Just because its legal doesn't make it right :)
I don't get annoyed at societies lack of tolerance towards dogs - I get annoyed by irresponsbile dog owners giving dogs a bad name and encouraging intolerance from folk who are not obliged to like dogs - same as me with cats ;)

Whilst thats fair enough, someone at some point has made the choice to purchase a cat - and the fact it then roams around everyone elses property is exactly the argument!
I don't like cats but for some reason they love me. lol

> It is anti social and irresponsible to allow a dog to roam because of the potential danger to the public, if no dog had ever bitten, disfigured or killed a person then nobody would have a fear of them wandering the streets.

I always thought the laws regarding dogs under control was to do with the safety of livestock or to prevent accidents on the roads.

I have one cat thats mine, poo in my garden all the time,and i agree it is very annoying.
I also have another cat that we have had for 14yrs and ive never seen her poo in all that time...so she must use someone elses garden.

We have several badgers visit our garden every night,and without fail poo in our drain every night, we have blocked it up but they just unblock it. Badger poo is disgusting and stinks.
There is no shutting them out,they get in whether we like it or not.

I wish all I had to worry in life about was a cat doing a poo in my garden.........

With all Life's other worries, an unexpected handful of cat poo can be the final straw. I'd imagine if someone kept letting their dog poo on your doorstep, you'd get a little narked!

I wish all I had to worry in life about was a cat doing a poo in my garden.........

My thoughts as well to be honest ...........

Believe me - I've plenty of things going on in my life, two of them I'm finding heartbreaking.
All I was asking was for any ideas to stop cat's using my front bit of garden...............................5 piles have appeared since Sunday night.
I felt I'd started this topic in a quite light-hearted way but it seems to have caused bad feelings which I certainly didn't intend or expect.

> With all Life's other worries, an unexpected handful of cat poo can be the final straw. I'd imagine if someone kept letting their dog poo on your doorstep, you'd get a little narked!

I've got plenty of worries going on in my life.  I could start a thread about the inconsiderate fishermen leaving their spare lines, hooks, dead fish, rubbish, excrement etc. at the loch walk I take my dogs too but...........??????

I would use water either a spray or water pistol or one of those movement detectors that work with a hose pipe !

Thank you Moonmaiden - water ideas do seem to be the most popular.......it's just being there at the right time !.

Christine, I'm sorry you feel this topic is unimportant, and as life goes, yes it is. I would just like not to have cat poo outside my door and under my sitting room window every day.
I have a wonderful cat myself (uses a tray thank goodness) and I worked as a volunteer in the cattery of my nearest Blue Cross for a few years - although I don't see why my love of cats should mean I want their mess everywhere.
People on here start new threads to ask advice for all sorts of things, just looking now there is a wide range. If you want to start a thread about inconsiderate fisherman then please do, somebody might be able to advise.

t's the deliberate setting of dogs onto animals that is illegal,

No its not.

It is a subject that is understandably annoying but I suppose we all have our own types of annoyances which can affect our lives in one way or another just some annoyances have different levels of importance dependant who you are and what is going on in your life.

I've seen a few people leaving half filled clear plastic bottles lying around in their borders. 

Contact your local zoo and see if they will let you have tiger poo! although to be honest tigers do stink..and its probably better to have a normal sized cat poo in your garden rather than the smell of a thousand cats having peed in a hot room!!!
it is great for clearing the sinusses though....

i think that is more for watering the plants

> i think that is more for watering the plants

No, I have read about this as a deterent to cats.  Something about reflections I think.

Found it :-)
Looks like you have to add a bit of washing up liquid for colour.

> water ideas do seem to be the most popular.......it's just being there at the right time !.

You can get movement activated water squirters (they automatically squirt water at movement), available in most pond supply shops/online pond supply sites.

> Olbas Oil....Thats what worked for me

Came on here to post this info but got beaten to it! It was suggested to me by a neighbour last night!
Worth a try...

"I wish all I had to worry in life about was a cat doing a poo in my garden......... "

Me too, nonetheless finding that a burgeoning number local cats are using my garden as a public toilet is very unpleasant.  Not to mention that I can no longer use a bird feeder, thanks to the number of dead birds I found in the general area.   I could put up feeding the local grey squirrel population, put up with needing to hang a feeder away from a window (and my view) so my terriers did not try to leap through a closed window to get at the squirrels, but could not stomach the "killing zone" caused by local cats.

And, I do like cats .. just not everything they do.   Same for dogs.  

I think some people on this forum realy need to get a grip. Come on, really. I dont think i'll ever live ot see the day when cats no longer roam freely.

A grip on what exactly? I never said that cats should not be allowed to roam freely, but dismissing the problems they cause as irrelevant or the distress they cause others is not exactly helpful either.  The increasing numbers of domestic cats have been sited - without any direct proof that I am aware of - as one of the reasons for the decline in certain species of birds.  

Again, I am not a cat hater.  Had one when I was growing up and unfortunately allergies prevent me from owning one now. :-(

I don't want cat's to not roam freely - I just want to not have so much poo to pick up. A record today - 4 piles in a day - and in this heat, not a nice smell by my front door !. I'm thinking of collecting them and placing them all in the middle of the road and let everybody with a cat collect one each !.

> I think some people on this forum realy need to get a grip. Come on, really. I dont think i'll ever live ot see the day when cats no longer roam freely.

Actually there was a bit on TV about this the other day - something about birds being killed by cats and magpies? I think, the guy who was on made the point that when he was a child in the 60's and 70's dogs used to be let out to wander anywhere, and you hardly see that nowadays - owner education changed that situation. I have 3 cats - two indoor, one outdoor and while the indoor ones try to escape if the back door is open, they are not any less happy than the one who goes roaming, in fact they love to play and will retrieve balls etc

As for the poo situation, I would try a litter tray - you can get them for a couple of pounds and most cats will go for the softest area where its easy to bury their poo, most cats are used to using a tray too. It would be easier to clean than your gravel.

> the indoor ones try to escape if the back door is open, they are not any less happy than the one who goes roaming,

surely if they are trying to 'escape' then they are showing an interest in the outside world. A healthy cat by nature is inquisitive

Well, they go out the door have a sniff and come back in again - they don't venture far, but they have access to an outside run all day so its not as if they never get outside, they are just not 'free range'. We live next to a very busy main road and have lost 2 cats to it in the past, Our cat that goes out is a semi-feral cat and is very street wise (evidenced by living next to a main road for 10 years and surviving), he has always been allowed out. The other two are pedigree Ragdolls and aren't the sharpest tools in the box :-D (but make up for it by being beautiful and cute and cuddly), I got them when they were a year old and they had never been allowed out and I don't think they care really as when they do get out by accident they don't run off screaming 'Freedom, Freedom' :-D :-D. I honestly don't think they would survive a day outside - they just don't have the 'smarts' :-D , but they love to play and watch my daughters rats and budgie through the bars of the cages as well as stalking the dogs if they can get away with it :-D

I think some people on this forum realy need to get a grip. Come on, really. I dont think i'll ever live ot see the day when cats no longer roam freely.
May be you are lucky and don't have the problems some of us evidently do. I have five grandchildren and I worm my dogs regularly, I also clean up any mess they leave be it in my garden or outside..however I now have to clear my garden of cat poo before they can use the front garden and then I cannot be sure they are safe from harm!!  Cats are the ONLY domesticated animal to be allowed to roam freely and inflict distress on other people...and what distresses me may be different to what distresses others, but distress it is!
Aileen

Hi Freds Mum

I think you have to experience the unpleasantness and relentlessness of having to clean up after someone else's animals day after day to really understand just how horrid it is. The stink was just unbelievable :( It is just foul to walk in it and then trail it round your new carpets and then realise what you've done - yup, my OH did that! It really wears you down.

My sister lives in Toronto and she is not allowed to let her cat out at all.

Cat poo poses a serious threat to pregnant women and the health of their unborn babies, so much so that they're advised not to clean their cat's litter tray but get someone else to do it. It follows that there is also a risk if they unearth cat poo while gardening - particularly vile when you don't even own a cat.

This happened to me 16 years ago, we had a cat at that time, I used to empty the litter tray daily, always careful to wash my hands thoroughly afterwards, but picked up Toxoplasmosis, our daughter was born 9 weeks early and without a heart beat, it took forever to get her going, she spent 5 weeks in SCBU being pumped with every AB going, I was also really ill.  :(  so it is very dangerous!

We do have a cat now, well it's our eldest daughters,  but even though I'm past the 'having babies' stage, I always put my Marigold gloves on to empty the tray