Cats in your Garden

[aka pixi]

I often read or hear about people being annoyed by cats in their garden (using it as a toilet or destroying plants) I can understand this is really annoying, so for a change I thought I would share a nice story of the cats that come into our garden.

We have 2 cats of our own, a female 8 years old and a male 6 years old. Every day our garden is full of cats. A couple are obviously strays but most of them are well looked after and well fed. They use our garden as a meeting and greeting place. They rub noses with each other in passing and spend the time either sleeping under the bushes or just playing/lazing in the sun. There is a big ginger male cat that brings along a kitten (probably about 10 weeks old) they hunt and stalk among the bushes and often play fight. The kitten has now started visiting on its own and is really cute and loves being fussed over. Theres a couple of other big males that laze around on the bench or beside the door. Two other males are friends of our male cat and they go off together. There is a stray cat that has been coming since it was a tiny kitten (its now about 4) We regularly feed it and the other cats dont touch its food at all. I would love to bring it in and give it a home but it is sometimes really vicious and we are pretty wary of it.

Besides these regular visitors there are also occasional visitors who come to the garden too.

These cats all tolerate each other (only occasionally do they confront each other) They have never used the garden as a toilet and never destroyed the plants (although the little kitten has started chewing on the bushes and climbing the small trees we have)

It is lovely to look out of the window and see them and we dont mind them being there at all, in fact it is really nice that they see our garden as a safe place to 'hang out'

[Catso]

All together now: "AAAAhhhhhhh".

[aka pixi]

hmm not sure if that is a sarky answer or what catso

[lindapinda]

Thanks for that Pixi...I'm sitting here smiling,and am really jealous! All those lovely cats you get to see daily! My aunt's garden just seems to attract lots of lovely cats too.She has never actually "got" a cat,it's just been a succession of strays etc.and word of mouth obviously,that there's always food on tap,and lots of safe places to sleep and relax!

[aka pixi]

hi linda, its really lovely especially with the kitten coming round. Hopefully she will stop gnawing on the bushes (we have been shooing her away from them lol)

Its lovely that the cats go to your aunts garden too :) especially as she doesnt have cats herself, they must feel really welcome there :)

My mate reckons they come round for mating purposes though Ive never seen/heard evidence of that lol (both our cats were 'done' when they were little) I think I would be in shock if I woke up one morning to a garden full of babies lol

[alfiebrady]

Nice one. Ever thought of putting a webcam up?

[aka pixi]

hi alfie, I hadnt thought of that, I did think of taking some photos in the summer, but your idea is much better. Thanks for that :D

[Catso]

Only slightly sarky. Come on, it is an 'aaahhhhhh' story.

[aka pixi]

lol catso, I wasnt moaning honest, I was just wondering whether to send the cats round hee hee

[spinchimp]

I hate cats. I used to have a large variety of birds visit my garden, then my neighbours on both sides got a cat. Now I have a vastly reduced number of birds and less variety.I find the cats sitting under the tree watching the birdfeeders and up the tree chasing the birds. If I could get away with it I would take drastic action! And don't tell me its their nature - they are domesticated pets and are only there because my neighbours are idiots.

[aka pixi]

hi spinchimp, around here some people do take drastic action. Many a cat has been shot with air rifles etc. I think if you put lemon peel down around your garden it will keep the cats out. As to them killing birds, it really is in their nature, both ours do it, they are well fed and dont need to kill anything for food, but still they do it and leave them on the doorstep. Much as I love the cats I find this one thing really horrible :(

[aka pixi]

sorry i deleted a bit of my previous answer and never re wrote it.... i was gonna say...about the cats being shot around here. A high powered water pistol is a brilliant deterent, i dont think it hurts the cats, it does however scare them off. Also I believe I read on here eons ago that some garden centres sell lion pooh, if you put this in your garden it is supposed to stop other cats coming in.

[Catso]

A nearby neighbour has an electronic cat repellent gadget. It does seem to work. Cats pass by it, but I never see any hanging about in his garden.

[WiccanKitten]

Finally, human compassion. When we used to live in Winchester, our neighbours would complain about our cats wandering into their gardens, they started off by shooting at them with a BB gun......We reported them to the RSPCA when we caught the eldest son of our neighbours swinging a baseball bat at the friendliest of our feline family.
(She suffered a broken jaw, the family confirmed that the cats had never done any damage, they simply didn't like them.)

Good on you pixi......you've restored my faith in human kindness.
Spinchimp - you're coming back as a mouse in your next life!!

[ruthann58]

how lovely for you they can be so comical cant they we have 8 all lovely we dont have any trouble with them and the birds have plenty of nut feeders etc and get all sorts tits, finches ,blackbirds in fact one day during the cold weather we had 20 different sorts of birds in one day at the moment we have tits and sparrows nesting in the bird boxes and a blackbird in the hedge the cats just watch

[aka pixi]

hi wiccankitten, that is so awful, the poor poor cat :( I honestly cant even begin to try to understand people like that. I hope the cat recovered well.

hi ruthann, your garden sounds brilliant :) I bet 8 cats are a real handful lol I reckon that cats are worse than kids sometimes lol

[peanut]

I hope the broken jaw healed well too, NO animal deserves that kind of abuse. I know 2 wrongs dont make a right, but seriously, That kid needs his f 'n jaw broken. Anyone who harms animals should be charged an eye for an eye. If that was the way the law worked there would be alot less abuse, you can count on that.

[WiccanKitten]

Pixi and Peanut, thankyou both for being so nice. There need to be more people like the both of you in the world. Yes, she (Plum Pudding) recovered fine, despite the vet telling us that she'd never be able to eat solid food again, she was doing just that within a couple of weeks, we moved away from the area not long after, and they've all lived happily as outdoor cats since then.
I agree with you though Peanut, the kid needed his jaw broken!!! Looks like another one that'll be coming back as a mouse in their next life!! xx

[lizzydrippin]

It sounds absolutely wonderful until the winter months arrive and the very same cats continue to visit your garden, but now they shiver awfully and you just have to bring them indoors, they make themselves at home and before you know it you have 14 cats lol