Neighbour just rung doorbell at 2.30am!

The rude neighbour should’ve been kind by considering the fact OP would have been asleep at that time

Oh fuck off. It was half past two in the bloody morning!

It wasn't a need.

An actual emergency is very different.

Me too

This. I would have let your husband get it as you’ve all been disturbed and he wanted to get it. But I would say this should not happen again and she should keep her cat in at night.

She owes you an apology for banging on the door at 2.30.

Well it's might be you who needs assistance sometime. Be kind

If she was worried enough to be up and looking for her cat at this time there was a reason. Indoor cat / ill / old.
I think you were wrong to behave as you did.

Yes it is annoying being woken up but unless this is a regular occurrence you should help and chalk it up to being neighbourly in an emergency even if you don’t see cat welfare as an emergency.

It will certainly have affected how your neighbour views you and a good relationship with a neighbour is worth it’s weight in gold.

I would have been cross too, if the cat can get into your garden, it can get back out again. No need for all that drama from your neighbour at all.

I would have absolutely told my neighbour to fuck right off at 2am looking for a cat. And I say that as an owner of multiple cats over the last 26 years, all of which have been allowed outside to roam.

It's one thing being woken up at 2am, it's a whole other thing to then get dressed, and go out in 0 degree temperatures to look for a perfectly healthy cat doing perfectly normal cat things.

On a separate note, can we also fuck off with this 'be kind' bullshit now? It's used in such a patronising way, and seems to be to just try and make people feel guilty in some way for acting very reasonably in the face of batshit unreasonable behaviour.

I would’ve had the same reaction as you, OP. It’s a cat! They can climb! It would have got itself out eventually. Or more likely if you had decided to help it would have pelted home the second you all stepped into the garden.

Id have gone nuts too. I have chronic insomnia and if someone woke me up I wouldn't sleep again that night and would go to work in a state.

Clearly

Keep up

This makes her even more mental!

Do not under any circumstance entertain her nonsense. You’ll only encourage it. Be blunt that waking you for her cat is never and under no circumstances ok.

Is it usually an indoor cat? Maybe it's got out and she's worried sick about it.

If she woke me up twice in those hours for something like this I fear I might have physically harmed her.

my Neighbours once rang my doorbell at 6am to tell me my cat had done a shit in her garden. Nutter.

So doesn’t sound like an indoor house cat then. Your neighbour is bonkers. If she’s that worried about her cat being out at night she needs to keep it inside permanently.

i have two house cats who have never been outside and if one escaped I’d be beside myself. I’m not sure what I’d do to be honest if I thought one was in a neighbours garden at 2am, try and coax it back initially. But if trapped and it’s January I’d be very tempted to ring the doorbell!

but your neighbour is bonkers doing so for a normal cat who is used to being outside.

It’s not though. Even an indoor cat would be fine for a night.

YANBU. If someone rang my doorbell/phone at that time I would have thought a family member had died!

I had exactly this OP! A neighbour from down the hill knocked on the door at 01:30, banging like the police would! So I staggered downstairs and it was a woman asking if we had her cat. Absolutely not! So she said her cat had a tracker on and it was showing as in my garden. I said ‘go on then help yourself’ at which point she said ‘I need you to come with me’. And I did because I was so shocked that she had the balls to ask! Then I went back to bed and didn’t sleep. I’m still fuming now so I’m glad you were able to let her know how you feel. Hopefully she will know not to do it again.

I cannot believe people saying you should have been kind - they must be trolling. There is no way in hell I would be letting someone into my garden in the middle of the night. I cannot think of any circumstances when it is acceptable to wake your neighbour in the night other than fire or some other life threatening emergency.