Keep your cats to yourselves

How so?

I am glad that our neighbours are more laid back than the OP. Our cat slips under the fence to them and we hear the children playing with him. They even give him the odd bit of chicken and if we are out for the day he has been known to tap on their window looking for his chicken.Whatever he does in their garden they do not complain.Lovely people.

Greenfinch

Lucky you, I do feel guilty, as soon as I let our cat out, he’s straight under next doors fence, although, that’s their own fault because they feed him.

The other side love their birds, their garden is full of feeders, and I’ve heard them yelling at him, he probably spends 90% of his time roaming around , popping in for food, or a sleep by the Aga.

I like to think he’s doing what comes naturally to him, but am always worried that he’s annoying someone.

Sara65... trust me...he is...

1. Buy a huge bag of white pepper from a good ethnic store (supermarket bags are tiny and expensive).

2. Sprinkle white pepper around your garden plants. It won't harm the plants but as sure as eggs is eggs, the local cats will hate it!

3. Sit back and smirk.

Job's a good 'un.

If you don't like cats in your garden, just clap your hands in the garden when you see one there.

It doesn't hurt them but, after a few times, they don't come back as I imagine they are startled by the noise.

I neither like nor dislike cats.

There's a cat who patrols our garden. We've occasionally seen him around but it wasn't until we had a snowy spell that we realised he had a regular route and schedule, as evidenced by fresh paw prints daily. The irony is, I have two cats of my own but they never go out, preferring to idle time away on laps and by radiators!

I used to thoroughly dislike the cat next door... Always in our garden trying to get the goldfish grr! Then he bit the most obnoxious child ever to exist, so i quite like him now!

I put a couple of bells on each of our cats collars so the birds hear them coming. I don't put food out for birds so as not to encourage them into garden with cats.

They have litter tray indoors but do go outside too. They do scratch the earth though and not leave poo on paths. I put litter in corner of our garden too and they sometimes go there, but I have seen them scratching and burying the poo in the litter.

We have two dogs too and pick up after them when out walking.

Dear lemongrove....my humblest apologies. Can't imagine how I got that confused!
You probably won't be surprised to hear that I was brought up with Cocker Spaniels and Retrievers, and I continued to own dogs as my own family grew up. We no longer keep a dog, because we are out and away for much of the time.
Several times as a child, I rescued trespassing cats from being savaged by our otherwise mild-mannered dogs, who worked as a pair and were adept at catching them. On one memorable night, my brother and I were too late to save a cornered cat from our dogs' murderous attentions, and we decided to give the poor thing a decent moonlit burial in an adjacent field. My brother dug a hole, and I carried the limp mess of gory fur across. No sooner had I dropped it in, than it leapt 6 feet in the air (as I remember it), and made yowling off into the night. It was our turn to nearly die that evening - of fright! Such episodes, however, did little to stem the flow of visiting cats.
If we are talking idiotic, then I think it idiotic (and thoroughly selfish) to ignore the responsibilities inherent in pet ownership.

Is Bodach a new poster? Or someone who has re-inventer herself. The style seems familiar as do the "stories". Just saying. Apologies Bodach if you are a regular poster. I am obviously confusing you with someone else.

I agree Greenfinch there is a familiar feel.

There are no responsibilities with cat ownership other than feeding, brushing and stroking them.They should not be confined to the house and can escape from any garden, however high the fence.
To think otherwise is highly unreasonable.

I wonder what other stories will come our way.

I am sorry Lemongrove... but you last post is a cop-out!!. Cats are domestic pets and owners SHOULD be totally responsible for their behaviour. It is unreasonable that other people have to pick up the shit and dispose of it, replace plants and collect the dead birds these animals leave behind. And thats not mentioning the potential diseases in the faeces.

In the eyes of the law, owners of cats are not responsible for keeping them locked up and are free to roam about.It’s their nature to have a territory to patrol.
Saying that owners should keep them indoors permanently
Is simply the wishes of those who dislike cats.
I have stood in more dog faeces than cat ( in fact have never stood in cat’s).
Yes, they kill small birds and rodents when they can, it’s their nature just as Bodach’s dogs had an urge to kill.
When was a child savaged to death by a cat though!

Dog faeces should be collected by the owners I absolutely agree. I was a responsible dog owner for many years. My argument is that people WHO DO NOT HAVE CATS are forced to handle at faeces putting them at risk of taxoplasmosis. For people with lowered immune systems this can result in miscarriages, foetal development disorders, blindness, ongoing flu-like symptoms. If a dog caused any similar 'injuries' the owner would be prosecuted and the animal likely destroyed.

What a mean lot (most of) you are! Cats are lovely, but they are animals. They have no morals. They do what nature tells them to do. You have to accept that. It is cruel to keep them indoors, and I’ve only once met someone who did that. She was American, though I don’t know if that’s significant.

As for how they came to be domesticated, have you not read ‘The Cat who Walked by Himself’ in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories? It explains everything.

I had cats, and also fed the birds. The cats looked at the birds on the bird table and feeders hopefully, but it was very rare for them to catch one. In fact, I can only remember one such occasion in very many years.

Most cats bury their faeces, so you don’t have to handle it, but gardeners should use sense and wear gloves ( you should anyway) and a trowel or fork for gardening.
Dogs do cause those injuries as a child is far more likely to touch contaminated grass on a playing field or park than from rootling around in a flowerbed.

Nobody is ‘forced to handle cat faeces’, for goodness’ sake. If you can’t leave them where they are, there is such a thing as a trowel or a scoop. Also tough gardening gloves.

And a peg for your nose.

So there we have it folks... cats can do exactly what they like.. wherever they want to do it, and cats owners will never be held responsible.

By Jove, I think she’s got it! ?

Pathetic

Grandma70s

I agree with you, a cat shouldn’t be shut up indoors, ours is out a lot more than he’s in, mostly prowling the fields, but he does go into my neighbors garden, for which I do feel guilty, because I know they don’t like it.

But I’m not precious about him, if they want to shoo him away, or turn the hose on him, that’s up to them.

Dear Greenfinch, lemongrove et al. I am indeed a new poster on Gransnet, and I have certainly not metamorphosed from any other online existence. I don't plan to be a frequent contributor, but one never knows... It's always good to throw the occasional pebble into the pool.
By the way, I'm amused, but not in the least surprised, to see the cat lobby continuing to adhere so closely to the script I wrote for them in my "Summing Up" yesterday.