And roadrunners

That issue of irresponsible owners isn’t the issue. It’s the difference in animals. There is a hell of a lot more cats shitting in my yard than dogs. The amount of animals my dog has killed is zero.

No the issue is 100% the owners.
There are also two very different categories to be considered since there are pets and feral/strays.
Letting ANY pet, be it a dog or a cat run free in an urban or suburban area is irresponsible. Not only for the neighbourhood but also the pet. There is zero reason you need or should let your cat or dog run free.
Feral/stray animals are also the result of irresponsible pet owner. If all pets were spayed or neutered before they are released there would not be large feral cat colonies or dog packs. Far to many people get that cute puppy or kitten but as soon as it gets big they kick it to the curb. The feral situation did not develop naturally.

I can not recall ever finding cat shit in my yard even when we had a large feral population. As far as pet cat's go I believe there is only one that roams free in our neighbourhood and I don't know where he does shit but it isn't at my house.
On the other hand I have had to scoop up a couple of hundred piles of dog shit off my front yard over the years. That came to a stop when I got the ring camera and was finally able to identify the half dozen or so dog owners that would walk their dog down our street and never, ever, cleanup after the.

I have had 8 cats over the last 30 years and not one of them has killed a single thing. This is because I keep them inside (except for a couple of short term escapes) and control them. One of the reasons I have always kept them inside is because of dogs that would indeed kill them in a heartbeat if given a chance.

Dogs are not innocent!
In fact the stats are actually pretty horrifying.
"Fatal dog attacks in the United States cause the deaths of about 30 to 50 people in the US each year, and the number of deaths from dog attacks appears to be increasing. Around 4.5 million Americans are bitten by dogs every year, resulting in the hospitalization of 6,000 to 13,000 people each year in the United States"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._United_States

So a cat (probably feral and not a pet at all) shitting in your yard is you big worry?

My former neighbors refused to believe their pitbull was charging at people just walking by (like me mowing my lawn). Or shitting in my yard, etc. Never had that problem with cats.

The best thing to have in your yard is a snake, but those aren't really pets.

Wouldn't that be because cats bury their crap, and dogs leave it out for the world to see/step in? :)

BTW, if I am a "dog person" but I 100% agree with what you are saying here.

Also, I have found it interesting that feral cats (at least the one's I've had experience with) seem to be very human friendly. Wildlife not so much, they gotta eat.

I've always thought a winged dragon would be great, but haven't found a reliable breeder yet.

It would also make a great daily driver.

Talk to Lessa on Pern. Bit of a trip since it is in the Rukbat system in the Sagittarian sector.
It is a bit off a process to adopt but well worth it. Just hope you don't end up with a green or blue though since you would have some explaining to do to your wife!

Cats that are human friendly are more than often strays that were raised around humans. True feral cats that were never exposed to people and handling as kittens usually shy away completely. There are of course exceptions to both these.
Both my cats were feral/stray rescues. The older one was from a very friendly mother that I suspect was a stray or a cat that was discarded after it grew beyond being a kitten. The fact that she was so friendly and my son decided to take her in is what saved her life and the lives of the three kittens she eventually had. Otherwise she would have froze to death.
Our other younger cat was born to a completely feral mother. We managed to catch 5 of her 6 kittens just in time to manage to tame them. Another week or so they would have been beyond all hope. We kept one and my son took one and the rest went to a cat adoption place. Both the feral parents were trapped and spayed or neutered. The father apparently was rehabilitated and adopted but the mother was beyond any hope and was released back into the community where she could live but not reproduce.

Yup. Disease spreaders.

What a well thought out response.
And not even remotely accurate.

https://www.alleycat.org/resources/f...20feral%20cats.

Actual experience and facts >> casual opinions

I totally get the whole dog vs cat person thing. It has gone on for millennia and is not going to end today. I personally can not stand most dogs no mater how "nice" they are so I am not asking the dog guys to suddenly love cats.

BUT

At the same time disliking them does not mean you need to exaggerate or completely make up shit based on bias and myth.

I wish people wouldn't let their racoons run wild. We have a huge feral racoon problem in my neighborhood.

I have a garter snake that lives in my backyard. It's so used to being around people (well, me anyway) that I literally have to shoo it away from the running lawnmower or it would get pureed by the blade. And there was that one time a couple of weeks ago when I was on my knees pruning the low hanging branches of a shrub that got overgrown and the snake slithered up behind me and right between my thighs. I think it was curious what I was up to.