To suspect my neighbour killed my cat

Why didn't you have her spayed as soon as possible? Why would you let her have 'several more litters'?

Also, cats aren't 'monogamous' it's more likely that he was the dominant* Tom in the area which is why he fathered all her litters. Don't anthropomorphise, it's just nature/instinct.

*or possibly the only un-neutered Tom

Three years ago we moved to our new house. Day one we met one of our neighbours and he asks whether we have a cat because he hates them. We didn’t at that point but we had planned to get one as we and our children really wanted one. neighbour begged us not too even though there are many many cat in the area. We reluctantly agreed to keep the peace but after a terrible year with lots of heartache we decided it was non of his business and got two kittens.

When he found out we had cats he made a passive aggressive comment to my six year old child about how one of the cats in particular had been in his garden and on his bird table. Some months later I heard our cats squealing. I thought they found themselves in a fight with another cat so called out to stop it but turned out to be my neighbour doing something to them to get them out of his garden. He said they were stalking his bird house.

We tried to settle things down with him, said feel free to spray them with water if they come over, we would look into a fence with a slope and if they ever mess in his garden (which they doubt they had as they still used litter trays) he could put over the fence with a spade. That conversation went well but he did say he’d killed a cat previously because it had chased a bird and that the killing had been unintentional.

fast forward some weeks and one of our kittens was found at the end of the road dead in the road with a sever head injury. This is the cat that both neighbours had said was the main culprit of jumping on their bird tables. Initially I was extremely upset and couldn’t think clearly but after a week or so I remembered that morning I had heard a cat scream that was worse than you would usually hear and had looked out my window to see what was going on. My husband saw my neighbour around that time walking up the road away from where she was later found and when asked what he was up to today said he was going for a long walk. I saw the neighbour in his garden briefly a week later, when our eyes met he went straight back into his house which is unusual as he usually chats to me. Generally he has been quite friendly apart from the issue with the cats.

i have spoken to my husband and a few friends about this and generally the consensus is that I’m overthinking and that this theory is just generally wild. Im
absolutely convinced he killed her and placed her at the end of the road to make it look like she got run over. Then again, I’m so desperately upset by it all that I’m not sure if the grief is clouding my judgement

I love cats. I don't have one now because of my disabilities, but when I did have them I loved them dearly.

Do those posters who think they can keep a cat indoors right? You have to declaw them, because there are no trees to scratch, but they miss a whole other world of cats. I have such memories of my cats that belie the belief generally attributed to cats.

We rescued a semi wild tabby one time. Beautiful markings, escaped the farmer's gun. We had her months before she came indoors. We fed her outside. Then she became pregnant and only went into my dd to have them, only they took a long time to come, so we took her to the vet. She has lovely kittens, half tabby like her, and the others a mysterious black, without tails. She looked after them well. We lived in the country then, with a long passage from the kitchen door to the back door. A superb mouser, she would bring in live ones, set them on the floor an made the kits catch them. If they missed, she cuffed them. It was magic, very entertaining.

I never knew cats were monogamous. She went on to have several more litters (*until she broke her hip and we had her spayed). Every litter was the same. We had no idea until from the bus I saw this great Manx cat speeding across the field to our Ginny! She never had any other colour cats. They were always like him or her!
Sorry, I don't mean to hog the thread, but there are some things irresistible.

You've got 9 cats and you haven't cat proofed your property and you let them shit all over your neighbour's garden - but you think they're the unreasonable, crazy ones?

I'm actually shocked at how antisocial you are.

Do other cat lovers consider this to be reasonable behaviour?

I'd love to have lots of cats but don't have the room.
Some people are so cruel.
I love cats, they are nicer than some people.

If you lived next door to her you'd have a very different view but who cares what you think. Our cats don't shit in her garden, they don't even go in it - she throws drawing pins over our fence, takes cat poop over the road & throws it in her supposed 'friends' gardens who has cats but she's never thrown any over our fence. She's damaged every car we've had & is obsessed with everything we have that's none of her business. She's even been caught going through a neighbour's bin - reason she gave was 'I wanted to know who you are'. If that makes me antisocial I think you need to do your homework love.

You've got 9 cats and you haven't cat proofed your property and you let them shit all over your neighbour's garden - but you think they're the unreasonable, crazy ones?

I'm actually shocked at how antisocial you are.

Do other cat lovers consider this to be reasonable behaviour?

If it would put your mind at rest, by all means ask those with ring door bells. You don't have to tell them your suspicions - just that you wondered what had happened to your cat.

Going back to the initial conversation with your neighbour, just because he doesn't like cats doesn't mean you can't have them - would it stop him having something because you didn't like it - no.

My neighbour hates cats - we had 9 when we moved into this house - we still have 9. She has said & shouted numerous times when she has any visitors that our cats are shitting in her garden - she's going to effing kill them - only last week she announced this in front of her grandchildren - facing our house & the window was open - I just shut the window. Been going on 5 years - everything we have & everything we do is a bloody issue 'to her', we haven't spoken for 5 years but she still rants at every opportunity - she's a total nut job. She's a compulsive liar, a jealous insecure control freak & can't keep her big nasty mouth shut.

I reported my neighbour to the RSPCA, and although there wasn't enough evidence for a prosecution, there was enough correlating information for them to pay him a visit, as you made the observations in your post, noises, movement, injury type etc. If you don't do anything about it, he'll do it again. And he feels he has a right to, because cats kill the beloved birds in his garden. I say catproof your garden, that your other lovely will stay on your property 🙏

This is absolutely horrible, I'm so sorry. I think he definitely did it and I would be asking other neighbours if they have any doorbell camera footage that might show anything (just ask about the supposed 'accident' so you don't seem completely mad). Some of my neighbours are manically anti-cat which makes me glad ours are indoor. I think really this is your only solution for the future I'm afraid.

People will tell you that indoor cats have a terrible life etc, but mine are spoiled rotten and have a large run on the back of our house that they can access any time. Keeps them safe and stops them annoying the neighbours.