Rod Out back wrote:

I think Jock is suggesting shooting the cat; 55gn projectile doing 3200 feet
per second sounds like a .223 rifle to me. Not the best idea for suburbia.
I would probably be using Jocks' solution if a cat appears in my back yard.
I dont have any pets, and the nearest neighbour is 12 kms away.

He was also suggesting spraying ammonia on the cats bum. Bound to hurt
something fierce. Probably a bit cruel on the cat, even for an anti-cat
person like me.

Back to the problem at hand, I wonder if some of that hot-foot bird paste
would work on a cat? It is used to stop birds roosting in sheds & hangars
etc. Smear it on the places where the cat comes over the fence. I know one
person in this group said they hadnt had any success using it against
possums in her roof, but maybe a cat would find it unpleasant on their paws.
You might be able to smear it along the tops of all the posts. It would
certainly be a much cheaper option than setting up a huge sprinkler system.
Mind you, the sprinkler system does the least harm to the cat(aside from his
pride...).

Cheers,

Rod.......Out Back


I've posted this before (years ago, though), but will post again in case it's
useful to anyone. (Dunno if the stuff's available any more...)

We were renting a suburban place that had extensive raised stone garden beds at
the front. I planted pansies and stocks, but no sooner had they germinated than
next door's infernal cat came and did the expected in the beds, digging up half
my flowers and leaving the most unutterable stench! Of course, I grumbled and
carried on, but was surprised very soon after that by the neighbours calling in
to say they'd got some anti-cat stuff and would put it in my garden if I didn't
mind. I said 'Go for it' and so they did!

It was called 'Keep Off My Garden' and it was some kind of powder or crystal, I
think. When you water it in, it eventually turns into an awful (but odourless)
jelly-like substance. When the cat came to cr@p in the garden, it would lift its
paws in horror and depart abruptly, parking some way off to lick itself clean.
Apparently, something in the jelly gave it a bellyache, because the facials on
the cat were quite hilarious to behold! Poor thing!

I was thinking, even if you can't get the same product, plain old gelatine ought
to do the trick. You could mix up a concentrated batch (don't want it too
sloppy), half-set it (maybe even add something like chili powder) and then
spread it over your garden bed. I doubt it'd do much on fencetops (probably dry
out?), but it could be worth a try?

In my case, the cat learned within two or three days that our garden was a
bugger of a place and stopped visiting. I was happy, the neighbours were happy
and the poor cat was probably very, very constipated.

HTH,

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia