Love animals BUT how do I keep cats away

[bigoldkid]

Hello all,
Like I said in the subject line, I love animals but I need to keep stray and neighbors cats away from my flower bed and dirt areas.
I have been finding Cat droppings in the dirt of my flower beds and any loose dirt area of my yard. These are from wild cats and my one neighbors cats. She has several. A few people let them run all over the village and they bread. I will not harm any animal. So I ask them to maybe give some of the cats up to the humane programs. This winter had a lot of snow in Feb. So there was no open dirt areas in my yard. The path I made to cross the yard to the garbage pickup had cat droppings on it. Right on the compacted snow. LOL :-):mickey:. So my question is, Is there some kind hardware that I can stick in the ground that would take some kind of liquid that cats would hate and run off from?? Once again I don't want to harm them. This Spring I may call the animal control people to fix the problem. Thanks, Jim

[DizneyRox]

I used black pepper in the past. You need to refresh it often, so drop by your local Sams Club and pick up a ton of it. We opted for a dog as a more permanent deterrent.

You can also go with those motion detecting splinkers, they will give them a run for their money or you can even use the no kill traps and bring them to your local Humane Society as strays.

[NewDVCowner]

Check with your local pet store, too. This isn't an uncommon problem and there are sprays and what have you. I've heard of putting moth balls out, but I've also heard that doesn't work.

[meldan98]

Lowes and Home Depot also have this natural animal repelent that works wonders. You can use it in your flowerbeds. We used it when a neighborhood cat used our bark as a litter box. It worked great. It was a natural product, it stunk the first day, but it worked.