Cats in the garden

Bless GOOGLE EARTH.........

 

O.K. - I'll come clean... I used to hate cats, and for similar reasons to Trux. To spend hours carefully preparing areas to seed only to find them dug up and the seeds scattered is galling in the extreme. And chicken-wire tunnels are a bit unsightly - but they do keep the birds off as well! Trouble was that I didn't understand cats....

We now have eight of them. Lucky things, too, I admit - they've got a couple of acres of grass fields, woods and a big barn to roam in, so they don't usually cause a problem. Perhaps that's part of the issue with urban cats - they're naturally woodland animals and have to adapt in towns to whatever they can find. Any animal in the wrong place can be a problem.

And there are irresponsible owners of cats. And dogs. And reptiles. And every other sort of pet. You can't blame the pets for the failings of their owners. (I should add that our cats are all regularly treated for fleas, ticks, lice and worms. They're all neutered so they don't fight, smell or yowl at the moon. So they're NOT "verminous fleabags"!! They're also kept well fed so they don't predate heavily on the local small mammals - our resident barn owls do that pretty well. They bred twenty feet from our bedroom window last year - and noisy blighters they are too...)
We also keep a pile of sand available for them and a litter tray as well, which helps. It can be done.

And finally, there's many a cat keeps an otherwise lonely person happier than they would otherwise be. And that would be worth a few poos in my garden...

 

I dont agree that cats bury their s***. Not around here anyway. Its all over the place.
But thats mainly due to the fact that people have more cats than they can look after properly.
They get a cat and feed it now and then, and let it get on with it.
Its not the cats fault, they only do what comes naturally.
I hate humans, :D With a few exeptions of course. :D

 

But as we have said before cats bury their poo because they are clean animals,that is why it is found in gardens...Perhaps we should train them to use the toilet like we humans do,so that it goes into the sewage system and then off to the sewage plants where a lot of it lays on the surface for people to smell as it wafts over the air. Or perhaps we should put all cats in nappies and then we can fill up the landfill sites with them for the next 150 years...

 

We could make cat owners "clean it up", as dog owners are told by law, Kandy.
I know it not practical, but neither is it for dog owners at times.

 

still my view of this doesnt matter were the cats do it, there is still no need for these cats to be fired on with air rifles, they could easily lose an eye and also for them to have to negotiate traps, very cruel in my view :(

 

Cats roam a lot more than dogs nowadays - that's the problem. I have no problem at all in cleaning up after my cat, and I rather think he uses our garden moe than anyone else's becasue we're bounded by railway, main road and canal here, and most people haven't got a garden, just monoblock and patio.

I don't see how you could enforce it, Pete. I supose if you had a collection bin for all animal doings at the end of each street you would at least have made it a bit more pactical. I know that as a dog owner, it's a real pain that many obvious dog-walking places have nowhere to put the stuff you pick up. In the walk along the canal I do with my pair, there's only 1 bin in the three and a half mile stretch we walk. That doesn't enourage responsible dig-ownership. Likewise, one big park here, only really accessible by car as it's out in the country, has 1 bin, at the car-park, which is regularly full to bursting so what do people do? It's not reasonable to expect people to carry it home in their cars.....

 

Whether you like it or not you are stuck with cats, they are part of the urban landscape. Most cats don't make good house cats and more and more people are getting them.
I didn't get a cat because I wanted to encourage wildlife and no matter how well fed a cat is it will slaughter the wildlife, its in their nature to do that, they are not evil or bad, its just instinct. Also cats get run over and I get very attached to my animals.
Mousetraps -I find that unbelievable. No cat is going to put its paws in that, they are too cautious, and if it did you would be looking at a broken paw. I don't think the law would look too kindly on intention to cause suffering, if the local paper got hold of it??? Do you really want to end up as some sort of local hate figure?
Cats don't always bury their poo. A dominant tom cat will leave his poo in prominent places to show the neighbourhood cats who is boss.
Cats do have an effect on wildlife. They soon suss out where the nests are and will wait and ambush parent birds. We lost 3 clutches of blue tit chicks until we got dogs. I think it is probably cats that have been behind the decline in garden birds such as the song thrush that tend to feed on the ground.
However I restrict myself to discouraging them. I would not harm a cat because a) it is simply an innocent animal - it has no concept of right or wrong, it just does what instinct makes it do b) the cat is probably somebody's much loved pet.
While they might annoy I find it impossible to hate an animal. I would be terribly upset if I injured or killed such an animal - I have had to do a couple of severe stops to avoid suicidal cats while driving.
I think you are restricted to either netting over seed beds and water or some other deterrent for cats that you see, but certainly nothing that can cause harm.

 

Pete I do clean up after my cats and everyone elses cats that poo in my gardenI just except it as part of keeping cats.I used to own a dog and always cleaned up after her,though there are many irresponsible people especially in our village who do not clean up after their dogs.There will never be a solution as cats have to poo like we do and so we have to put up with it.I certainly don't think we need idiots in this world shooting them or setting traps for them...
As I have said before we are on our 3rd year of nesting Blue Tits and that is with two cats...

Geoff,I am suprised you haven't said anything to trux about the effect his flying is having on Global Warming which is worse than cat or dog poo

 

kandy maybe he might stop flying after he reads this and he might even take them traps up out of his garden and get rid of that air rifle

 

Its not his flying its the people who buy tickets to go on a plane or the people who buy things that are flown in from all over the world. Anyway I am trying to stick to the point of the post.

 

OK Geoff,I see your point :D :D I have only ever flown once in 1975.I doubt if I shall ever be flying ever again and I know I do my bit to save the planet