"green bottles work best at deterring cats"



A question asked by a visitor to Barga this week made O'Connor get out his camera and go out to see if he could find some answers.

The question? Just what are all those bottles of water doing on the doorsteps in Barga Vecchia?

The bottles are there to stop cats or dogs peeing on the doors. SO how does it work ? So far there have been 7 answers put forward:

1) the dog/cat sees his/her reflection in the bottle and is scared off
2) the dog/cat is afraid of water
3) the dog/cat gets a small static charge off the bottle
4) the shadow of the bottle frightens off the dog/cat
5) the dog/cat knocks over the bottle as he/she lifts their leg and is scared off
6) The owner of the dog/cat sees the bottles and thinks the water is poisoned
7) sunlight on the water creates a frightening sparkling light

None of these answers seems to "hold water" but people in Barga Vecchia insist that the bottles do actually deter cats and dogs and even go so far as to claim that the green bottles work best So just where did this idea come from ? Nobody knows. So is it just yet another urban legend?

Digging around a bit more brings up a suprising piece of evidence to support the claim and once more brings the Scottish connection to the fore:

In Scotland there was the habit of standing half filled plastic bottles (with the tops off) in fields around the chicken pens to keep the foxes away. The Scottish wind makes a whistling noise as it blows across the open bottles kept the foxes at a discreet distance.. Maybe, just maybe the idea was transplanted here and got mixed up on the way as the tops got screwed down and the wind factor was ignored.... just that nobody bothered to inform the cats and dogs of Barga marking out their territory.

 

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