came naturally to them. Dogs and cats can get on if they are brought up together, other than that, they are enemies.

I couldn't agree more. I have 2 house cats and I couldn't imagine ever letting them out. People who say cats get bored and fat staying inside are clearly doing it wrong. Ours are very much entertained and incredibly active. A lot of our neighbours have cats and the communal toilet seems to be our rockery, it's disgusting. The other day DP trod in a massive sloppy poop right before he got in the car, it was a pain to clean up! I have neighbours that are on their 3rd cat this year, the 1st got hit by a car and the 2nd went missing, they just replace it each time so their young kids don't notice. The way people treat their own cats is disgraceful.

As for attacking other animals, my 2 outdoor bunnies suffer regularly. They get spooked by the cats and everyday I am checking the (pretty large) garden for poops before I let them out. One was roughed up by a cat but as she's quite large she fought back and won.

I agree with you completely, no other animal roams around like cats do, there's no need for it and they should stay indoors.

OP - try orange peel or orange oil around the perimeter of the garden, where the cats usually poo, or where they come into the garden (if they have a specific path). It worked for us to get the neighbouring cats to leave our vegetable gardens alone.

It's ridiculous to have a cat or cats, who have to stay in the house, You may as well get some cat ornaments. Its natural for most cats to go outside, and roam about a bit. Its also natural for some of them to hunt

You could say the same about dogs!

I wonder if this thread should be visited by @mumsnet cos I can't help thinking it's strangely provoking in its content 😎

What - because OP doesn’t like cat shit?

Why not report (and imagine the 🙄 from MNHQ)?

As a PP said, I don't allow my preschooler to poo in people's gardens.

I have one particularly annoying neighbour and I have to be honest and say that I am now considering this

In my country you are not allowed to let your cat roam. If a cat is found roaming it is picked up by the local cat catcher, taken to the pound, they check for a chip and then contact the owners to pay a hefty fine and pickup within 24 hours. If no one picks them up, or there is no chip, then they are either put to sleep or taken into a local shelter, if there is space.

This doesn't mean your cat must be kept inside the house, but it means that the cat must be stay on your property, or be in a carrier or on a lead if out and about with you. It's possible to fully cat proof gardens if you have an escape artist, but I just have a normal wooden fence and have found this to be plenty. She only goes out when I am out there so I can keep an eye on her. I have loads of plants and a few other animals in my yard so we end up spending quite a lot of time out there together. She either hunts lizards in the tall grass, or if I'm sitting at the table having a drink she'll come and sit with me and relax in the sun. She occassionally tries to chase the chickens but it quickly turns into them chasing her Inside the house she has free reign to go wherever she likes, and we have toys, a decent sized cat tree and some spaces in the bookcase for her to play in. We also have plenty of windows for her to watch the birds go by.

She has never pooed on anyone else's property, nor killed anyone else's pets, because she's never had the chance. She's safe from cars and dogs. I really don't think she has a bad life at all. I don't get why people think it's cruel not to let a cat roam. You wouldn't let any other sort of pet roam. I don't really get it. Maybe it's a cultural difference?