Help!cats using my garden as a loo (merged threads)

prettypennies

My late father-in-law used to hate it when the neighbour's cat used to poop on his lovingly tended lawn. A gardening buddy of his, told hom that if you lay peices of cut up garden hose on your lawn, the cats think they are snakes and keep their distance.

My FIL went to the trouble of cutting up the hose, wrapping black tape round to look like stripes and even adding little red forked tongues.

One Sunday afternoon, we were all enjoying lunch at his house, when he suddenly lept out of his seat, whipped his slipper off and charged out into the garden.

We looked out of the window, to see my FIL hotailing it down the garden path after a cat who had just pooped right on top of one of his hose snakes :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

continualdiamond

Thanks for the apology wattapain.

I honestly do feel for people who choose not have a pet as yes i agree you shouldn't have to clean up any animals mess at all.

It's just cats and dogs are sooo different, obviously. A dog you can obviously control its poop but say you couldn't control it killing a bird (dog being too quick).

Wattapain you refered to a dead baby bird, i agree on that point as well. I was mortified when my cats, well actually i think just 1 cat was killing birds. But for 2 years i had no way to control it....here me out.

My cats have always had collars for the reason of killing birds (at least i can control that bit) but then my neighbour complained that the noise of the bells on the collars was making her dogs bark.

So i had to remove the collars and put up with dead birds and feel horrible about them killing them. She moved 3mths ago and the next day i went straight out and bought 2 collars for my cats, no more dead birds. I have even watched my cats stalk birds and they've managed to hear the bell and fly off.

In terms of problem solving again for the cat poop, maybe try pepper. I used this when my cats were kittens to stop them munching on plants, one smell of it and they'd sneeze and run off, maybe it would work on any part of the garden.

AMG2B

This is quite a bizzare thread in that I've had loads of cats over the years, but I've always found them to be very clean and shy about where they go to the loo. All of mine have always gone to the back edge of a flowerbed and dug a deep hole to go in! Maybe I've just been lucky, but the way I see it it's good for the garden anyway (MSE tip!). I've never heard of cats going in the middle of a lawn before that's for certain!

But, maybe you could speak to your neighbour about it? I'm sure she'd understand as your pregnant. My cat's always seemed to opt for sandier areas so maybe you could suggest she has a sandy/soil 'litter area' which might stop them from going in your garden?

arkonite_babe

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

nodwah

Well a stray dog left doggy diaorrhea on my grass this afternoon:eek:

I know where it's owner lives - I shoulda scooped it and shoved it thru his letterbox:mad:

Fern_Merkin

Hi

I have two cats who use a cat door and have freedom of movement throughout the day and night. Both my cats like a bit of privacy and would poo in my or close neighbours yards.

I too do not want to find a stinky pile so I made a lean to and use this to house their litter tray. It's a big one but if emptied everyday only really uses 1 cut down bin liner and a couple of sheets of newspaper or small amount of clay litter. If I'm away for a couple of days I just use more litter.

The contents of the tray make a useful addition to the bag of shredded documents I create now and then. I also put them on top of the contents of my dustbin when I put it out for emptying. Someone around our way keeps rifling through our rubbish. Well they leave mine alone now

garry1974

i solved my cat problem and it cost about 30 pounds.
i tried pepper and all other manner of things and ideas

but in the end i got some of them anti intruder strips and put them all around my fencing and i can let my dogs out and they very rarely bark. they used to bark everytime i let them out chasing cats all other the garden.
i think it only deters the cats from the point of view that when the dogs go out they must find it harder to escape.so dont enter the dogs domain.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

My ex's OH detests cats and dogs because she believes that they are totally unhygenic and likely to blind her son and kill her whilst she sleeps (possibly an overreaction, but some people are like that - my neighbour used to spray her kitten with Milton fluid because she was terrified of germs on her feet).

In any case, ex has built 8 foot high fences to keep marauding animals out (and banned his mother and grandfather from visiting as they have dogs, but in my view that is actually an advantage, as I would have quite happily had the dogs visit without the respective owners). It is safe to say that no cat can or would ever want to get in their garden.

So ex has to clear up fox and badger poo where they have dug their way in and left it on display because they don't have the instinct most cats do to dig and hide it. Haven't felt the need to mention that they can carry disease too. And as for the pigeons that sit (and !!!!!!) on the roof...we haven't even gone into avian flu or psittacosis (don't think that is how it is spelled). Or the sewer rats. Or the bugs and beetles. Or moulds and fungus. Really, she would have been better suited to a flat.

If it were my cats, I'd tell you to call me and I would come and clean it up for you. I'd also plant a Nepeta (catnip) plant to encourage them to stay closer to home. And I'd check for a nest of rats or mice in the attractive garden to see whether there was a reason for them to be so keen on visiting. But my cats use litter, so they aren't doing anything nasty in anyone else's garden anyway.

However, if I can in any way reassure you, I'd say that it is incredibly unlikely that either you or your children would be harmed. I have had animals all my life (and my mother's housekeeping skills were, at the politest, nonexistent). I have always dealt with all animal accidents and, whilst obviously following simple hygiene precautions like washing my hands after changing litter, I have never come into contact with toxoplasmosis. Now, obviously, the medical advice is to be careful, but there are people who have their fillings removed and change their hair colourant as soon as they are pregnant and some who do nothing. Both tend in the vast majority to have healthy babies.

It's horrible and you probably feel most vulnerable at the moment, but try to not get so angry because it will not help you feel any better. As the law stands you cannot be held responsible for the actions of a cat. But if you take any action that could be deemed as animal cruelty, you will be held responsible for it.

George_Bray

wrote:

Jojo the Tightfisted;14746773 As the law stands you cannot be held responsible for the actions of a cat. But if you take any action that could be deemed as animal cruelty, you will be held responsible for it.

Too right and it's all wrong. See here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7669096.stm

"A £1,000 reward has been offered by an animal welfare group to catch a cat killer who has poisoned at least 28 animals in Somerset."

The reward has been put up by the charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta). Suzanne Barnard, from Peta, said animals were the perfect "practice" victims for violent people.

They don't get it do they? Obviously one can't be seen to support what the perpetrator has done here - I would never go that far - but how can they say he's likely to be violent towards people? I suggest he's more than likely just targeting vermin that harm his garden or whatever, just like many people put down slug pellets. Those pellets are as cruel as anything to slugs, but that's OK and cat clearance is not. It's just a human decision on what's right and what's wrong and it's not fair.

woohoo_postingid

nodwah wrote: »

Well a stray dog left doggy diaorrhea on my grass this afternoon:eek:

I know where it's owner lives - I shoulda scooped it and shoved it thru his letterbox:mad:

What you should have done was scoop it, put it in a bag, place it on his doorstep, set fire to it, knock on the door an leg it. That way, when he opens the door, he will stamp on the fire to put it out and his slippers/shoes will be covered in his own dog's poo. With a bit of luck, he may not notice until he's picked the bag up or has treaded it through his house!!