That is what I'm looking for also, Steve.
The sonic ["cat clicker"] device, mentioned in that thread would be a deterrent to most other animals and we have a dog and our little friendly chipmunks. The chipmunks are what the cats are after. I have an electric fence wire around the pond, which is energized at night, to repel raccoons and I imagine that takes care of any errant feline that touches it.

I read that cats do not like the smell of citrus and that some people place orange,lemon or lime peels around as a deterrent.
Then there is "Big Cat's Urine" spray [donated from lions and tigers I guess?] But I think our dog and the wee chipmunks, would also jump out of their skins, at the first whiff of that elixir!!??
Have a look at the linked article below for other non-lethal suggestions.
"Horton"

Here is a link that might be useful: Cat repellents

If you drink coffee, try sprinkling the grounds where you don't want the cats. I keep them out of my flower beds that way.
If you don't drink coffee, try asking a coffee shoppe for their grounds. If you provide a contain, am sure they would oblige.

No way would cats disturb your pond plants. They are not going to get into your pond, tip over pots or rip up any lily pads. They are not going to get their feet wet for longer than a few seconds. No possible way unless Tony the Tiger is loose in your neighborhood....

I fail to understand why people constantly blame cats for raccoon damage.

Cats are NOT natural fishers, raccoons are. Every raccoon on earth is drawn to water to hunt, it is a very rare cat that is. Sure they drink from ponds, sure they watch fishies swim back and forth and sure, a fantail that can't swim to save it's life might get tipped out of the pond by a cat's paw but it is not very likely.

Even if you see a cat near a fish out of the pond it is likely a heron or raccoon dropped it because you scared them and the cat was just caught with the booty.

100% of raccoons fish, 100% of the USA has raccoons. You have to get up early to see them but they are there. Probably prowling your yard every night. If you build a pond, they will come.

In ten years of ponding online on about six forums I have not read one single episode of a person actually seeing a cat get a fish out of their pond. Not once yet people blame cats constantly.

You may not like cats, you may wish all cats were indoor only, you may wish to evict cats from your garden but to blame them for pond plant damage and fish losses is fooling yourself.

Horton and lostlkfarm,

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm going to try both the coffee grounds and the citrus peels. I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a great one!

Steve

I agree with buyorsell888. There are lots of feral cats in my neighborhood and I've never seen them do anything at the pond except drink water. Cats don't even like to get their paws wet.

Raccoons, herons, and egrets are the ones I've caught fishing and causing destruction in my pond.

John

Go for it Steve!
"Horton"

Funny, except for Pookie liking to walk on a 2x4 across the pond and a stray trying to get to water over the ice, I haven't had a cat approach the pond either. Ginger pretends the fish are not there when she has to go around the pond. The raccoons will pull up plants and try to tip pots even when I am standing there yelling at them. When I first started ponding I had a little 100 gallon pond and many fish. The raccoons would catch the fish and play with them until they stopped flopping. They might decapitate them but all the parts were there for me to find. I got mean the night they killed 11 Koi and put in a Scarecrow. Sandy

Our cats or maybe a neighbor's cat (we have a cat party most days in our yard) did fish out a black mollie (again, poor swimmer like the fantail, right?), and they do like to stick their paws around our "beach" where the frogs hide, but they seem pretty mild about it. I am not concerned. Twice we have found a soaking wet cat in the yard so they are tempted by the little mosquito fish!! We just laugh.

Yep, I was kind of skeptical about Bullfrogs catching and eating fish, until I saw the picture,which was posted onto the forum recently, of a Bullfrog with a freshly caught fish in it's mouth.

You just can't say for sure what may or may not happen out there in Pondland!

I have had a plant pot or two dislodged, by comet goldfish, while they were going crazy during breeding. Also once, by a robin that was busily collecting mud to build it's nest.
All sorts of strange and unusual things can take place around the pond, when the animals and birds do their thing.
"Horton"

I've seen at least ten pictures of bullfrogs with fish in their mouths and even a video or two on other pond forums. My friend saw one grab and eat a duckling at a golf course. They are blamed for helping native Western Pond Turtles and native frogs to extinction here in the West including BC Canada so I have no problems believing that bullfrogs eat anything.

I have had cats my entire life and have had aquariums my entire life and ponds in various forms since 1985 and have seen plenty of cats watch fish but not catch any. Every time their paw gets wet they draw it back and shake it off.

I do know that cats would not climb or jump into a pond and get wet enough to disturb plants unless it was an accident and they fell in. I have seen my own cat fall in. once. No plants were harmed though. If plants are disturbed or pots tipped over morning after morning it is raccoons.

I have had dogs in my pond that did a lot of damage, more than once. Loose neighborhood dogs. They were leaping and splashing and knocked over lily pots and their claws put holes in a lot of foliage. They weren't after fish or food they were playing in the water. One kept coming back, I'd chase him out and he would circle behind me and jump back in....This has happed three times in twelve years of ponds at this house. The raccoons come pretty much every night.

We sit on our couch and watch animals at our front yard wildlife ponds all the time. Cats, raccoons, opossums, squirrels, birds, dragonflies, treefrogs and many insects too from bees to water fleas. It is raccoons who tear up everything and now we have to cover the ponds every night with covers made of copper and chicken wire. Now they are destroying the rock edges and we have to do extensive work when the tadpoles all morph.

The cats never hurt anything. They chased the treefrogs but we never saw one eat one or found any corpses or body parts. They seem more confused by them than anything. Mostly they just drink from the ponds.

Having a dog should be deterrent enough for cats in your yard, won't work on raccoons though. An electric fence was the only thing that worked for me on the fish pond which is too big too cover and has plants too tall.

I tried two ultrasonic noise makers which did bother the cats but not the raccoons. Motion water cannons will deter cats but not all raccoons.

When the raccoons grabbed the end of my cane and tried to pull it out of my hands I got tired of being too polite. I put a high pressure nozzle on a hose and waited for their nightly visit. It only took a couple of jolts before they left. Now they hiss and run away when they see me. They still managed to dump 5 pots in the water a couple of years ago and ruined the pump. Sandy

Our pond is open to nature. Deer, dogs, moles, snakes and even a couple of escapee steer have all made appearances. All the usual characters but no raccoons (I know, can you believe it?) to date. Plenty of cats have come around too but they only stop to drink or chase the birds. Our indoor cat loved to watch the pond and all the comings and goings of nature. One day I put him on a leash (he did not have claws so we couldn't let him roam free) and walked him over to the edge of the pond. I thought for sure he'd love to watch the fish. His reaction was hilarious! He took one look at those BIG fish and stopped dead in his tracks, put it in reverse gear and in SLOW MOTION started backing up. When he thought he was at a safe distance he bolted for the house! LOL! Of all the outdoor cats that have visited I've never seen one attempt to get into the pond. Having said that, I am a firm believer that anything can happen in nature and that there is always a first time for everything!

Nance

DH once ran out early in the morning to chase two raccoons and they turned around hissing and growling and chased HIM instead of leaping over the fence and into the trees.

We don't chase them anymore....

A large male raccoon with its hair on end is truly an alarming sight. I hear people talking about how adorable they are and I know they have never seen anything but babies and one year olds. I would not bother to shake my cane at an adult male or turn a hose on one. I would exit the area as quickly as possible.
That said, I have fed as many as 32 baby raccoons all one summer because their mothers, seven of them, had been seriously injured in illegal leg traps. It was probably cheaper than the damage they would have done. I don't advise anyone else to do such a thing. We were living in the middle of the woods and our nearest neighbors were 1/2 mile away.
Even here in the city there are small areas where a variety of wildlife still survives. Closest to us is The IUPurdue Campus about a mile away. Over the last few years dorms have begun to close off that area and the animals have been forced out into residential areas and the parade at night is amazing. I have even had muskrats swimming laps in the pond. It isn't the Wisconsin woods but it is amazing how many different critters there are in such a small area. Sandy

Ugh, bullfrogs. They *will* eat *anything*!

My first run-in with one was in Jr. High School where I had to dissect one, and though it was *many* years ago I never forgot it because Â

There was a bird inside mine.

Unpleasant!

Other students had ones with huge chunks of plastic, something that looked like a hotdog (I didnÂt even want to *know* what that was!), some rocks.

Our absolutely mad cat Fuzzle who will go after just about anything doesnÂt even sit and watch our pond, nevermind have any interest in the fish, and we have many mosquito fish in there. (No koi.) Same with our other outdoor cat.

Every other cat in this neighborhood loves to come to our yard to kill birds, and unfortunately often do  But not one of them has bothered with the pond, except when there was a bird near it.

That said, the outdoor cats sleep under our orange and lemon trees all the time. I tried citrus oil on various things like fabric and even puffed rice (!) to keep other cats from hopping our fences, to no avail.

The only thing IÂve found that none of the kitties like is this: I rolled out chicken wire on the ground, weighted it down with some rocks, and put a *tiny bit* of dirt over it to hide it. None of the cats will walk on it. Your doggies probably wonÂt walk on it either, though.

Good luck!

OK, to be clearer, I only put the rocks every so often because the chicken wire will roll up - And I used really a small amount of dirt to disguise it all. If you use too much the kitties will walk on it because it's not as uncomfortable on the pads that way.

I have a problem with cats getting into my yard, pooping and then my dog goes out and rolls in it. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the pestering cats out without harming my dog?