A Cat Problem

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Has anyone here got any tips how to heavily discourage cats from using my garden as their bathroom of choice?  I am constantly clearing the stuff up but Riley is fascinated by it and I thing he eat some before I could get to him ( he's on a long line in the garden most of the time).  It's gross and disgusting and unfortunately there are lots of elderly neighbours feeding these feral cats. Don't get me wrong I love cats, but these have goodness knows what parasites and diseases and I'm worried about Riley picking up anything from them.  So far he hasn't barked at anything or chased a Cat although he has seen a couple.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Try sprinkling cayenne pepper. I know you can use it to deter dogs from eating the poo. Maybe the cats will stay away too!

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

You might try Googling the subject to see what comes up.  I had heard that "moth balls"...don't know if you have them in Ireland.  But they are those smelly things that you put in closets to keep the moths from eating your wool clothing.  They were used years ago by my mother and grandmother but I haven't really seen or heard about them in a number of years.  Though about 30 years ago our neighbor had quite a few cats and they used my flower beds as their bathroom!!  One of them was right under our bedroom window and we sleep with our windows open.  It got to the point I had to try to stop the cats from going there.  I had heard that you could sprinkle moth balls or crystals in the soil and that the cats would stay away.  I don't recall that it worked.  Then there is stuff you can buy at garden stores that you sprinkle in the soil to keep dogs and cats away...very smelly so it didn't solve the "smell" problem.  I finally started covering my soil with redwood wood chips or bark.  The cats were not too fond of having to dig through that to find the soft dirt below.  That seemed to work the best and then we got our first dog!  That took care of everything!  ha ha