Deterring cats !

Oh NO! Not this old chestnut again! Don't people know how to use the search feature?

However, that was funny, ClaraLou! A visitor asked me if my cats were toms the other day and I just said "they used to be"! :hehe:

 

love some of the stories on this thread! It made me have a good laugh this morning!

 

My neighbours cats are crushing my plants, poking in my flower beds and using my lovely bug houses made by us, as scratching posts.

Aagh!

 

I used to love cats that was when I had a back yard concreted over and a hard brush. Now that I have a lovely garden, I hate the bloody things. Funny how things change isn't it.

 

Me too - I adored our cats when I was a kid. BUT, now I have a wildlife garden, and have seen so many baby birds killed by the bloody cats. Having excitedly watched with the children while the birds pair up, nest build, and feed the young it is heart breaking to see them killed for fun by a cat. And that isn't nature - we keep them as pets and introduce another predator.

I hate them now. I know a lot of you are bored of cat talk on this forum, but I haven't seen a thread since I joined a year ago, and would love to know if anyone has any good methods of keeping them out.

I don't want to offend our neighbours by hissing at their cats all the time, but it is really affecting what we have worked so hard in our garden to achieve!

 

Hi VictoriaPlum

I'm really sorry you're having problems. It's always difficult when someone else's pet causes aggravation for others and unfortunately some cats will wander no matter what one does. Liberal squirts with a water pistol might persuade them to limit their visits, and it would certainly make you feel a whole lot better. You could always get a cat yourself :hehe:. That way, it will at least see off all the others. Unless of course you end up with one like mine, who is terrified of woodpigeons, let alone other moggies. I wish cats would stay on their own patch, not least because I know there are an awful lot of resentful people out there who will do anything to get rid of them. A friend's cat died recently after being poisoned.

I hope I'm not a misanthrope (well, to be honest, I am sometimes - it comes of living in a rough, tough town) but on the whole I tend to feel that people cause a lot more problems than cats, and the way humans live is not exactly 'natural'. I was looking around Wilkinson's the other day at the stacks of garden chemicals designed to kill something or otherand wondering just how much of this stuff people are slapping around the place and what effect it's having on the wildlife to which most of them seem utterly indifferent (not GC members of course!). Then there are the magpies - definitely part of nature, and a very successful species at that. A friend of mine said that last year not a single nest in her garden escaped their attentions. And we're illogical about our attitude to nature - cats have been prized for centuries for the ability to keep down rodents. I haven't heard anyone sticking up for the rights of cute little rats recently!

 

Clare, I do sympathise, really I do. I know that when you love cats it is hard to accept people having a dislike for them.

But our problem is that we have new neighbours, with two cats. Although we used to get cats in the garden we never had a problem like this before. Our environment never used to be like this, so you can see why we find them a problem.

To make matters worse, the lady next door was chatting to me over the hedge, and she said "If the cats are digging in your flower beds, try this stuff (showing me a big tub of cat deterrent)"

Turns out that she covers her entire garden in cat repellent - so they are sh*tting in my garden!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a kid we had cats, and I loved them. But we had a designated area for them to poo, and they used it all the time. Dad would dig it over and they never went anywhere else.

 

It sounds to me as though your problem is really with the neighbour, rather than the cats, then! Perhaps you need to tell her to STOP putting cat deterrent all over the place when she has two moggies! I'm back to my old theme. So often it boils down to people, not animals. An ex-neighbour (gone, thank God, to annoy neighbours elsewhere) decided to buy a hapless King Charles spaniel which she christened Tuppence. After the first day, when she took it for a walk round the block to show it off, it never saw the light of day - except when it was pushed out into the miserable concrete back yard to relieve itself amongst the broken toys and old bikes. There were many times, when Eau De Dog floated over the fence on a hot day and the blow flies started to hover, when I could cheerfully have done for Tuppence. But it wasn't his fault, poor thing. He just drew the short straw when it came to owners.

I do love cats. I don't always love people. :hehe:

 

Theres always been the saying that 'there is no such thing as a bad dog, only bad owners', reading VP's earlier post it seems that can equally apply to cats. Just where did her neighbour think they were going to do their 'business' ??

 

Heaven knows paulr!

I think it just downright rude! Owning pets that poo outside and then making sure they do it in other peoples gardens.

I'm cheesed off too, because we've started making our own bewilderwood of bug houses, and my oh lovingly carved windows into the bark aswell as drilling bug holes into it. It has a roof and everything. And some bloody cat has used it a scratching post and clawed off half the bark.

No matter how you look at it, cats are not community friendly.

 

Well, I think people will always be divided on this one. Personally, having been through rather an eventful year, I tend to feel that if the worst thing that has happened to you or your family recently has been a cat pooping in your petunias you should count yourself very, very fortunate. Maybe a lucky black cat has crossed your path. k-l k-l

 

Clare I'm sorry you're having a bad year. I sympathise as we are having one of those too. Isn't it odd that unhappy events seem to come in waves, and you can't get your footing again, to jump over the next one.

You're absolutely right that it isn't the end of the world about the cats, just a bit soul destroying.

One man's pleasure is another man's pest.

 

We have cats who come in the garden, they've done at least 2 fledgling coal tits, aswell as making it's business in my veg patch. When I caught it walking along our fence, I chased it up the garden with the hosepipe haha, it soon bolted. Recently got one of the sonic cat repellers, made by Defenders, and *touch wood* not seen one since. Wonder if it was the water or the repeller, but we've had birds asleep in the lawn today, which must be a good sign

 

ClaraLou and Victoria Plum,
I know what you both mean and yes, as eventful years go, mine has been the most interesting ever of my life. Nothing that happens to me ever will take me by surprise now. So many downs that I have lost count but a few ups too.

As for cats, I love them but do have to have a stern word now and again with them since I seem to have 3 black cats coming to visit my garden and the little b*ggers have managed to kill a huge big pigeon and a starling.. let alone using my freshly dug soil as their personal littler tray.

Someone suggested on another forum I go on that I should mix used tea-leaves with olbas oil and sprinkle that around. reasonable cheap and effective.
I have to try that one.

The one that does seem to work is chopped up citrus fruit peel. That one does work but you have to be consisten with it....and I can not eat that many oranges anyway.
As soon as things are sorted in my home, I plan to get a cat then hopefully the cat-pooing problems in my garden will be over and I will be living with a peaceful soul and not what I have currently.

 

I've found if you soak chillis in hot water for 24 hours, and keep the water in a spray bottle, spraying affected areas, Cats go nowhere near it.