At my kits end......

[apricot_yogurt]

It appears a neighbourhood cat is using the side path by my house as a toilet. While most cats bury their waste, this one is going every day in my alley. Now I am pregnant I am afraid to clean it up due to toxoplasmosis risk. Also a Tom is marking his territory in my porch, and the smell pervades all through the house.
I am so mad, and glad for pussys sake that I don’t own a shotgun. What keeps cats away? I have tried “keep off” granules which didn’t work. I don’t know whose cat this is, if anyones, as it is so darn elusive.
Help!

 

[Karin]

It appears a neighbourhood cat is using the side path by my house as a toilet. While most cats bury their waste, this one is going every day in my alley. Now I am pregnant I am afraid to clean it up due to toxoplasmosis risk. Also a Tom is marking his territory in my porch, and the smell pervades all through the house.
I am so mad, and glad for pussys sake that I don’t own a shotgun. What keeps cats away? I have tried “keep off” granules which didn’t work. I don’t know whose cat this is, if anyones, as it is so darn elusive.
Help!

Call Animal Control or the local police dept. if the cat does not have tags it is a stray and needs to be collected:thumbsup:

 

[Jennifer_J]

I don’t think anything but a dog would keep a cat away, lol. You might try renting/buying a humane trap and trying to catch it and take it to the humane society.

God bless,
Jennifer

 

[leaner]

Call animal control, tell them you have something (dont’ tell them what) and you’d like a trap – they’ll usually bring you one and let you do the work (they come and remove what you catch, but you set up, bait, etc) – I caught three cats in my attempts to get rid of whatever had taken residence in my crawlspace (it was opossum family) – two were untagged one had a tag – I returned the one to it’s owner and brought the other two to the local shelter. Don’t know what happened to them if they were chipped or not…sorry, but these cats were the same three gray cats that were in heat outside my house forEVER that year, so I was pretty glad to get rid of them. If you like cats, great, but keep them away from me, because I happen to prefer no pets, and I pay my taxes on my land/house, I shouldn’t have to put up with other people’s animals (dogs or cats) dumping on my property.

 

[StephanieC]

Apricot,
Here and here are a couple of links for further discussion & ideas. Careful. People get very passionate about the whole “free-roaming vs. indoor cat” issue; you might have to wade through some angry posts to get to the practical solutions you need.

I have an indoor cat, and when I was pregnant I aske my vet what she advises people to do re: toxoplasmosis risk/avoidance. She basically said, “I would recommend that someone else be in charge of the litter box; I did so when I was pregnant. However, if you have to be the one to do it, at least wear a dust or particle mask on your face & gloves on your hands.”

Those might be precautions you could take if you’ve got to be the one to get out and clean up–and it’s got to get cleaned up, because if the poop stays out there, it sort of “brands” the area as prime cat toileting real estate.

 

[susie_g]

I don’t know if this works or not, but my neighbor scatters orange peels all around her yard and grass to keep the cats away. Good luck!