kitten in neighbours garden - not welcome!!

momaluce

our kitten is 6 1/2 months old and we all love him dearly but ..... for the past couple of weeks he been very persistant when Ive taken him into the garden for some fresh air. It started when he found a small gap at the end of the fence panels and loved playing in her 'wild' garden she has two children who were very welcoming but on each occassion I went and got him back straight away she said she wasnt a cat person but laughed it off and we 'kitten proofed' our garden even more. on Sunday whilst my back was turned he got in again and she rang me to say her son wouldnt eat his tea as he was watching him and I went round immediately and apologised.

I let him out today after recouperating from his recent neutering and he has got so big that he just scalled the 5ft fence and went over, luckily she was out so I got him back using his cat bowl. This afternoon whilst cooking tea my children were playing with him in the garden (he loves to join in swing ball!) when he scaled the fence again my children where squeeling with laughter at how big and clever he was now as he promptly jumped over into next door. I couldnt leave the cooker immediately as I had hot pans on etc and a few mins later my 12 yr old answered the door to our neighbour with the kitten saying he was in her kitchen. She apoligised on my behalf thankfully.

My husband says Im over reacting and that is what cats do (we have a 13 yr old cat too) but im really worked up about it.

A friend said I Should I try pepper spray (?) or give her a water sprayer to spray near to him as a deterent. The only other option I can think of (but cant bear to do) is to try and re-home him as he stands the best chance being such a young age (he really is a lovely black and white moggie) As my neighbour can be 'difficult' but regularly has my daughter and myself doing errands for her I dont want to upset her and I realise that not everyone is a cat person.

Please, any ideas thanks in advance

chnelomi

eeeeeerrrrrrrrrr
I'm sorry but your neighbor needs to get a life, you cant be expected to put a lead on your cat to keep them in and if you deliberately kept the cat in the house that wouldn't be very fair. if your neighbor has a problem with your cat then she can do something to deter cats.
I've had cats and always let them wander some loved it others stayed in the garden. my neighbor has a cat that always tries to get in my house (it wants to play with my dogs:eek:) and all i have to do is say no and close the door. now when he see's me i give him a clap and he walks past the door quite happy(most of the time).
don't get rid of the cat to please her or the next thing will be the kids playing ball games in your garden.

OK i sound bitter but I've had bad experience trying to please people and in the end i felt like nothing was good enough, so just dont bother

emmielou

Give her a water pistol and explain that if she shoots him with it he'll soon learn.

Perhaps try trailing cat unfriendly plants along the edge if the fence between you and her.

Rehoming him is a bit drastic, it is what cats do, unless you keep him as a house cat and I hate to think how upset your kids would be! :eek:

JMW77

Don't even think about rehoming him so many acts are homeless and needing homes ,if you love your cat ignore the neighbours the cat is just behaving as he should.

I am always getting told my cats go into the neighbours cat flaps when they are holiday,i apologise but there is nothing i can do ,i am not going to keep them in.

it really makes me mad when people are unkind to animals just let them be i say!

lowis

you could try and install some cat-safe fencing, check out these links:

http://www.purrfectfence.co.uk/
http://www.woodycoon.com/html/cat-proof_fencing.html

please don't rehome him, it is so not necessary, he is just being a cat x

GracieP

chnelomi wrote: »

eeeeeerrrrrrrrrr
I'm sorry but your neighbor needs to get a life,

No, the neighbour has a right to not want somebody else's animal on her property and it is the owner's responsibility to stop that from happening. Which the OP fairly accepts.

OP can you alter your fence, maybe something like what is described here?http://www.feralcat.com/fence.html

I had to do something similar as one of my dogs can climb our rear fence and walk along it like a cat before hopping off to explore our neighbours garden.

ailuro2

it is accepted that cats will roam, if she has kids already then she will probably have a water gun, give her permission to soak him if he goes into her garden, he'll soon get the message that he's not welcome.

If you're running errands for her, then I'd stop this, anyone who expects give without take is not entering into the spirit of good neighbourliness and what it entails.

We all need to give and take a bit when living next door to folks, but she's taking advantage of your good nature, methinks.;)

It would be different if your cat was leaving a big poo on her grass, but he's not, so tell her to wet him and stop worrying.

lisawood78

Agree with most other psoters here, a cat is a cat, you can't keep them in your own garden if you are going to let them outside, which is best for the animal.
I'd agree with squirting him IF he becomes a nuisance, but if he is just wandering about, wheres the harm? I know some people do not like cats but there is little you can do about it, I think this neighbour is taking the p*ss somewhat.
Good luck

mrcol1000

I disagree that you should just take the attuide that its what cats do so be it. I mean dogs natrually instinct is to chase and attack cats but if that happened I doubt there would be many people just shrug their shoulders and say "Well thats what dogs do......"
I'd apologise to your neighbour about it and explain there isn't much you can do to stop the cat roaming and give her advice on how to scare the cat off so it learns not to go in there.

YorkiePud_3

Well I am only a novice cat owner (am only on my second one! Give me time, tho!) ... but I've been on both sides of the fence so to speak at one time or another, so can appreciate both sides of the argument.

First of all, the OP is a lovely pet owner to come here to seek advice to try and make things better for all concerned and keep the peace in the neighbourhood! Not many cat owners bother and couldn't give a damn what their cats do and where they do it when they are out!!

Obviously though, you are going to get anti-cat people who will stir trouble up if a cat so much as walks over their back fence ...

There are lots of cats in my neighbourhood but my back garden is a no go area for them. I get lots of wild birds in there and so I have always stopped cats from going in there (my own cat lives in the conservatory that has an outdoor cat run attached to it - just don't ask how much it cost to have built!!)

I spoke to the owners of the other cats though and I said, look, I get more birds coming to feed and nest in my back garden than is enough ... I know cats and birds don't mix, so would you be okay if, when your cat comes into my garden, I run out, flail my arms around like a mad 'un and shout at it to scare it away?

I promised them faithfully I wouldn't throw stones, shoot water pistols (have you ever been "shot" with one of those?? It stings like billyho!) or do anything that would make the cat ill ... and ALL the owners said go for it ... they were all pleased that I wasn't going to do anything that would harm or hurt their pet.

So for a good few months, each time a cat came into the garden, out I ran like a wailing banshee, chasing em out. I did it to ALL the cats and I cannot tell you the last time I had a cat in the garden now!

But, let me go walking out in the street, and the cats come up to greet me! They're not daft, they've realised that they're not welcome in the back garden but that they are ok elsewhere ...

So if you feel ok about it, tell you neighbour to rush out at the cat, screaming and shouting or hissing ... a good scare like that will more than likely do the trick with a young cat ... it only took me a few months cos these moggies here are middle aged, hard as nails toms!!

Thinking about it, too .. I think I would speak to ALL the neighbours .. I would tell them you have a new kitten who seems to want to go visit them all even though you have been trying to keep him roundabout your garden and that one of the neighbours has complained about this, so you just wanted to say if they were uncomfortable about him coming into their gardens, feel free to shout or hiss at him to scare him out.

You may find that most of them say awwww, no problem, don't worry about it (but at least then, you have brought it to them and given them the ok to scare him out so it isn't coming across like you aren't bothered if you see what I mean!) ... and they might realise just which neighbour is being funny about him!!

mrcol1000

YorkiePud wrote: »

Obviously though, you are going to get anti-cat people who will stir trouble up if a cat so much as walks over their back fence ...

I don't think its anti-cat to not want a cat trailing through your garden all the time. I think its a bit aggorant to assume that your cat should be allowed to go wherever it wants. I can appericate that cats are far different to dogs and cats roam around but please don't think that people should have to put up with it.