My neighbours cats foul on my doormat. Can you help.

Hi there, I doubt if your local council can help. I have a feeling the type of coconut mat you have may be the reason. I would replace the mat with a rubber one as the coconut one will have scent of the cat on it or the scent of another cat on it which is causing your neighbours one to leave it's mark. Clean the area around with detergent - NOT disinfectant as that is poisonous and will cause the cat a painful slow death if it steps in it. Then lay some old tea bags covered in peppermint oil (from Holland & Barrat) around where your mat is. I would also lay a short piece of garden hose near-by (About a foot long) as cats are not fond of snakes. Also try the water bottles too. Good Luck. Copy and paste the following into your browser for more info:

http://www.cats.org.uk/media/news_detail.asp?id=4

BBFC is great council, but I doubt they can control an independent creature like a Cat any more than the owner or you can!

You could try "pepper dust" form a garden centre, this is VERY effective at keeping cats off gardens.

Cats are semi wild and they need to mark their territory, it is part of their natural behaviour. Cats are very sensitive to smell, it is possible that the smell of your mat or door area is "offensive" to the cat and it is trying to mask it or obliterate it with it's own scent. It is possible that the "offensive" smell is something you have used to clean or disinfect the mat in the past.

There are 2 strategies to use, either make the smell all over the place, by putting it everywhere, then everywhere will be offensive to the cat and at least it will not be on the doorstep so much. The other option is to clean the smell away by rinsing with huge amounts of water, so there is nothing left.

Cats absolutely cannot bear the smell of human urine :D

I had a problem with a cat getting into my outhouse and weeing in there - drove me insane until I sprinkled some human urine outside the building and it hasn't been back since :)