Strays in your garden

Have you ever come across this problem with strays, and when I say strays I’m making a particular reference to stray cats.

You know how they come uninvited into your garden and then

• leave one too many smelly ‘presents’ whilst digging up your favourite rose bush (for the strangest reasons, they strongly believe it makes a lovely natural litter box space),
• scare/kill the little birds nesting or bathing in the bird bath,
• sneakily inch closer and closer to your opened window with each unwelcomed repeating visit (presumably to try to make their way into the house unnoticed?), and
• not to mention drive your dogs bark raving mad till they knock (and break) things over the house in the heat of their excitement?

Sounds familiar? Well welcome to my world and the annoying living nightmare- that of myself and my fellow neighbours.

So what can we do to effectively keep the strays out of our gardens while sustaining the following rules:

• Being Humane
• Keeping it eco-friendly

The absolute No-No Methods:

• Poisoning the cats and indirectly the environment (seeps into the ground) and other unsuspecting animals with moth balls.
• The use of commercial cat repellents because they contain toxic chemicals that will endanger not just the cat but also the environment
• Cat traps – You can say this is debatable but I’m not a fan of this method because I’m not sure a trap can ever be considered humane with the   trauma it causes the animal and all.
• Water sprinklers are a commonly used method but on second thought it might not be such a great idea because if not used well it would lead to substantial wastage of water.

The No Harm to Give it a Go animal friendly and green Methods

• A spray mixture of vinegar with white pepper and cayenne pepper wards cats and would not be deadly if ingested. In fact a wiff of it would set them running.
• Get your green thumbs working by plating deterrent plants such as Rue because Rue as a naturally strong scented evergreen shrub will make an attractive garden accent, yet keep the cats far away. Some people would say that Thorny roses also deter cats, but I think they’ve outsmarted that trick.
• Call in the experts – no not exterminators, but the animal shelter to take them away.  The strays are only wondering about your garden because they have no home of their own. In fact having them run around loose is more of harm to themselves then it is to you or me. They either die slowly and painfully from hunger or disease or end up getting run over in traffic.  At least at an animal shelter they’ll have a nice roof over their head, some food and a real chance at finding a home. Of course I’d look into making sure the animal shelter has a policy against putting healthy animals down before calling on them.

Angelina Leigh | My Bio & Articles

Like everyone else, I am a child of the earth. I love my animals and I love the environment. As modernisation pushes us forward and introduces us to an exciting new world filled with advance technology, it is easy to forget about ...