Neighbours' fox terrier in my old place has always been my worst nightmare. she's 1/4 the size of my big pooch, and 10 times as destructive, digging holes, thrashing through the beds hunting for mice, scratching up stuff, messing up with the irrigation system. Nobody seemed to think this in any way upsetting "cause she's such a darling, comes from a rescue shelter, she was traumatised, you know?". Completely out of control, coming and going as she pleased, totally unrestrained. When I extended a line from my horse fence around my vegetables to protect them from the pest, my neighbours came to me with tears in their eyes asking why I hated their poor little mite... "she's never done any harm... and won't the fence hurt her?!" (considering she used to spend half her time in my ponies pasture, barking at my shetty, it seems not, but...). Just mentioning this because it seems to me that the trouble is not the pets but the owners.
My big boy knows he's not allowed to dig or hunt in the garden... sometimes he forgets, but one word and he behaves... (He's got a hectar of forest just outside the garden gate for hunting mice to his heart content).
A good way to keep hordes of cats out of your garden is to have a cat yourself. They are territorial animals. You still have to deal with the disasters of your own cat (there are occasional disasters, yes), but it's one cat instead of an army. The two most common troubles caused my own 2 cats are lying in the sun on a freshly raked and sown bed in spring, and squashing some bushy mint or catmint in a cool leafy bed in summer. But I don't mind. They hunt lots of mice without destroying anything in their path, unlike terriers. Spayed pussycats are less likely to wander far from their home (although sometimes they do).
I've got cats... 3 of them plus there's a feral cat that turns up at the farm every now and then when it needs extra food. I'm really a dog person and have them too but hey ho cats decide where they want to live and who is suitable as an owner.
I also have a garden. Can't say I've ever been bothered by the occasional bit of cat poo or plant scratched up. Can't say I've ever been bothered when a fox comes in and craps on the lawn either. Neither when the deer come in. I was a little fussed when we had a limousin bull in because it ran straight through one of my hedges and I did a lot of shouting and arm flapping when we had a flock of sheep come in by mistake! Particularly AFTER my partner's comment "oh I thought I'd shut both gates". I had lots of occasions where ponies/horses have been in the garden. Indeed look what one escapee did to my lovely flowering tree - tortured and murdered it!
Solution: Move somewhere where you have absolutely no neighbours and can build an impenetrable fort and don't have to take account of anything else at all. Or just take a chill pill and feel grateful that IF a few cats is all you've got to worry about then life must be pretty darned good and accept that you might have to plant more mature plants and wear gloves and watch out for the cat poo.
We always had siamese cats, like all cats they were independant, we were brought up in the knowledge that they 'chose' to stay with us and we should be honoured Our neighbours loved them because they took care of mice and even on occasion took on foxes, but hey kept their poo for our garden to mark their territory. We always garden with gloves. The only thing they seemed afraid of were the badgers.
Also because if them we sometimes got live birds and mice brought into the house as a present
Two years ago a big tall Selle Francais mare escaped from her paddock 2 km away (the paddock had been broken through by a wildboar during the night), roamed the contryside a bit, and then homed in to my ponies as being the most reassuring people around... she crossed the length of my kitchen garden, which at the time was like a long corridor along the lane, and by some amazing miracle she didn't break a thing (except the fence) Later that day I ispected my garden and I could see her big deep hoofprints all through my veg patch, but not a single plant was squashed (or eaten). Incredible. she was an old dressage horse, maybe she'd been dancing among the veggies, I can't find any other explanation!
I never had sheep in my garden, but this did happen to me when I was camping in Spain in the winter of 2009/10
I don't have cat problems, but the young kangaroos break trees/shrubs off at knee height until they work our which plants taste OK. The adults don't seem to bother the plants.
My major irritation is the birds commonly called Chough (corcorax melanorhamphos). They arrive in large numbers (I've counted as many as 22 in one group). They're unpleasantly noisy, and there is not a safe place for any bulb or seedling. They clean up the Crimson rosellas feed sites in no time at all. Will try to post a photo from this morning - here goes:
Success . The green parrots are juvenile Crimson rosellas.
oh dear you have got yourself in a state , I feel sorry for you but if we didn't have cats yes we have rats and mice running a muck ... cats don't know they shouldn't use your garden for the loo, it not personal they probably go in every one garden and do a bit but they bury it ... the best thing you can do is get cat pepper and dust it round they don't like it ... or grow cat nip they wont poo then just get high .... cats have feeling too and yes I have a cat and dogs and they all get along really well no problems
I think we should train all cats, dogs, birds, foxes, mice, rats, badgers and every other creature on this planet to come into our houses and learn to use the loo. We probably won't stop moaning until they have mastered grabbing some andrex in their paws/ beaks and wiping their little furry/ feathery behinds either.
Seriously folks, we are the only creatures on this planet that uses a sewer system. We are lucky, but look at all the rubbish we've put into the ground and still do. We poison nature due to overwhelmed sewage systems, spilling excrement into the ground and water system. We add a lot of sewage to the world due to our greed with farming livestock. We poison the rivers with our chemicals and hormones, making the fish sick, sprout two heads and start speaking to each other in klingon (well, not quite - yet) and we basically ruin the planet with our greed and need to control every aspect.
OK, a bit of a ramble, but seriously - where is a cat/dog/rat/fox etc etc supposed to go? Exactly where we did not so long ago - on the ground. Some countries still do this!
I do get cross that folk expect animals to behave like humans as far as toilet habits are concerned. It's never gonna be fido or tiddles sitting on the pan and flushing, nor is every cat going to allow their owners go walking with them on a lead and poopascoop. A cat is a cat, not a dog.
Posts
Neighbours' fox terrier in my old place has always been my worst nightmare. she's 1/4 the size of my big pooch, and 10 times as destructive, digging holes, thrashing through the beds hunting for mice, scratching up stuff, messing up with the irrigation system. Nobody seemed to think this in any way upsetting "cause she's such a darling, comes from a rescue shelter, she was traumatised, you know?". Completely out of control, coming and going as she pleased, totally unrestrained. When I extended a line from my horse fence around my vegetables to protect them from the pest, my neighbours came to me with tears in their eyes asking why I hated their poor little mite... "she's never done any harm... and won't the fence hurt her?!" (considering she used to spend half her time in my ponies pasture, barking at my shetty, it seems not, but...). Just mentioning this because it seems to me that the trouble is not the pets but the owners.
My big boy knows he's not allowed to dig or hunt in the garden... sometimes he forgets, but one word and he behaves... (He's got a hectar of forest just outside the garden gate for hunting mice to his heart content).
A good way to keep hordes of cats out of your garden is to have a cat yourself. They are territorial animals. You still have to deal with the disasters of your own cat (there are occasional disasters, yes), but it's one cat instead of an army. The two most common troubles caused my own 2 cats are lying in the sun on a freshly raked and sown bed in spring, and squashing some bushy mint or catmint in a cool leafy bed in summer. But I don't mind. They hunt lots of mice without destroying anything in their path, unlike terriers. Spayed pussycats are less likely to wander far from their home (although sometimes they do).
It's always owners that are the problem. There are some 'owners' of children round here who are as big an issue as the feckless animal owners .....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I've got cats... 3 of them plus there's a feral cat that turns up at the farm every now and then when it needs extra food. I'm really a dog person and have them too but hey ho cats decide where they want to live and who is suitable as an owner.
I also have a garden. Can't say I've ever been bothered by the occasional bit of cat poo or plant scratched up. Can't say I've ever been bothered when a fox comes in and craps on the lawn either. Neither when the deer come in. I was a little fussed when we had a limousin bull in because it ran straight through one of my hedges and I did a lot of shouting and arm flapping when we had a flock of sheep come in by mistake! Particularly AFTER my partner's comment "oh I thought I'd shut both gates". I had lots of occasions where ponies/horses have been in the garden. Indeed look what one escapee did to my lovely flowering tree - tortured and murdered it!
Solution: Move somewhere where you have absolutely no neighbours and can build an impenetrable fort and don't have to take account of anything else at all. Or just take a chill pill and feel grateful that IF a few cats is all you've got to worry about then life must be pretty darned good and accept that you might have to plant more mature plants and wear gloves and watch out for the cat poo.
We always had siamese cats, like all cats they were independant, we were brought up in the knowledge that they 'chose' to stay with us and we should be honoured
Our neighbours loved them because they took care of mice and even on occasion took on foxes, but hey kept their poo for our garden to mark their territory. We always garden with gloves. The only thing they seemed afraid of were the badgers.
Also because if them we sometimes got live birds and mice brought into the house as a present
Oh god, that poor tree!
Two years ago a big tall Selle Francais mare escaped from her paddock 2 km away (the paddock had been broken through by a wildboar during the night), roamed the contryside a bit, and then homed in to my ponies as being the most reassuring people around... she crossed the length of my kitchen garden, which at the time was like a long corridor along the lane, and by some amazing miracle she didn't break a thing (except the fence) Later that day I ispected my garden and I could see her big deep hoofprints all through my veg patch, but not a single plant was squashed (or eaten). Incredible. she was an old dressage horse, maybe she'd been dancing among the veggies, I can't find any other explanation!
I never had sheep in my garden, but this did happen to me when I was camping in Spain in the winter of 2009/10
I don't have cat problems, but the young kangaroos break trees/shrubs off at knee height until they work our which plants taste OK. The adults don't seem to bother the plants.
My major irritation is the birds commonly called Chough (corcorax melanorhamphos). They arrive in large numbers (I've counted as many as 22 in one group). They're unpleasantly noisy, and there is not a safe place for any bulb or seedling. They clean up the Crimson rosellas feed sites in no time at all. Will try to post a photo from this morning - here goes:
Success . The green parrots are juvenile Crimson rosellas.
oh dear you have got yourself in a state , I feel sorry for you but if we didn't have cats yes we have rats and mice running a muck ... cats don't know they shouldn't use your garden for the loo, it not personal they probably go in every one garden and do a bit but they bury it ... the best thing you can do is get cat pepper and dust it round they don't like it ... or grow cat nip they wont poo then just get high .... cats have feeling too and yes I have a cat and dogs and they all get along really well no problems
I think we should train all cats, dogs, birds, foxes, mice, rats, badgers and every other creature on this planet to come into our houses and learn to use the loo. We probably won't stop moaning until they have mastered grabbing some andrex in their paws/ beaks and wiping their little furry/ feathery behinds either.
Seriously folks, we are the only creatures on this planet that uses a sewer system. We are lucky, but look at all the rubbish we've put into the ground and still do. We poison nature due to overwhelmed sewage systems, spilling excrement into the ground and water system. We add a lot of sewage to the world due to our greed with farming livestock. We poison the rivers with our chemicals and hormones, making the fish sick, sprout two heads and start speaking to each other in klingon (well, not quite - yet) and we basically ruin the planet with our greed and need to control every aspect.
OK, a bit of a ramble, but seriously - where is a cat/dog/rat/fox etc etc supposed to go? Exactly where we did not so long ago - on the ground. Some countries still do this!
I do get cross that folk expect animals to behave like humans as far as toilet habits are concerned. It's never gonna be fido or tiddles sitting on the pan and flushing, nor is every cat going to allow their owners go walking with them on a lead and poopascoop. A cat is a cat, not a dog.