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General rant about neighbour feeding cat and other craziness

12 replies

babydisney · 04/08/2020 02:03

So we've been looking after my aunties cat all lock down whilst she stays with a friend, we have been house sitting at her house and the cat is elderly and has a special diet as per vet, we know her neighbours very well as well as she has lived here for a long time. The cat when let out started walking over to a house down the road for some reason and we couldn't understand why as she's quite antisocial and prefers to stay at home and the lady down the road is, to put it as nicely I can, god awful, owns huge dogs she let's rule the street and was suspected of poisoning a cat a few years ago. We kept a close eye on the cats whereabouts trying to keep her in. Today whilst just glancing out of the window we noticed the lady enticing my aunts cat over with food with a group of people in her garden, I shouted over saying 'excuse me can you not feed our cat please she's on a special diet' she proceeded to hurl abuse at the house with her grown children and tried to justify it by saying she thought the cat was a homeless I retaliated pointing out she has known the household for years and our cat has a collar on and is chipped. She then proceeded to shout more abuse saying she can quote 'do what she f-ing wants because we let the cat outside so we should take the consequence', I was shaken up by the aggression of 5 grown people and texted a few neighbours to be cautious, come to find out she's been caught luring other cats on the street and has often let her dogs be aggressive towards others on the street. When I informed family including my aunt of what happened we we also informed she had been sacked from cleaning our great grandmother's house for theft of Waterford antique crystals amongst other things years back , so only have to assume a vengeance against us. She then later on tonight got her adult son to drive past the house repeatedly beeping and shouting abuse and hurling rubbish, all of lock down she's had visitors and parties yet she's supposed to work in care and should surely know the risks . Just ranting generally as I know it's not my house I'm just doing a good deed and wouldn't even know to where to begin with this woman, Im here at the house til September and do not want to stay if I am honest.

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Finfintytint · 04/08/2020 02:08

Keep the cat in and avoid these nutters.

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babydisney · 04/08/2020 02:43

My thinking exactly, a few of us were baffled, if someone says please stop feeding my pet you would respond 'OK very sorry' what makes it even worse is her lying about her thinking the cats on the street were homeless and what kind of intentions does she have trying to lure elderly cats into a house full of alsations 😳

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Finfintytint · 04/08/2020 02:50

You’ll never win with these idiots. Protect the cat and ignore.

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coffeerice · 04/08/2020 03:53

You can't fix stupid
Keep the cat in

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babydisney · 04/08/2020 03:58

@coffeerice it's sad as the cat should be able to roam and doesn't know better she has the equivalent of early onset dementia and is 15 years old, I just couldn't believe the awful behaviours of people. It's not a 'wealthy area' we are housesitting, we're both at university and just staying to be nice and to save and most of the neighbours are a lovely supportive community, but this one individual is amongst a handful that is problematic.

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HoppingPavlova · 04/08/2020 04:35

Pretty simple. If you don’t want the cat out eating god knows what god knows where then you keep it in. That’s not what unreasonable.

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babydisney · 04/08/2020 04:39

@hoppingPavlova ahh either the horrible neighbour or generally ignorant human being. It's a living animal and needs that space. As part of its regime would only stay to its area, the lady would open her gate and lure it in with premium foods. Which is actually a criminal offence once instructed for those that didn't know. I am merely the babysitter also, we have now put a camera on the collar so fear not.

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HoppingPavlova · 05/08/2020 14:59

It's a living animal and needs that space.

Lucky you don’t live here then. Many councils now refuse to have cats out of a day outside of your yard and pretty much all of them will not allow them out at night at all.

It’s not cruel. Firstly, get a cat that’s a house breed. I had a certain breed and could leave the door wide open and it would never go out. It used to follow me to the washing line then follow me back in.

Other than that there is lots of things you can do. We once had netting all along the fence tops. It is convex so they can’t climb over it, it drops groundward with the weight so they can’t jump the fences. They can use their own garden as their space. Other people have had complex outdoor cat runs right around their perimeters complete with the outdoor landscaping but that does cost a fortune. However, it’s considerations we need to look at when owning a cat given we can’t just let them run free to shit in everyone else’s gardens, get into cat fights, get attacked by dogs if they get into yards with a dog, cause neighbourhood kerfuffles regarding feeding and just generally cause annoyance.

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disorganisedsecretsquirrel · 05/08/2020 15:06

Great idea from PP !! Just 'swap your Aunts elderly cat ' for a house cat .. yeah that will be a great solution (not)!

Or your neighbours can stop being dickheads..

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lyralalala · 05/08/2020 16:37

People who feed other people's cats annoy the life out of me.

Not only is it a problem for cats on special diets, but it also makes it difficult to know if a cat is a stray or lost.

If people want pet cats they should get one and pay for the associated insurance and vet costs.

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Fluffycloudland77 · 05/08/2020 16:48

I wouldn’t let the cat out, it’s not hard to poison a cat. If she sets the dogs on her that’s an awful way to go.

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Frownette · 05/08/2020 18:07

She sounds deranged - I'd keep the cat in as much as possible and jot down any dates/info of any incidences.

She should be able to understand that some cats need special diets. Seems like she thought she was doing the cat a favour but has no wider understanding. Sorry you have had to put up with it, if isn't pleasant.

I have a Bengal visit me quite frequently if I leave a door open but I never feed it or pick it up as I don't want to encourage the visits and don't know its dietary history. It's a funny thing, I caught it chasing a car once and it circumvented the mini roundabout perfectly, stripey tail streaming out behind.

Please don't let it upset you too much and it's only until September.

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