Neighbour threatening my cat - advice please?

BillTrac

We have two Ragdolls so they are house cats, although they love the garden.

First thing I did was put a trellis along the perimeter walls of our garden and the some fine netting to cover the trellis.

result is they cant get out and no other cats can get in.

And they use litter trays so we dont even have any of our own cats poop in the garden

kaya

i don't have a cat, i don't like cats, i hate finding cat faeces in my borders as well, i can see why your neighbour is annoyed and sympathise with them, how would you feel if my dog kept crapping in your garden and i didnt clean it up?
BUT anyone who is prepared to kill or harm an animal that is behaving as nature intended is a pile of faeces themselves, difficult situation, i suppose many cat owners only have them for the reason that they dont have to be responsible and cant be bothered to ensure they dont upset the neighbours, imagine if all dog owners were allowed to let there pets roam around killing and crapping wherever they wanted to, pure chaos and dead toddlers everywhere!!

Geoffo_M

BillTrac wrote: »

We have two Ragdolls so they are house cats, although they love the garden.

First thing I did was put a trellis along the perimeter walls of our garden and the some fine netting to cover the trellis.

result is they cant get out and no other cats can get in.

And they use litter trays so we dont even have any of our own cats poop in the garden

Well done - nice to see a responsible cat owner for a change

mags1962

(i suppose many cat owners only have them for the reason that they dont have to be responsible and cant be bothered to ensure they dont upset the neighbours, imagine if all dog owners were allowed to let there pets roam around killing and crapping wherever they wanted to, pure chaos and dead toddlers everywhere!! )
I have my cats because i happen to like them & can assure you that iam a responsable person more responsable than the idiot who fractured my cats pelvis .
Dogs are not allowed to roam free as thats what the law states so no point in trying to imagine that & i have never heard off a cat killing a human yet but maybe i have missed something
i think that statement is a bit extreme

bunzee

Wow, a lot of interesting replies.

Want to clear up a couple of things:

Both my cats now have collars with bells, and if they lose them I will replace them.
They both stay in for the majority of the night of their own choice as I have a cat flap - usually they come in around 9pm and go out about 8am.
My bungalow is ex-authority, the gardens are communal and I do not have a fence so have no way of enclosing the cat in a smaller area.
No one has complained about my cats doing their toilet in gardens - there are several areas around here which no one tends to and I assume the cats go to those - there is certainly no sign of cat mess in my communal area.
2 of my neighbours have dogs, which foul the communal gardens, particularly right outside my property, and it is not sorted. I have mentioned this to them but it continues.

I'm still unsure whether to contact the council and ask them not to discuss it with the neighbours, I am upset by what was said and my cat is by no means the only one in the street who catches birds. I am concerned if I don't do anything the neighbours will think I am a push over and having seen other neighbourly disputes in the street result in riot vans and ambulances I am worried if I back off they will think it's fine to bully me.

Any further comments welcomed, thanks for all of those so far!

Feline_friendly

DCFC79 wrote: »

why should the OP keep the cat indoors whilst at work, they need exercise dont they, cats are cats and they can kill birds, OP id use some of the ideas posted eg the bell collar

Why? She has been threatened that her cat may come to harm...if it were a child would you still let your child out when you couldnt keep an eye on it?? No you wouldnt. if there is a risk of harm to her cat...which may be just hot air...but until that threat is gone she may feel alot happier to keep the cat in and know it is safe.

Cats sleep most of the day anyway and if the OP has toys and other things to occupy the cat the cat will be ok.

Feline_friendly

You may be better off going to a cat forum for advice. here you will get good suggestions which work and no will will post awful comments like some have been posted here. A good site is catchat...google it...it is a rescue site and they have other links for cat forums if they dont have the advice you need. Good luck and i hope you can get this sorted in a good way.

MrsE_2

Geoffo_M wrote: »

Well done - nice to see a responsible cat owner for a change

I'm a cat owner too, with the same set up:D

My cats stay in my garden & use a tray (but I'm planning on teaching them to use the loo, with a litter kwitter).

mags1962

Hi Bunzee
I know the dilema you are in
have you read the post where i explained that my evil neighbour thretned to kill my cat ?
anyway i dont want to worry you but this went on for a long time then he threatned to kill my young tom cat , next day he went missing he was gone for 16 days and returned with a fractured pelvis and very ill
Of course i could not proove anything but it wasnt rocket science after what had been going on.
Anyway now i try my best to work round the problem by leting them out when i am at home , of course this is not always possible as cats are cats and they want out and should be allowed to do so without threat off being harmed but this is the real world and there ae some nasty people about ( unfortunatly ).
However i will always defend an inocent animal and if i catch them harming my cat then i certainly will report them again & again , its very sad that these ppl have nothing better do do
Animal cruelty is one step closer to doing other nasty things and i think anybody capable off doing this is capable off anything !
watch collars too they have a tendancy to trap an animal on a tree branch etc

good luck iam still having an on going battle & to tell you the truth i think they enjoy it so try not to feed them too much ignore them as much as possible.

Catblue

bunzee wrote: »

I'm still unsure whether to contact the council and ask them not to discuss it with the neighbours, I am upset by what was said and my cat is by no means the only one in the street who catches birds. I am concerned if I don't do anything the neighbours will think I am a push over and having seen other neighbourly disputes in the street result in riot vans and ambulances I am worried if I back off they will think it's fine to bully me.

You say that you do not want to get into a neighbour dispute yet you want to go ahead with a complaint to the council. If the council go around to your neighbours, then there is a very good chance that a dispute will arise from it. The neighbours are going to be angry and that could put your cat in even more danger - have you thought about that? You have the opportunity here to stop this developing into a dispute and a pragmatic person would take it.

Remember that if you do not withdraw your complaint to the council, then you will have to disclose these details when you come to sell your house.

I would respectfully suggest that the majority of your potential buyers will be put off. You could then end up in a sticky situation with your neighbours and absolutely no hope of escaping from them.