My Neighbour and my cats

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Supersoakers are very effective. I've used one to deal with a tom cat spraying before. Zero harm to the cat's body, maximum harm to their coolness and composure. And they learn very quickly that there are better/drier places to spray.

ithinkyourcrazy

The cats don't use her garden as a toilet. Just the one did a few years ago who was ill and old. Any poo done by her was cleared up by me every day. I have a litter tray and they all use my garden. Trust me if they used her garden as a toilet I would hear about it!

The issue is she doesn't really like pets at all, she has never owned one, she doesn't understand that you can't stop cats from going where they like. My cats have a cat flap and can leave as they choose, but most of they time they stay inside.

I would never accuse her of doing it to her face, it is very probably just a complete coincidence.

6 years ago when another very old cat was PTS her words were "oh good, glad the nasty cat has died".

purple.sarah

I'm sorry she was nasty when your cat was PTS, that was uncalled for. However I have 6 cats and you can stop them from going where they like, you choose to let them out, with the risk that they will mess on other people's property or might eat something that makes them poorly.

pinkcandyflossprincess

my neighbour hates cats, she thoughtfully informed me after i got a kitten:(
i then found out she hates butterflys..since i planted flowers, pollen ,ants, bugs and anything garden related really:eek:

georgiesmum

O dear, a lot of cat haters on here. I buy my neighbours tins of cat repellent each spring. Might not work very well but at least my neighbours know I'm trying. I have lovely neighbours anyway.
We also keep a patch of ground behind some large bushes, turned over regularly for them to use, (the cats not the neighbours ). Bear in mind also that if the cats weren't around you would most likely have lots of rats and mice using your garden as a playground. my garden in a previous house was the only one that showed no sign of a rodent infestation. The neighbours used to encourage my cats when they heard that. lol

Tell your neighbours that you have spotted rats in her garden, that will freak her out. Also if she is the one poisoning your cats,she is taking a terrible chance with her children if they touch the cat when it's being sick.

fluffnutter

I love cats (have one myself). But I don't like the scabby tom that comes in my garden and sneaks in the cat flap to try to eat my cat's food. I turn the garden hose (jet setting!) on him. It's not a perfect solution but he does think twice for a while.

You can not accuse your neighbour of poisoning your cat; you simply have no evidence. There's no real solution to this problem. Cats are notoriously difficult to control and a cat-hater living next door to five(!) cats is never going to make for a happy situation.

heretolearn_2

The real question here is 'what can I do to improve this situation?'.

You will never get your neighbour to like having your cats in her garden - and why should she? Never mind that they are only running through for access, it irritates her. Personally I like having a couple of local cats visit us but I can also see why, if you don't like them, you wouldn't appreciate them coming on to your property. It's just annoying. Same as when next door kids come through my garden (they have easy access for a couple of reasons), they do no harm, but it's my garden not theirs, and so it just irritates me. The fact that cats are hard to control is not her problem - it's yours.

So - how can you make it easier for your cats to get to the fields by another route? Can you put in a catflap/hole/cat ladder/something to encourage them to go another route? Can you then put something along the top of the fence by her bunker so they can't balance on top of that part of the fence any more so stop using the bunker as a spring board?