Talkback: Cats in the garden - Page 4

We have a water pistol

Two cats live next door and used to think our garden was their outdoor litter tray/hunting ground.Not any more......a few well aimed squirts of cold water worked wonders. It doesnt hurt them but they dislike it and rarely venture in these days. Result...undisturbed flower beds, happy frogs and fish in the pond and many bird visitors to the bird table.Purrfect

My next door neighbour has a cat, which treats my garden as its own.

I have a bird table, and a ground feeding area for birds. But the cat shows little interest in either of those. In my experience, what cats really prefer to hunt is mice.

If they have a choice, cats will always prefer mice.

I have some long grass and the cat will spend half-an-hour at a time intently gazing at any spot where the cat can hear movement in the grass.

This is my neighbour's cat, returning home carrying the afternoon's spoils in its mouth:

 
I once saw my neighbour's cat catch a mole. The cat could hear the mole working beneath the ground, but couldn't get at it. Then, eventually, when the mole surfaced, the cat was able to pounce.

I've also provided a patch of catmint (cats love catmint) as a reward for work well done:

I am a cat lover, but I also love my garden.Just because I am a cat lover doesn't mean that everyone else has to put up with them. They are both indoor cats, neutered with full injections. My cats are both 14 years old, they are not neurotic and destructive and I pay particular attention to hygiene.

I have two bird boxes, both occupied, one with Blue Tits and the other with Great Tits. My neighbour has three cats and they come to use our garden as a latrine and hunting ground. It makes me so angry. It is also worthwhile remembering that Squirrels, Magpies and Woodpeckers will take chicks from nests. We have put metal baffles on the boxes so only the nesting birds can access the box.

Our neighbours cat was also being chased by a tom when it was in season and when the tom was trying to get to her, it fell and smashed one of our Acers to pieces.

toCatlover.........

I tHink its awful that you are a 'Dog Hater' and tar all us dog lovers with the same brush.............I have three small jack russels - beautiful dogs, and great company. I and my family always clean up after our dogs but you will always get the ones that dont - thats life I'm afraid and the  local councils should do more to enforce it. But Cats............they are left to wander at their leisure destroying peoples pride and joy, messing all over other folks gardens - its a disgrace. How do you know your cat always comes home to use the litter tray ? does it need the toilet and think ''ooh must get home and use the litter tray I won't do it in someone elses garden?'' Don't be so naive.....of course when your cats out and about and it needs to do its business it will do it wherever it wants to the outrage and upset of one of your neighbours...its disgusting. At least I know my dogs are in the house and when they are out they are with a member of my family who cleans up after them...............the next time my neighbours cat does anything in my garden I am going to politely parcel it up and hand it to her with a sweet smile on my face.............if people started doing this to you and you were faced with a parcel of your cats disgusting mess you might think twice about letting it wander your neighbourhood at leisure  and destroying everyones hard work and their pleasure, not to mention the poor kids that stand and fall into it or even worse, dig up what your 'pet' has left them in their garden.................one word..............DISGUSTING!!!

There are ten cats that regularly use our garden as their loo - disgusting as you can imagine.  I've tried water pistols, throwing things at them (I'm a rotten shot) and nothing works.  Now, to protect seedlings I cut a rew holly twigs and place over the seed bed - seems to do the trick.  I have been told that the best solution is to get your own cat as they never go to the loo in their own garden, but keep other cats out of their territory.  Failing that, if you live near a zoo, try to get some lion dung - domestic cats hate it.

I have a dog (a rescue dog), and I ALWAYS clean up after it, he even has a clip on his collar so he can carry his own mess to the nearest bin!  Now, I dislike cats as I also have 2 small children, and they can't go out until I've done a cat poop patrol.  Unfortunately the cat is the only animal whose owners can't be prosecuted for trespass.

This will annoy all cat lovers, but the deterrent I use (max is too old and fat to catch the little darlings), is a super soaker water pistol full of beer.  Cats get soaked with it, clean themselves up, and get a little bit drunk.  Keeps them out of my garden for a week or so afterwards.

My neighbour's dog (before he passed away) was that quick, and gymnastic, he'd literally run up a wall to get to them (they sit on top of a wall and taunt the dogs, until they get soaked with my beer gun), he managed to get to two, which he hit so hard he broke the cat's back, so my neighbour, who luckily isn't squeamish, had to despatch the cats to put them out of their misery.  Unfortunately he couldn't return the bodies to the rightful owners for burial, as guess what, neither of them had collars on.

Far too many people are too stupid to own a pet (or have children for that matter), but they still do, and it's people like me that take on rescues and straighten them out who end up picking up the pieces when Fido is no longer a loveable little ball of fluff but a big lolloping teenager!

I don't mind picking up my dog's offerings, but HATE cleaning up after the neighbourhood cats.

i had problems with cats in my garden.. and they would sit in wait for hte birds.. i feed all the birds and i have  sparrows, blue tits, 2nd generation of starlings gold finches and chafffinch and doves etc.. i hated coming home to find feathers and parts of birds left lying around.. horrible..

but for the last 2 years we have had seagulls nestinf on our flat roof.. and by jove do they keep the cats away.. to go for them.. so no more problem with them.. and the gulls also keep the rooks away too

Hello everyone, having read through all these posts it amazes me the level of hatred, anger & sometimes boarding on enjoyment of cruelty that other posters feel about cats. Any body who enjoys seeing a dog breaking a cats back is not a very good  person. Because that how the post sounds I doubt they would like that to happen to their own pets. I'm sure then they would have something to say about it. There are good reasons why some people choose not to collar their cats.

Now I have  a cat, but I love all animals and was brought up with a houseful of dogs. My cat is kept indoors, only because I live on really busy road. I would love to have a dog but know I don't have the time to look after it ie walk it. And the reason you need to walk your dog apart from exercise is that they poo some where else other than your garden!

When others are slagging off cat owners, what do they expect the owners to do? Tell their cats "now dont go next door" Do they want all cats to be kept indoors?

I can smypathise with cat mess as I am a gardener. Some of the points raised here are ridiculous and here is how  I   could ridiculously  add to them

Not all dog owners clean up,even though every dog owner on here says they do. I know a lot of dog owners clean up in their bags & just hang them on the hedges............mmm nice. lets not forget that a lot of breeds of dogs including the well behaved, good company jack russells, will tear apart hedgehogs, badgers, mice etc given half the chance. That what they were bred for. Does that make them bad..........no. lets not forget the expense that we have to pay for cleaning up after dog mess, even if we're not dog owners. Local councils just pass the cost on to tax payers.

As for cat poo being a health hazard for children........... so is birds!  So is soil! Does that mean  a bird patrol as well. I was brought up in the country side, lets not be silly about things. I was taught at a young age not to touch certain things.

I enjoyed your pictures Gary Hobson, especially the last one.

My cat is a pain when she does her business in the garden although once the beds are full of flowers and veg she uses the cattie litter indoors. She seems to just stay in my garden, only going out when I'm outdoors or at home but at about this time each year I get the neighbours children water pistols and encourage them to squirt her if she ventures next door. They too can be pests when their balls are kicked over the fence breaking plants and knocking over pots but we try to live in harmony and there's a gap in the fence for them to retrieve their balls. The cat often sits at the gap looking into their garden but the children aren't allowed to squirt her if she's still in her own garden, the arrangement seems to work fairly well.       

I have two bird tables and alot of birds regularly visit the garden but they are placed in open spaces and the birds seem to have got wise to the cat being there. She is very much like an open book and can be seen hiding in amoungest the fruit bushes when she's on the prowl, she's also a lazy cat and likes to lay out on the lawn in full view. Spring/early summer time, she does leave the occassional offering at the back door, I've had a couple of birds but mainly field mice, which she'll sit proudly next too, I don't like it but accept this is what cats do and try different methods to raise the wildlifes chances of survival.      

hollie hock.. i agree about the dog mess..along our coastal path..which is gorgeous.. it is a case of watch where your walking and not the view.. a constant complaint out our neighbourhood watch meetings...

i love cats i had 3 at one time.. but now because of boys allergy cant have any..but when i did i found keeping a spare bit of open ground for them to use at back of my garden stopped them going elsewhere..and useable by all other cats... without effect to us.

but i will admit now that the only pets i can have (sort of) is hte birds i get a little protective over them..  

finally able to load piccie of the seagull young last year.. they keep cats away.

Seagulls never did the trick in our garden - our cat chased them.  Caught one once too - don't know who was more surprised, cat or gul!

Cats and slugs. YUK! A friend explained about putting sticks in the garden, pointy end up. My firm recently got rid of cutlery and make us use wooden sticks to stir our tea! Not at all environmentally friendly, but it is all cost cutting now. So I collect these sticks. As I am going around the garden, after weeding and preparing in go hundreds of these, pointy end up remember! And as I am pruning perenials, I notice a lot of these were strong and sharp enough to go in as well. So no waste, and twigs don't seem to break down very well in the compost bin either. Yes, it is working, but don't forget the edges as well!!!! Hurray.