Help! Neighbour trying to steal my cat!!

Ruby_Moon

Paparika wrote: »

Doesn't matter how much or how little you pay for a cat, and how much love care and attention you give it, he will go where he pleases.

My partner has a cat, the cat chose him, just walked into the house one day and decided to stay, but OH knows that one day he may decide to leave and move on.

End of the day he likes your neighbours place more than yours atm, i think this is where you are struggling to accept, get him checked at the vets to make sure she hasn't had him micro chipped too, then you can go for her stealing your moggy.

But yes you have proof of ownership should you wish to take this further, but you can't stop the cat going over there, he likes it, and perhaps she doesn't like to shoo cats away..

I am sorry but your reply to the OP is neither helpful or even remotely correct.
Cats are fickle creatures and yes, they choose what they like but there is only a choice for a cat when someone else is feeding it. If all other people left cats alone that did not belong to them then the cat would not have any choice.
Cats are like young children and 'prefer' the human who buys the best dinners (latest toys). If the woman down the road always opens a tin of best salmon for the cat, then it seems perfectly obvious to many that that is where the cat will want to go eat. If she doesn't open the door after feeding to let the cat out, then the cat has no choice of where to sleep other than there.
Why should the OP "accept" that her cat prefers the other lady's house when the other lady won't even stop feeding it like she has been asked?

I would be amazed if you told me you were a cat lover.

Ruby_Moon

mouseymousey99 wrote: »

Its a cat a living feeling being not a fridge freezer. If the OP spoke to lady in the same way as the post (& some of these) no wonder the cat left home!
'Behaving herself' - what - caring for an animal?? What a cruel cold selfish attitude. The cat is alive its not property.
'keep them for themselves' oh get real, if the lady wanted another cat she would have gone to a rehoming place to get one.
I'm going to leave this thread - I think you can see why...common sense out of the window..

No, it isn't a fridge freezer. What a crazy thing to say. However, it is a member of the family, something that is loved, cared for and made allowances for. Its something that the OP has spent money on, has doted on, looks forward to watching and playing with it and basically cherishes it totally.
The cat is cared for by the OP and does not need the other woman to care for it also.
You have a very funny attitude when it comes to matters of the heart. What would you think if your neighbour saw your child walking home from school every day and came out of her house and gave him an ice cream?
You wouldn't be happy about it but maybe the neighbour just liked your child. Maybe she cared about him because she thought he looked a bit thin and so gave him a treat everyday. She isn't hurting your child in any way, but I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you wouldn't like it.
People who love their cats so much feel exactly the same as that. How is it so difficult for you to understand?

ClareEmily

Frugalista wrote: »

Hi guys. Was surprised to see this thread pop back up again!

I originally posted back in November last year. As the weather turned colder the cats were staying in more and more, so (when the "prodigal" cat came home) we decided not to let them out again. This wasn't too difficult as they both hate getting wet or cold - and once the snow came they really didn't want to go out that much.

They have a big, squashy, fleece bed by the side of our log-burner and spent (what seemed like) 22 out of 24 hours a day asleep in that :rolleyes:. The rest of the time was spent madly racing around upstairs; playing chase (bouncing off the walls and furniture in the process); having very noisy wrestling bouts and hissy fights; yowling through the bannisters and generally terrorising my dogs :rotfl:.

As the months went by and the weather got a little warmer, they would spend hours in the study with OH. They would lie on a cushion in the window (favourite spot on sunny days) or in an igloo on one of the shelves. Our "wanderer" (always the most demanding of the two) loved to wait until OH went to get a drink, or go to the loo and then get on his desk and flick all his pens, glasses, coins, etc, onto the floor :rotfl:. He would also shred up any writing pads or letters within minutes (not good!), walk across, or lay on, the keyboard (sent a couple of e-mails that way!!) and attack the angle-poise lamp :eek:!! He also insisted on lying across OH's arms whilst he was trying to type/work. The funniest thing was when OH was on the phone talking to his boss - the cat thought OH was talking to him, so kept answering in a very loud Siamese yowl .

By about the end of April the cats were becoming stir crazy and quite destructive. Bear in mind they had aways had free rein for years. Also, the weather was getting hotter and we needed to open windows and doors. So, we decided to let them out again. They both now choose to spend a lot of time indoors - but know we will let them out if they ask. In fact, our "wanderer" will often spend all day asleep in the study and has to be woken up for his dinner. He's in more than his "stay-at-home" brother :T!

And the Neighbour? She flagged me down one day as I drove past her place, about 6 weeks ago. Asked how my boy was - I confess, I lied through my teeth :whistle:when I told her he "had been very ill with digestive troubles and will probably have to be on medication long term - so it's vitally important that he's home every day for his tablets".....:o

She told me that she and her husband had missed not having him around and so had gone out and bought two Siamese of their own (a male and a female) - and are planning to breed them :wall: !!! Her husband had even built a cat pen for them as she "didn't want them crossing the lane because of the tractors - it's such a worry" she said (obviously didn't matter about mine though :mad:) "Your cat is such a naughty, cheeky boy!" She also apologised (so quietly I almost missed it) for trying to take my cat!! "He is so lovely, we wanted to keep him - but our new boy is just like him - you must pop in sometime and meet them both :rolleyes:!!"

So, it appears, alls well that ends well (in this case, anyway). To the people who are still struggling with thieving neighbours - Good Luck and don't give up. Your cat is yours and no-body elses.

I have popped back now and again to see how if you had made any progress, glad you hear you did

Frugalista

UPDATE ....... Had a phone call yesterday from the "mad cat lady". As those of you who followed this thread will know she ended up buying two Siamese of her own with the intention of breeding them :eek:.

She has had the male neutered and has allowed him to go regularly out of the house/pen. Apparently, she let him out on Friday morning and he has not come back yet - and she is besides herself with worry (sounds familiar :huh::huh:) so she was ringing to see if I may have spotted him!!

OMG!! I cannot begin to tell you how tempted I was to rip into her and tell her that this was exactly how distraught I was every time my cat spent weeks locked in her house and I didn't know where he was :mad:.

However, as a fellow animal lover and pet owner, I really could relate to her fear that something might have happened to him - and so bit my tounge :silenced: (that was soooo hard!) and promised to keep a lookout for him :cool:.

We did chat about my boy (who is tucked up with his brother in yet another new bed and who now sulks like mad if I make him go outside at all :rotfl:) and she said she hadn't seen him over there for months. Good !!

I do sincerely wish she does get her cat back (she is going to let me know) and just hope that now she she has learnt her lesson :think:.

As the old saying goes "What goes around comes around" .

Lilith1980

Good to hear you stuck to your guns with your kitty - if someone knabbed our cat I wouldn't be at all pleased, especially as it would be me that fit the bill for anything that needed doing.

Hopefully her cat will come back - maybe he got fed up of being "baby'd" like she did to yours lol. She now might appreciate what you went through.

hippy-chicy

I have just had a good giggle reading your last post. I do hope that your neighbout gets her cat back unharmed but there is nothign like experience to make people learn.

I also wanted to share my experience of this. My Boy was a gorgeous chunky black and white rescue moggie, I had him from a kitten until 9 years old he was so friendly everyone who ever met him comented on how lovely he was. Such a little (big) character. When i moved into my new house he would wonder into next doors garden , the field at the back and mine and thats really where he stayed.

Next door started to feed him and even told me this fresh chicken etc etc, laughing about it, saying that she really liked him and wanted him to come round. I asked her not to as he was naturally a big boy and i had him on a specific diet to help control this. Especially as he was getting on and was a neuterd male.

Things got nasty after he had a bout of illness and the vet said that he needed to loose some weight. I asked her not to feed him on many occasions and explained why . She said he just turns up so she likes to give him a treat !!! hello of course he will if you feed him.

Anyway about two months later she came round to mine one night and said that he had been bothering her cats and scaring them and could i keep him away !! shocked was not the word after months and months of fighting with her not to feed him she turns it round onto me.

The worse bit of it all is that less than a week later he was dead, it was awful, he most devestating two days of my life. I found him in the garden and it was just dreadful.....poisoned the autopsy revealed possibly anti freeze or something similar and she basically admitted that she had done it. Makes me sick to the stomach.

I really do hope that Karma exists for evil people like her.

Fire_Fox

(((((hippy-chicy)))))

gettingready

I did not manage to read the whole thread so forgive me if my post is not quite on topic but stil....

From just the first page this seems to be an issue of "I own the cat".

Cats are living creatures and have feelings too - this cat has choosen to live elsewhere for reasons known only to him.

I would personally just let it be.. the other people obviously love this cat.

Why do I say that?

I had a cat for about 6 years when he has "dissapeared" - to cut a long story short, someone contacted me about a week later to let me know that a cat matching my cat's description has moved in with tme, about 15 minutes walk, via a busy street away from me.

I went there , the cat was mine, he did nto want to come into the basket, had to push him in, the people dove me home and said that if I ever want to rehome him - I should let them know.

About 2 weeks later,, seeing my cat was unhappy - I have called them and they took him in.

He has spent another good few years with them as a very happy cat - they had a garden I did not, he was happier there. I made a choice that was good for the cat, not for me - I did miss him

Now, regardless of the reasons - the cat in question here prefers to be in the other house.... Let him be happy - if you really care about him.

All that talk about how much one paid for the cat, how much insurance costs etc... What about the actual CAT himself?

I would sign the cat over (with all the financial things of course) and let him be happy...

cyberbob

gettingready wrote: »

Cats are living creatures and have feelings too - this cat has choosen to live elsewhere for reasons known only to him.

I would personally just let it be.. the other people obviously love this cat..

The problem is if you read the thread is not cats deciding to go to other places. Its other people feeding them which attracts the cat and they continue to even when asked not to.

Just a thought would you put the same argument forward for a dog that runs away? As he obviously wants to be somewhere else

gettingready

Cyberbob - I did read the first page with the background of this story.

If you see the opening of my post...

forgive me if my post is not quite on topic but stil....

It was just a general reflection rather than direct reply to this particular issue.

And I would not compare dogs and cats - dog may run away when misstreated, cat will "move on" because... because it is a cat