Advice on neighbours cat coming into my house?

eimear1

Hi All,

Hoping someone here can help me.

First of all, i just have to say i do not like cats! I have no wish to be cruel to them and i have no problem if people want to keep them as pets, i just don't like them and would never choose one as a pet.

The problem is, my neighbour's cat has started to come into my house. My back door is a sliding patio door off the living room, and this is the only window in the room, so naturally the door gets left open a lot for fresh air. A few weeks ago, i saw the cat running away from the door when i came into the room, and this morning he did the same and now i have dirty pawprints all over my (relatively new) cream coloured armchairs :eek:

Not sure if he came in with dirty paws or walked in soot by the fireplace, am now furiously scrubbing the room from top to bottom, as i don't know what surfaces he sat on etc. (I have several friends who have small children / are pregnant who regularly visit so i can't take any chances)

Just wondering if there is anything i can do to deter him from coming in - both for hygiene's sake and the sake of my furniture! I do not want to be cruel and therefore if anyone knows of anything natural that will deter him i would prefer these than resorting to anything more serious.

Of course i don't want to go to huge expense as he's not even my cat, but would not rest easy and would not feel comfortable leaving this door open if i thought he would come in again.

Any help greatly appreciated

Eimear

PS the owner is not approachable, so any suggestion of dealing with her would not work!

TooManyDogs

We had a neighbours cat that used to come in and terrorise the guinea pigs, one suggetion we were given was to fill a water pistol with some food dye and squirt the cat. It won't hurt the cat because it's only food dye but should send a message to the owner that the cat is going places it's not wanted. Obviously wait until the cat is in the garden rather than your house! It's going to work better on light coloured cats, it worked great for us because the cat was long haired white one so the owners got tired of him coming home with big coloured stripes on him and kept him in.

seamus

Some people have reported good results with those ultrasonic gizmos. If you've no other animals in the house, that might be worth a try.

I wouldn't be too paranoid about cleaning. Humans are as dirty as any animal. Just wipe down your kitchen worktops and anywhere else that you place/prepare food, there's no need to go scrubbing floors and such.

boxerly

What about a baby gate?Are ultrasonic gizmos safe for a pregnant woman?There is a cat in my estate who is the bravest cat Ive ever seen,he chases the footballs and runs around the green with the kids.He is fearless BUT he comes into my garden everyday for a poo but even worse is he has started trying to come in my back door,Ive 3 dogs???I have a cat who the dogs are used to but any other cat and they dont like them.My back door is open all day for my dogs to go out when they want.He is a cheeky little thing:)

we'llallhavetea_old

+1 on the water pistol. we have one for when we visit my mams, our cats often get into scraps with each other, all you have to do is walk over to where the gun is and they're gone like a shot!

LisaO

Maybe you could get a trellis panel from a garden centre & place it in the door opening? A bit of a pain but it would still allow you to air the room & keep the cat out.

Zapperzy

I agree with the water pistol idea, doesn't hurt the cat but will piss it off enough to not want to go near the house again. Not sure about the food die idea, can't see how the owner would link coloured stripes to it going into someone's house.
You could also write on a piece of paper that the cat is coming into people's houses and kindly ask the owner to keep it inside, no need to sign who it's from and just put it around it's neck (obviously not tight enough to harm it or loose enough to fall off).

Don't worry about scrubbing everything, cats are not dirty vermin and children or pregnant women are not going to catch diseases from it walking on furniture. It's only cat poo that pregnant women should avoid direct contact with so unless it poo'd in your house you've nothing to worry about, a few cat hairs and some dirty paw marks will certainly not harm anyone. If anything having cats around small children will reduce the risk of them becoming allergic to cats in the future.

Reminds me of my grandparent's german shepherd, he jumped over the wall once into the neighbours garden and ate some of their sandwiches so they painted the word thief onto his coat and sent him back, last time he ever jumped that wall!

seamus

boxerly wrote: »

Are ultrasonic gizmos safe for a pregnant woman?

Yes, it's just noise which people can't hear.

Deeanimallover

Zapperzy wrote: »

Don't worry about scrubbing everything, cats are not dirty vermin and children or pregnant women are not going to catch diseases from it walking on furniture. It's only cat poo that pregnant women should avoid direct contact with so unless it poo'd in your house you've nothing to worry about, a few cat hairs and some dirty paw marks will certainly not harm anyone. If anything having cats around small children will reduce the risk of them becoming allergic to cats in the future.

Exactly what i was gonna say!

eimear1

Thanks guys, guess i was just freaking out a little with the cleaning!! the water pistol is one i might try, if i catch him with it often enough he might get the message!!! Someone else has suggested that cats don't like citrus smells, so am leaving a citronella candle burning now whenever the door is open so hope that works! Haven't seen the little brat since anyway!
Thanks again
Eimear