Bloody cats!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Cats are vermin and their owners are selfish scum.

HTH

[AlfredJPruffock]

Cats come in to our garden from neighbours' gardens, and we want to stop that.

We don't like them crapping in our garden, and we don't like the way that they get well-fed at home and then have all day to sit around waiting for something to murder needlessly. We like birds and squirrels in our garden, and don't want unnatural predators hunting in our space.

But, in brief, it is OUR garden so IMHO we don't have to explain why we don't want vermin.

So what can we do? I have suggested shooting them but the OH feels that the neighbours might not like it. Maybe the rubber band gun is the humane solution.

Cats dislike citrus fruits - if you can leave some orange peelings around that
can put them off - otherwise a quick bucket of water thrown in their direction will make them think twice about ever returning .

Are you back home now Expat ?

[PRC1964]

Nobody owns a cat. The cats merely allow their humans to feed them.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Nobody owns a cat. The cats merely allow their humans to feed them.

That is why I like them,

Some say that you dont own a house - it owns you.

Which is also probably true as well.

Or perhaps you could say your cat owns your house.

Which explains their purring .

Perhaps ,,,

[NotAllThere]

Cats dislike citrus fruits - if you can leave some orange peelings around that
can put them off ...

That's what we do. We mow orange peeling into the lawn (so it can't be seen), and they cats won't go near it.

Funny - the reasons people give for hating cats are the precise reasons I like them. Wouldn't have one though.

[ThomasSoerensen]

if you nail them to the owners largest tree with a copper nail - they also do not come back for a while

[foritisme]

if you nail them to the owners largest tree with a copper nail - they also do not come back for a while

Wow big man !! and how many times have you done that then ??

[Scary]

Oh sorry forgot to add - he keeps pigeons, right mess they make everywhere. Was going to be civil and do a deal. She will keep the cat out of his garden if he keeps his pigeons out of hers.

Neighbours !

Cats, pigeons - I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere.

[Bagpuss]

My parents have cats and a neighbour has taken upon herself to scoop up poo (any poo including dog poo) and place it on my parents drive. IMHO this is very petty, cats don't soil anywhere like dogs, and they bury what they do moreover, my parents cats don't even go in that garden, they are very lazy and hardly ever roam. I have never seen a cat just sh1t on a pavement, they always bury it.

I don't have cats, but next doors cats often pop by, I've never seen any sh1t let alone trod in any.

[Mich the Tester]

After a cat hater arrived in our neighbourhood, all the cat owners kept their cats indoors. Not long after, complaints of mice in garages and kitchens were sent to the council, and a few people even complained about seeing rats around the green bins. The advice of our CDA (conservative) council was quite simple; let the cats outside. Since then there have been no problems with mice or rats.

As for birds, the only birds that get killed by mice are either stupid, slow, old, or weak youngsters who’ve left the nest before they can fly properly. Long ago there were wild cats in Europe, and there still are in a few parts of the Highlands. Nowadays, there are hardly any wild cats, but domestic cats have taken over their predatory role; a role which is essential in terms of maintaining healthy, naturally selected bird populations. Domestic cats have, like it or not, become a part of the ecology of Europe.

As for keeping cats away from your valued plants or childrens’ play areas, I’d recommend cat pepper, or alternatively, used ground coffee; cats hate getting the grainy coffee between their ‘toes’; it's good for your soil too. I'd also say that if you have an uncovered sandpit, or large chunks of exposed soil with no undergrowth as many people in NL have, you're effectively making your garden into a public convenience for every furry animal in a 2km radius who needs to have a dump. Undergrowth or a sturdy mulch of tree bark makes it much harder for a cat to bury his deposits.

As for the crapping issue; why do you think the soil is brown? Soil is a mixture of sand and turd. Mouse turd, worm turd, rabbit turd, cat turd, bacterial turd, bird turd, insect turd, agricultural turd and any turd you might buy in the form of manure. If you mess about in the garden, you’re going to get covered in turd, so you’re going to have to wash your hands anyway.

Unfortunately, many cat haters take an irrational approach of trying to force cat owners to 'keep your pets indoors' or even threatening to kill someone else's pet; it's actually much easier to just ask a cat owner for advice, seeing as cat owners often know a lot more about cat behaviour than cat haters. Perhaps that's human nature though; protest and start fights instead of listening to one another and working out a deal.