I have tried every trick in the book to stop street cats from coming to my terrace. They are a real nuisance. They shit and pee all over the place. What is worse, there is always a chance that they will be locked up in the house while I am not there. Stealthy as they are, they would hide so well that I would miss them, but they would not get out in time, either. At any rate, no trick I have come up with has worked for long. The cats figure it out soon enough, and they are back in numbers. And so my beloved brought me a can of pet repellent made by a respectable company that also makes pet food. In other words, the chemicals used are not dangerous to pets like cats and dogs. As it turns out, the repellent is the only trick that actually works. All I have to do is spray several access points at the terrace. The only problem is that it gets washed away when it rains, which means that I always need a few cans in reserve. Having just found a cat turd on my terrace, I sprayed all the access points once again. It rained heavily for a few days, but wet weather is not likely to return soon. My job accomplished, I could not but remember everything else I have tried so far. “Chemistry,” I shook my head dolefully. “In the end you fell back to damned chemistry!”