Cat repellant

[deeaimond]

First I want to say I have no problems with my neighbour's cats, just the waste they leave in my 'garden'.

We live in apartments but on the ground floor unit, so we have a little patch of greenery out front, potted plants and such on the grass. The neighbour does not have any. They threw away all the plants when they moved in. So naturally all her cats come over here to hang out. Legally, they're not even allowed to keep cats in the apartment. I think they have 3 or 4 inside cats, and they leave food outside for all the other cats in the neighbourhood.

(It's kinda unfair coz I have to keep my dog locked up all the time because if she gets out she chases the cats up trees and then my neighbour starts screaming that we let our dog kill cats (i'm serious she did that once and started screaming for everyone in the neighbourhood/walking by to come look) My dog just gets really excited, she doesn't bite or growl even, just chases them, tail wagging wanting to play. My dog is very silly.)

So back to the topic, the cats s*** all over my garden, and it really smells, and when I go out to hang my laundry and step in the grass, I always have s*** on my slippers and it's getting pretty annoying. Extremely unpleasant actually. Ok I need to admit I'm mad enough to call the pest control to come get all these feral cats (and the non feral ones on the loose outside) and take them away. I mean stepping on s*** all the time... and cat s*** stinks the worse.

Anyone has any ideas what to do to keep these cats away? The neighbours and us don't have a very good relationship, and I don't want to do anything directly to the cats like spray water or chase them away for fear of misunderstanding. We put thorny plant cuttings in some of the pots so they stopped sleeping in them. Is there anything else I can do to keep them off our patch? Oh I can't talk tot he neighbour either, coz the wife is abit of a crazy person and behaves in a very uneducated manner, i.e. screams and yells loudly and says nasty things (like we're out to get her then calls out all her adult children to join in and they do. amazing) when we've tried to talk to her about other issues before.