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Comment by the_third_wave | Hacker News Reader

Move to a farm and get some outside cats, they shit in the woods but come home overnight. If they don't they get eaten by foxes etc. so they better. We never had a litter box until the cat turned 15 and started to become less willing to go out in the snow.

Ok, moving to a farm just to get some outside cats might be slightly overdoing it but there's loads more reasons why you want to live on a farm, preferably somewhere out in the woods so you might as well enjoy the cats which come with the territory.

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Around here (Portugal) plenty of people have outside cats in the city and suburbs, it’s great. However there’s a chance they’ll decide not to come back to you.

See, I am the only house owner in the street without a cat. Guess whose garden is very frequently visited by literally all the cats? Isn't there some plants to repel them? And no I'm not getting a dog

Go to your local gardener and ask for plants that repels cats/has scents cats don't like and plant them where you notice they use as a bathroom. Some people plant plants with thorns/prickles too, which seems to help a bit after the cats learn it hurts.

Most obvious solution otherwise is to have a fence if you don't have one already.

What kind of fence keeps out cats? They are pretty good climbers and jumpers.

A fence where the top part protrudes outwards towards the side of the invaders. Aka "anti-cat fence".

"However there’s a chance they’ll decide not to come back to you."

That's good reason to own a dog. ;-)

Some dogs like to roam just like cats, we had one of those. Dog gone again, call the next farm, dog there? Nope, not this time. Explore the forest to find him a few kilometers off eating from a moose carcass, joy. Once home he vomits up half a moose which he wants to eat again. Yes that's dogs for you.

Do they groom themselves of ticks?

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