Nepeta is one of the most carefree long blooming plants there is. I think it's worth a try. I have two cats, and used to have another. None of them took any interest in my nepeta at all, even when I stuck it under their noses. We have ferrel cats in our neighborhood too and I have never seen one around my nepeta. If you do happen to have a cat in the neighborhood that wants to eat it or lay in it, at least it probably won't want to poop there too. Nepeta is easy to propagate. If you carefully pull a stem away from the base, it will already have itty bitty roots attached to it and can grow into a good size plant in one season. Just stick the new starts in a shady place for awhile until they get established. It should be very easy to get nepeta in a plant trade or make your own starts if you purchase a plant. Then if you do happen to have new cats hanging around, you won't have spent much and can rip it all out. I don't think you'll need to. In fact there may be some places in your garden where you can use nepeta as a ground cover instead of loose mulch where I suspect you're finding kitty poo. Cats like to scratch in loose soil, sand, or mulch. They're not likely to poop on top of a plant.

dscpa, your methods are contrary to most standards. Cages are usually more desirable for det. varieties and staking or trelising for the taller indt. varieties. I wouldn'd condemn any method that keeps the fruit clean, including putting a mat of straw under plants if you can demonstrate success with the method. Many years ago I purchased a few thousand 30" cages at an auction and I have since used them to my satisfaction for field grown det. varieties. For indt. varieties I stick to using the framework of my greenhouses to hold stringlines to which the tomato stems are clipped. Many of those indt. varieties, especially cherry/grape types, will grow to 15+ feet in height in a season and I know of no stakes available commercially to provide the needed support. I'll be growing more dwarf varieties this year than ever before to sell as potted plants but for my own harvests I'll stick with full size plants. I would never say that the dwarf plants or any others are a waste of garden space but I'll note that every growers desires are unique. Some of us would never go to bother supporting peppers or eggplants.

I think what hollysprings is saying is that since you're going to all of the time, trouble and expense of replacing the old tub and shower with a new shower, that trying to save money by reusing the existing valve (which is the "heart" of the system) might end up being a case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Better to replace the old valve (more likely to fail) with a new one (less likely to fail) since you have the wall open and easy access.

Moonshadow, that's exactly the reason why we're almost certainly going to go with vinyl (6' tall, solid bottom to keep the dog safe and quiet - he gets barky when he sees other dogs, and both our neighbors have dogs! - with lattice or spindles for the top section). When we priced out fences the wood was around 30% less than the vinyl, but the maintenance needs were significantly greater and the "shelf life" shorter especially if not meticulously maintained, so it would have ended up costing us quite a bit more over time. IMO wood fences are MUCH more of an eyesore than any vinyl product when they're not properly maintained - a great many of the houses in my neighborhood are "decorated" with faded, ratty wood fencing, and it really contributes to the neighborhood looking sad and run-down overall. Although it's the back yard getting the fence, some will be visible from the street, and of course the neighbors will see it. It will certainly look much cleaner and neater than most of what's in our neighborhood (scungy old wood or tired chain-link). Perhaps a "semi-privacy" style fence will look less monolithic and still accomplish what the OP needs. I've linked to the semi-privacy styles on the website Les posted, just for reference. Here is a link that might be useful: Fence Authority