To suspect my neighbour killed my cat

If I were you, I would put up cameras all around my house and garden. This person sounds deranged whether or not he killed your cat and i, quite frankly, would be very nervous for my children around this person. I think it's time to beef up security, make sure he can't get into your backyard and have cameras capturing every inch of your property

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 🙏

"A superb mouser, she would bring in live ones, set them on the floor an made the kits catch them"

And this is a good thing? Mice running around outside minding their own business, not camping out in your kitchen or anything,you're pleased your cat brought them in to train her offspring to hunt!

Sadly it happens. A friend had a colleague who hated cats. He told her he put food outside with glass in it. She was disgusted he had done that.

How scary and cruel. There's some evil people in the world. How awful.

I sympathise with you. Although I don't like cats I would never harm any animal, however I disagree with you about the cats only using litter trays, as my next door neigbour's cat does its business in my garden, a nuisance. You cannot prove he killed your cat and he sounds horrible, have some sort of a "run" in your garden to keep it safe.

I am so so sorry about your cat. Feel so upset for you. Please take your other cat and move…I don’t like your neighbour.

Exactly, and you’ll always get a few extreme cat haters drooling on their keyboards as they type a reply to a post like this. Enthusiastically justifying the killing of a cat and thinking it’s fine for someone to just ignore the law. Let’s face it you get this type of person cropping up everywhere vehemently opposing all sorts of things, adamant they know better. Not everyone has to like cats but some of the antis are definitely more balanced and intelligent than others

Cats with killer instinct will hunt, chase prey and eat them. It's just what they do and part of nature.

What isn’t part of nature is owning a cat, causing them to live in a domestic environment. Once you do this you accept some responsibility for managing them and their impact on others.

I'm so sorry your going through this, I'd definitely ask him out right and be prepared for his response and how his body responds to what he says,
Its all very different.
It maybe eating him up, and he just admits it! And id post a note through the doors of those houses - it may work.

Did the vets do an autopsy? (I've no idea of they docthose kind of things, I generally don't have pets.. not because I'm some anti cat weirdo.. I just can't justify the expense and leaving it home all day)
But I would be devasted I this happened to me, and want to get to the bottom of the reason the cat sadly died. Big hugs!

It definitely sounds like he's behind this from the info you've provided from before, day of and how he's acted since. As someone who's always had cats, literally since the day I was born because my parents always had cats, I know how heartbreaking it is to lose one, I'm so sorry you're dealing with that.

The sadder thing is there is no evidence to prove he was responsible. As soon as you heard him do something the first time, I'd definitely had gotten a camera to make sure nothing else happened. I suggest maybe getting one now just incase as you have another cat to protect. Put it in an upstairs window but make sure it covers your garden and his so he can't claim you're only looking into his garden. They are cheap enough on Amazon.

If you catch him hurting your fur baby again, go to the police and report him. This time you'll have the evidence.

Again, I'm sorry that you lost one of them :(

Sounds like he did it. They say people who harm animals are much more likely to go on to hurt people. This man is mental, I'd move away from him. I don't like pigeons pooing on my decking. I try to prevent them from sitting there. It's never crossed my mind to kill one. Cats have every right to exist. It's very hard to stop them roaming. You need to keep the other cat safe. You know now you are living next door to a nutcase.

Sadly, you already know what type of person you live next door to. Ĥe hates cats, he's already killed a cat - you are not overthinking this. I would do everything I could to protect my remaining cat - can you consider a catio?

Oh, that's awful. I'm so sorry.

if you get evidence he did something I would definitely go to the police. They should act with evidence. I am pretty sure it would be consider criminal damage, and the RSPCA would do the animal cruelty bit. Without evidence there is little they can do.

I would just maintain the safety of your other cat most importantly. The fact he has proudly admitted to killing a cat before make him sound like a psychopath

@Sparkle849 They sort of are. They’re an introduced predator that would not have been here naturally. But they are still sentient creatures that deserve no harm. No animal deserves harm because of a label we created.

It is always amusing to hear pet owners talking about their pets 'entitlements'.
The free roaming creatures, the wild animals roaming their rightful place in the land.

Thing is, a fox IS a wild animal.
A cat is not. A cat is a pet you keep for YOUR own enjoyment.
But if you said the truth, that you feel entitled to have your cat roam on other people land freely, that would not go too well with neighbours, wouldn't it?

Thing is, setting up your own garden, so to keep your pets confined to it, can be expensive and, god forbid, can make the garden unsightly and less attractive to you, the cat owner.
So you would rather limit you neighbours peaceful enjoyment of their properties, something they are entitled to, for real.
You get the pleasure of owning the pet, and others get the disadvantages.

Cats have made holes in our gazebo twice, they love to use the fabric as a scratching post apparently. Hundreds of pounds to replace each time. We gave up eventually.
And weeks trying to ignore the smell of piss while sitting there.

Nothing I can do about it.
But pet owners like that are massive CFs, that is an undeniable fact.

Really no different from dogs howling all night long, neighbours thinking you will enjoy full blast music at night and early morning, or a nice petrol mower singing 8am on a Sunday morning.

Pets, radios and lawn mowers have no entitlements. Their owners can be very entitled and selfish though...
It is a case of people abusing people, not some natural law, as you conveniently describe it.

@AbraAbraCadabra Thats very contested info about cats only killing weak birds.

I agree with the source of his frustration, it’s horrible feeling like you have a sterile garden because of animals that have been introduced as predators. And nothing worse than the smell of cat shit. I’m sick of clearing it up in my garden.

But if he’s done that that’s very disturbing and way beyond the normal of being upset by the above.

You could always say to the people at end of road, with doorbell camera, you are looking to see the car that hit your cat.

People generally do. Despite several examples here it’s really not a common thing for people to deliberately kill cats. Normal people put down stuff that smells bad, get movement activated sonic devices, spray water etc. You can dislike cats wandering about freely and be irritated by it without thinking that’s any justification to kill one.

Cats are not pests! Clearly there are people who are anti cats, but if you owned a cat you would realise they are most definitely beautiful animals. I adore my two cats, they sleep on my bed, greet me at the door, cuddle with me all the time and are so affectionate and they adore my children and my dog. Yes they bring me the odd 'present', it's a fact that cats bring dead animals to their owners as a gift, they are not yet trained to purchase gifts from shops 😉 and when they poo, they dig and cover it. And mine poo in my garden only. My neighbours don't have cats and they will shoo mine away if they go into their garden which we laugh about, and they feed them for me when we go away and give them a cuddle. Cats are not dangerous to humans, they are prey animals so they will kill the odd bird or mouse and I know this is sad, but it's only if you actually like/love cats and can see the rest of them and their worth/love that you can accept this as part of nature. Wild animals like foxes kill more. There will be many that won't agree with this, but they probably don't like cats. I'm just offering the other view, that cats are not pests. Cats will always be pets for many, and for those I am just explaining it's because of the joy they bring, we don't own a cat just for the prey behaviour. They also don't kill very often, anti cat people probably assume they kill daily, we are talking once a month.

I have zero friend who has 3 cats they can't get out of the garden the fences have aloped tops. I am so sorry I eould be so upset psycho neighbour.

That's horrible🙀and no YANBU it's quite possible.

He killed her alright... Get as much evidence as you can and report him. My neighbour killed my cat and it's the worst possible pain there is. Don't give up.

I’d keep your other cat inside at this point. The wide eyed “my cat would never poop in someone else’s garden” doesn’t do you much favours though, my cats use their litter box and shite all over the neighbours garden too. It’s just what cats do

I'd put my house on the market and move before this ends as a dispute with your neighbour. You'd have to disclose any dispute on paperwork prior to a sale - move now before things deteriorate.

You'll never trust him and always be worried about your cat.

Why would you want to remain living next door to someone who dictates what pets your children can enjoy?

I know cats can be a pest on bird tables, I had the same problem, but bird tables also attract vermin - and cats can be very useful then!