Cats in the garden

Discussion in 'Gardening Discussions' started by Trux, Feb 13, 2007.

  1. Daisies

    Daisies Total Gardener

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    The idea is that since lions are cats, they leave a cat signature in their poo (which is processed into harmless dried pellets, BTW!) indicating the size and strength of the 'owner' thereof. So when Mr Ordinary Moggie comes along, he takes one sniff and thinks to himself "Crikey - I'm not messing with that cat!" and scrams!

    [​IMG]


    PS - apparently it doesn't work, BTW!
     
  2. geoffhandley

    geoffhandley Gardener

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    I think I would prefer the smaller poo than the big cat poo.
    The main problem i have is that my GSD eats cat poo. Why do they do that? It always makes her ill....diarhrea.....it once resulted in an accident in the back of the cat while on the motorway....it took me an hour to clean up the car. Usually it involves a trip to the vet and therefore a bill for �£40+
    So I discourage the darling little pussies as best as I can. Usually I find a lobbed stone gets the message across. Note lobbed, not thrown. The intention is not to hurt the cat but give it the impression I might. To be quite honest, as my wife says, I am a sucker for anything furred or feathered.
    I used to own cats as a kid and we had one when we first got married....I did not get one where we live now mainly because they break your heart when they go out and never come back again.
    When we had our cat it used to get beat up by this big tom and I remember being up ladders and my cat running round the greenhouse pursued by this horrible bruiser of a cat, the one that used to **** on top of plants (must have thought itself a lion). I found it round the back of the garage and soaked it - it just screamed at me. So I got a long bamboo cane and poked it - it just bit off the end of the cane. I tell you that was one scarey cat. It was so tough it used to walk out in front of cars in the avenue and expect them to stop, which they did - no one wants to run over a neighbours cat do they?
     
  3. Daisies

    Daisies Total Gardener

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    Quite often do that myself - and indoors when the little darlings are having a spat! Just to distract them, you understand!
     
  4. Banana Man

    Banana Man You're Growing On Me ...

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    I found two cat poos today at the end of the garden. It is beautiful soil in which I grow my ground ferns. I take it as a compliment, its good soil and if I was a cat I'd cr@p in it :D

    Mind you if I had trod in it :mad: :D
     
  5. chobart

    chobart Gardener

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    Not sure where all this post is leading. I have a dog, we have squuirrels, occasional cats plus other animals - live and let live I think is the right line..............My son has a badger which visits his place when the foxes are elsewhere - last nigh it started to take his wooden gate apart and took a long time to move on - now his dog wants out every night to play with the badge
    ............strange world is'n't it....?
     
  6. geoffhandley

    geoffhandley Gardener

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    Well now we have all stopped shouting thank goodness........lifes too short etc ;)
     
  7. Trux

    Trux Gardener

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    My problem is not with cats as a species. My problem is with the owners who appear to assume that it is fine for their 'wild animals' to cause damage to property belonging to someone else.

    Please will somebody explain to me why it has to cost ME money to keep someone else's animal out of my garden.

    If a fox enters my property and starts eating my hypothetical chickens, I am legally allowed to kill it. My dear, sweet little pet brown rats may be legally killed or trapped. Both foxes and rats are wild animals. Either cats fall into that category or they don't. If they don't, then owners must be made to take responsibility.
     
  8. Daisies

    Daisies Total Gardener

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    I posted this in another thread but it's a tale that bears repeating ...

     
  9. Trux

    Trux Gardener

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    I would shop them MD. It is a prosecutable offence. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing a dog to foul a sidewalk. I have had dogs all my life and I never allowed indiscriminate dumping! I don't have a dog now as we are both away fairly frequently.
     
  10. geoffhandley

    geoffhandley Gardener

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    The point is how much financial damage do the cats do? Not much i bet. Sure cats can be a nuisance and I suffer probably as much as you, but i keep things in perspective. Like someone else has posted I have on occasion had dog poo deposited on the front. Sure i grumble when I clean it up and I would point out my displeasure if i knew who dog it was, but I wouldn't start posting it back to suspected owners like some do. You can state your point of view without starting a neighbourhood war.
    Incidentally there wouldn't be any point in killing a fox that killed your hypothetical chickens, the dead fox would just be replaced by another fox looking for a vacant territory. If you have chickens or rabbits, like we had then you have to take steps to avoid them becoming Reynard's dinner. Foxes are always around so you make sure they cannot get at what you keep, otherwise its your fault.
    If cats really get you wind up, which they do, then don't use plants that attract them or don't provide them with areas that will attract them for toiletry purposes. I have very few areas of soft soil, most is either densely planted or covered in mulch and if I make a seedbed then it is netted. Some of the fences have a single strand of wire at the top to make them less attractive to cats.
    Whether you like it or not cats are here to stay and nothing will change on that. For your own sake I would avoid doing anything that is likely to harm a cat. You do not want to earn a reputation as a cruel vindictive person and it can so easily be done.
    Some years ago my neighbours cat came down my garden. I watched it, it did not spot me and I let it get to within 10 feet. I then jumped up, shouted, the cat nearly pooed itself and I chased it. As it ran round the side path I rattled a small stone after it.
    Shortly afterwards i overheard a guy two doors away who was a real stirrer and troublemaker telling Pearl my next door neighbour that I had hit her cat with a stone. I then walked round and knocked on the door and told Pearl what I had done and she was OK with that, she did not mind me discouraging her cat and she suspected he was a troublemaker.
    Since then we have been good friends. I even took my electronic cat deterrent round to test on her cat ( it did not work) and Pearl was besotted with the two dogs I eventually got. My present GSD regularly disappears out of the garden to find Pearl.......but it could all have been so different due to a misunderstanding.
     
  11. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    I don't think we are going to get any form of agreement on this matter. You either get annoyed about the roaming cats or you don't. Why don't we just call it a day? [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Now if you want to talk about the wild rabbits that dig in my garden and chew the flowers off their stalks, then that is another matter [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] :D :D

    -------------
    shiney
     
  12. r2oo

    r2oo Gardener

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    That is exactly what I think Shiney...Time to call it a day people.
    Someone, for some reason has already started another post on exaclty the same subject!!!!! [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] :mad:
     
  13. Kandy

    Kandy Will be glad to see the sun again soon.....

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    Why don't we all do what we agreed the other day and just ignore them like we had to when these people started the thread on Global Warming just to wind us all up.Perhaps those same people would like to have a disscussion with Trux as he is a pilot, on that subject,so that they can both air their side of the argument [​IMG]

    I agree totally with both Shiney and r200 on this one :D :D
     
  14. Banana Man

    Banana Man You're Growing On Me ...

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    This thread is getting a bit poo ! :D

    Credible merits on both sides but not realistically solvable. [​IMG]
     
  15. Trux

    Trux Gardener

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    I agree. There will never be a resolution to this one, just as there will never be a complete vindication to either side of the GW arguments.

    I will be happy to call it a day even if just to preserve the harmony that existed in GC before I came along.

    I will probably never see eye to eye with those whose views are totally opposed to mine but I am big enough and old enough to resist rising to the bait.

    Love you all!
     
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