My cats are being harrased by a neighbour

poppyamber

I have two cats, they both just turned up at my house 6 months ago, skinny and begging for days.
I have adopted them both after a long campaign of posters to locate the owners.

We live in a upstairs maisonette, we have stairs down to our own front door and back door but no cat flap. Our cats come in by using the extension flat roof the people below have built which extends out our back.
The cats sit out on the roof and sunbathe occasionally too, mostly they just use it as access though.

The neighbour NEXT to me is a elderly gentleman and a gardner who hates cats, his living room side window overlooks this extension roof where the cats sit.

I have caught him in the last week with a spray gun filled with i assume water, sat in his window. In the past few days i have noticed my cats DIVING in my window in a panic and today i saw why. The old man is spraying them, when they are sat on the extension which is not owned by ME or HIM!!!! I called out the window and said

"if my cats are in your garden or on your shed roof then fine spray them, but this is not your roof and the cats are doing you no harm"

He basically shouted back that the cats "cr*p" in his garden and its not my roof either and he would do what he liked, whilst ranting at me he was spraying water at my cat again!!!! His attitude was very rude and irate, he is normally a nice man and i often talk to him about the weather etc.

My kids have seen him in the garden spraying my cats, which is fine, i have no problem, he doesnt want cat poop there, however, he does not spray my neighbours cat when he is in there, she is the lady who owns the extension. We have about 20 cats who visit our gardens, it could be any of them depositing in his flowerbeds.

I am wondering if i could get the RSPCA involved as its unfair on my cats who are very nervy and starting to avoid going in and out

I cant get a cat flap as its a council double glazed door along with the 2 internal doors that i would have to put cat flaps in, im pretty sure i wouldnt be allowed. The cats have no other access windows either as we are 1st floor.

Help and advice please!!

mrcow

I know you love your cats and all that, but I think you would seriously be wasting the RSPCAs time with this.

You've said yourself that this man is a nice, normal neighbour. Believe it or not, they can be hard to find sometimes! Try to think of it from his point of view and think how frustrated he must feel that a nice, normal person is reduced to spraying cats out of his window with a water pistol. They must have been driving him that nuts that he's gone out and bought the thing especially.

Your cats will get over it and hopefully they'll leave his garden alone and get the message. In the meantime, why don't you knock on his door and suggest that he tries some alternate remedies from squirting them, like leaving a coke bottle half filled with water lying down in the garden, or even orange peel can have an effect. There's a thread here somewhere with deterrent ideas.

Cat faeces are one of the most disgusting substances known to man (as I'm sure you already know as an owner) and when it's not even your cat, it's the pits!

poppyamber

The squirter is one of his garden tools.

Like i said its not the squirting i mind, it is the fact he is doing it when they are sat no where near his garden minding their own business, he is at times preventing them from getting in to my house. In his garden, fine, i have no issues he can spray, but down orange peel, hire a pit bull......... i have NO issues.

They are previous strays and the last thing i want is them wondering off because they cant access my house for food etc, i dont see why he is spraying them when they are NOT sat on his land and NOT trying to get to his land.

mrcow

I think you also need to say that to him too, but the conversation needs to be had face to face (not yelling through windows at each other ;)).

Maybe take a deep breath tomorrow and knock on his door and start by apologising if your cats have been messing in his garden. Come up with some alternate ideas to deter them. Say that it may not just be them.

Get his agreement on this and then say to him that he's frightening them by spraying them when they are on the roof when they are doing no harm, just trying to get in.

If he's still nasty about it, then I think perhaps you need to revise your original post where you state that he's a nice man. Nice people are not cruel to animals.

To be honest, if he is a nice man, I can't see him doing it again anyway as he's probably embarrassed for being caught by you and just shouted back as he was frustrated (but I'm giving him the benfit of the doubt here).

But I still would encourage you to have the conversation.

vikingaero

Unfortunately I can totally empathise with the old man. I have 2 kids and its no fun having to go on "poop alert" everytime they want to go out to play. And it's even worse cleaning cat poo off childrens shoes.

scheming_gypsy

buy the biggest water gun you can find and squirt him when he's squirting the cats on your property.

ailuro2

Once you calm down, why not offer to go half with him on an electronic cat scarer?

It will only detect them when they are down in his garden, but since other cats will be deterred by it , then he should stump up some of the money too.

Then he can get on with being the nice old man he wants to be... it's very handy having a neighbour like him, they're great Neighbourhood Watchers;)
Best let him look out for ordinary burglars instead of the feline kind.:rolleyes:

faerie_girl

We have three cats who as far as i am aware will not go to the loo outside. If they have been out all day the first thing they do is go to their tray. If the litter needs changing they wait beside me to go in.
From the experience of my three cats i think it is the hate cat brigade who thinks every cat is out to crap on their flowers. Most probabally will go home to do it in privacy in nice clean litter and then they dig over it so it doesn't smell.
Cats are not dumb
If i was your situation i would chuck a bucket of water out the window at this man regardless if he is 'a nice old man' I know that would be petty i would be so angry at him.
I have watched some young girl walk up near my eldest and start throwing stuff at him. Im in a second floor flat and gave them a mouthful out the window.
It makes me so mad when people are cruel to cats. You dont go displining someone elses child nor should you disipline someones animal

sleepymy

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

buy the biggest water gun you can find and squirt him when he's squirting the cats on your property.

Not that anyone should advocate abusing the elderly but if I could thank you twice for that SG I would :rotfl: In an ideal world where the old codger wouldn't drop with a heart attack it would be worth the comedy value to see the look on his face .

poppy, I think the cats protection league has a link on their site about the illegality of being cruel to cats.

ariba10

We used to be troubled with Bird murderers in our garden but after a lot of persistence with a water pistol they finally got the message and keep away.

bulchy

What a horrible man. I know how you feel. Theres about 20+ cats in our neighbourhood, I own 2 of them, and my next door neighbour seems to think that my cats are the only ones in the neighbourhood. There my cats, and I dont expect anyone to welcome them into there gardens, infact I'd rather they scared them away, humanely, but to stop speaking to me because of this is pathetic :rolleyes:
I understand that people dont like cats pooping in there gardens, I personally couldnt care less if they all use my garden, cos where my cats use the toilet in my garden, the flowers grow much bigger than anywhere else, its good fertiliser
I hope you can get your message across to your neighbour, good luck
Sue