[Mammyshaz]

I'm just thinking, I'm sure there is a product to keep cats off the garden available from vets. It's called something like "grass-off". I remember a nurse using it to keep her own cats off veg patch but she moved area so unable to ask. May be worth a phone call to vet if still stuck with hay problem.

[ruralliving]

Thank you very much for all the replies.

We have in the short term sorted and covered the hay with a tarpaulin which seems at the moment to be keeping them at bay.  They are so persistent it's not true.  We do have a dog, but he's more of a house pet and they are overnighting in the barn when he's safely tucked up by the fire.

We are going to attempt to chicken wire what parts we can to allow airflow but prevent the cats from getting in.  We are also going to speak to the neighbours about this again.  No one wants to be at war with their neighbours but you are utterly right, our unborn child is the priority and I am unwilling to take any risks, especially when they are imposed upon us by other peoples animals on our property.

They are both young cats, they were adopted as kittens from a rescue and kept in for the first few months, so it's only now they are allowed out and getting bolder that we are having problems.  We have a huge range of nesting tits, finches, sparrows and robins too, which I adore and feed, so I'm dreading the day they start picking of the wildlife.  They aren't quite there yet confidence wise.

Why on earth does anyone have cats?  I guess because they crap in and ruin neighbours property and not the owners!

[HappyHippy]

Why on earth does anyone have cats?  I guess because they crap in and ruin neighbours property and not the owners!

I have cats to keep on top of the vermin that comes from having livestock, so that I don't have to use poisons or chemicals round the animals or kids  Please believe me when I say I am, have always been and will always be a dog person - but cats do have their own charm and appeal - honest 
BUT, before the riot starts I can totally see where you're coming from - baby has to come first so I definitely don't think you're being unreasonable in that respect, but I'd say that to try and keep a cat from going where it wants to is neigh on impossible - if they can get their head in, they're in 

This will sound totally mad, but lion poo is a good thing to put down to stop cats coming near. If you don't have a local zoo or safari park, you can buy it in dried and pelleted form to put down. The theory is that the cats smell another bigger and more dominant cat and don't come close - we tried it (in the days pre-cats) and it seemed to work (but hiding and squirting with water pistols is far more effective and you feel like you're getting a bit of payback without hurting the cats  )

Hope you manage to sort it with your neighbours and good luck for babies arrival - is it your first & do you have long to go ?
Karen 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Thats a good point HH and is the reason we have stable cats. Just as dangerous for a wee one to find some rat bait as the risks now re toxo.

Im not sure the rescue orgs test for toxo, they do for a few things but dont mention that on the CPL site.

[Small Farmer]

When our resident owl got killed by a lorry there was an explosion in the rat and mouse population so we keep a couple of ferals which do a fair job but at the expense of some fledglings.   It's a tricky balance

[ruralliving]

We are still having problems with the cats.  After a detailed investigation of the law it seems that the cats have a legal right to crap and roam where ever they like, and that removing, trapping or shooting them is totally illegal. 

It seems we have only a few options.

1. Just keep going accepting ruined hay, lost money, lost hours of work clearing the mess (I found they'd got under the tarp this morning and messed everywhere, that's another 3 bales wasted and another 2-3 hours work sorting and clearing it up for my husband) and hope that I don't get ill, we will sue to the hilt if anything happens to me or our child. 

2. Spend a fortune sealing the barns, we are using one barn at the moment, but later in the year we will need to use 4 to house the whole winters hay and I will still be pregnant, so that's 4 x barns to seal, which is going to cost us about £6000 we estimate (on top of purchasing all the things we require for our first baby!).  Even when I am no longer pregnant under no circumstances do I want my child rolling around in cat crapped hay! 

3. Get a big mean nasty tom cat in the vague hope that it doesn't crap in our hay and beats up the others therefore keeping them off.

4. Get a yard dog (another dog with a baby on the way, especially an aggressive outside one isn't high on the agenda).

Any other legal suggestions?  I have tried encouraging our dog to chase the cats, but he's not quick enough, sharp enough or motivated enough to do it!

We have also looked into all sorts of sonic devices, 'get-off's', lion poo, etc, all of them by accounts are a waste of money as they don't work well or consistently.  We don't want to have to spend a fortune on things that don't work before giving in and sealing the barns.  Someone suggested covering the hay in chilli powder, which apparently cat's hate, until I pointed out that our animals would hardly eat it covered in chilli either!

It seems the law is only on my side if something terrible happens to me or our baby, regardless of our financial loss, or time/worry spent over the problem.  I'm frankly disgusted.  If our dog was doing to their property what their cats are doing to ours, even without the health risk, we'd have the dog warden and the council on our backs and we'd have fines and we'd have to keep picking him up from the council pound until such time as they got fed up and just took him away!

[dixie]

Did you try my garlic suggestion? Cheap and effective. Or get a jack Russell! Personally I'd rather the garlic!

[ruralliving]

Garlic is no good.  We have one animal who is very allergic to garlic, we've had to go to great lengths to find a suitable feed free from it (they seem to put it into everything) and two who hate it, so covering the hay is it isn't going to work too well if we actually want to use it!

[Crofterloon]

I do not know how to keep the cats of but I bought hay from a different place a few years ago
and ended up with ewes aborting lambs.

I had the ewes blood tested and found they had anti-bodies to toxo (cant spell) the ewes were
fine the next year but it cost me in lambs.

But your health and the health of your children is more important.

[HappyHippy]

Getting your own Tom cat could work - it should definately help if your territory is 'defended' by a resident cat  The cat's protection league usually have ferel cats available for re-homing if you didn't want a 'pet' as such.
The only other thing I can think which might help would be to make them a litter area somewhere 
It wouldn't solve the problem of the mess as such, but hopefully it would encourage them to go where you want them too, rather than on your hay. You could just make a square frame (old bits of timber ?) Fill half with dirt or sand and half with some of the soiled hay.
Good luck,
Karen 

[HelenVF]

I am just amazed at their attitude. Yes, cats are different in the eyes of the law but I would be mortified if my cat did anything like that! 

How about one of thos sonic devices which scare cats away?  My mum had a cat going through her garden and crapping and it stopped that.

This is definitely not what you want to be dealing with now.

Helen

[Small Farmer]

As someone who never liked small dogs I wasn't that keen on OH getting a Jack Russell X from the Blue Cross.  I've changed my mind, and noticed several local farmers also have one.  As an all-round companion and vermin controller he's great.

[ruralliving]

Bit of an update for you all.  We went away last weekend for a family wedding, we got back to find out that one of the cats had been run over on the road, the other has gone missing.  Luckily for us both were seen after we left and were gone before we got back!  So we've skipped being accused of being in anyway involved.  We are so soft we can't even bring ourselves to shoot the rabbits eating our grazing, so it would have felt rather insulting I think to be accused of deliberately harming the cats, but as we had complained several times I think we would probably would have been.  I am sorry they have lost pets, but I am also relieved that we haven't got to battle with cat mess everywhere, at least not for a bit anyway!  I'm sure they will eventually be replaced!

[Fleecewife]

It's sad but good for you     If they replace the cats then start scaring them off the very first time they try to set foot over the boundary - as kittens they will soon learn    The water pistol I suggested really does work and causes no harm to the cats (I love cats)

[Bionic]

If the problem arises again you might want to try something like this.
http://www.primrose.co.uk/spray-repeller-p-1907.html?cPath=24_312&src=cat_box
 
I used to have something similar to scare herons away from my pond. It worked well. The only problem I found was that I used to forget it was switched on and get soaked myself when I went into the garden 
 
Sally