Pets

This year, I planted new flowers and bulbs in my front yard for the last two weeks. This was my first time doing gardening in Canada. I was so excited and looking forward to seeing the results.

Unfortunately, I found my flowers were broken a little bit every day after I planted them. I didn't mind in the beginning. I thought it was nature breaking them until I saw my small garden had a hole. The hole was located where I planted the bulbs. I was worried that some animals ate my bulbs. I put my hand in the whole to try to see if the bulbs were still there but what I found was feces! I thought it might be dog poop. I put the bulbs back and covered them with new soil. Guess what? There was a new hole in the same place the next day. I was so angry and searched for some methods to prevent dogs from pooping in my garden again. When I searched, I found I was wrong. It was cat feces; dogs bury bones, cats bury poop!

I found some solutions online to keep cats out of my garden. Cats prefer to walk on soft, loose soil and will avoid prickly surfaces. I could put twigs, stone, mulch, eggshells or holly cuttings in my garden. I could also use scents to keep the cats away, such as rue, lavender, pennyroyal, coleus canina, lemon, thyme, citrus scents or brewed coffee.

I already put mulch around flower plants but not on the area I planted the bulbs. That's why the cat dug holes there. I put more mulch on the on the area that I planted bulbs and left small circles to let the sprouts come out. In order to prevent the cat from having any place to dig, I put orange peels on the small circles.

After I did these methods, I found the cat still came to my small garden and messed up a little bit of the mulch. It seems these methods worked. I hope I don't need to use more methods to keep the cats out of my garden again.

The mulch seemed to be working to prevent the cat from digging holes in my garden. It worked for three or four days and then the cat dug again! I put more mulch down to make it thicker and then the cat did not come.

As I thought, the method worked. However, I found my kids' sandbox full of feces and smelly cat urine! I was very mad and would rather the cat had continued to dig holes in my garden. On the same day, I took out the feces and covered the sandbox with a picnic pad. I tried to search the city bi-laws of cats in my city. Unfortunately, cat owners are not required to keep their pets leashed or indoors, but they are expected, under the Animal Care and Control By-law, to control kitty's outdoor activities and take responsibility for the pet by not allowing their cat to cause damage to or disturbance on other residents' property. (https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/animals-and-pets/cats). I think I have to find out who the cat's owner is and tell him or her that we can't stand the cat causing damage in my yard again.

One day when I woke up, I saw the cat walking on the fence toward my house. I walked downstairs and saw the cat sitting on our patio and looking at me. I took some photos of the cat. After a few days, when my neighbour across the street was watering his grass, my husband went to ask him if he knew who the cat's owner was. He told my husband he knew. My husband tried to find the owner twice, but no one was home. The third time someone answered the door, but it was not the owner. The owner was on vacation and she was taking care of the owner's cats. She told my husband that the cats are outdoor cats, and they need to hunt outside.

Then other the thing that bothered me a lot was the sand from my kids’ sandbox. I considered washing the sand or throwing it out. It's hard to Google how to wash sand and I was thinking that it would be a difficult job, so my husband and I decided to throw all the sand away. What makes matters worse, we couldn't buy any play sand near us after we threw out all the sand. All the stores were sold out!

A few days ago, the owner came to us and said sorry about what her cats did, but she still didn't know what to do with her cats. Finally, we got new sand from the store in a small town not far from us. This time, my husband and I will cover my kids' sandbox after they play in the sand and make sure no more sand or soil is exposed in our yard.