Neighbour just rung doorbell at 2.30am!

NO.

If YOU choose to knock on a neighbour's door at 2.30 am then the onus is on YOU to explain why you are doing it. End of.

Good grief.

Maybe an indoor cat and escaped?

Yep exactly! I would have been annoyed but would have helped anyway.

I wouldn't have knocked personally but when our indoor cat got out he was in a neighbours garden terrifiedand it was horrible. We just put tuna on top of the wall and wait for him to come back. I was really upset but unless he was in danger all I would have done is waited all night for him to come back.

I’m not surprised you were cross OP - I would have been furious. Who on earth wakes up their neighbours at 02:30 and again at 05:00 for anything less than an absolute emergency? Did she at least apologise at all?

If you're waiting on blue lights in a fire you'll likely be long dead before they get there.

Sometimes it's better to engage with people, then deal with any silliness after, so that there is not a repeat.

At 2.30am, she'd be lucky I didn't go full gardyloo.

End of.

She just sounds like a very inexperienced cat owner which isn't OP's problem, especially in the middle of the night.

Yep, and still don’t know why. I would have asked. End of.

She's 'distressed' at 2.30am. Because her cat is in someone's garden. Where is her consideration for her neighbours? Get a grip.

Please do this 🤣

Yes, and I did say I wouldn't open it for random people at night. I would shout through the door and use the peephole.

I’d properly find out the reason for anyone in tears and distress at any time of the day or night, yes. If you wouldn’t, then that’s you.

If neighbour did this frequently, on multiple nights, as a pattern, then that’s a different conversation. But that’s not happened.

Being woken up at 2.30am for a cat in a garden?! Fuck that.

smoke and or blue lights would be a dead giveaway

I would NOT be kind to someone who rang my doorbell at 2.30am for something that was not an emergency, @ShetlandishMum - and this was definitely not an emergency!

That wasn't even lost...

Call me weird but if you're waking your neighbour at 2.30 in a state of distress because your cat is in their garden its on you to explain yourself. The OP has had no further explanation about why the cat being in her garden was cause for distress and the neighbour seemed surprised to be told the cat would get itself out again. The neighbour posted a note and knocked twice FFS. If I was that worried about my cat I'd have got a ladder, climbed over the fence, got my cat and left my neighbours to sleep.

You're free to be on call for stressed neighbours 24/7 if you choose but you don't get to accuse other people of being hateful and unkind because they are not that insane self sacrificing. I thought the sarcasm was entirely necessary.

How would you know if you don't answer the door?

It always amazes me when people post that the OP is wrong about why she did something, and that she did it for a much worse reason.
The arrogance on some people. And the nastiness. I wonder if they say those things to people's faces too.

at 2.30 am over a lost cat!

If you don’t care about your neighbours in tears then you do you. It’s an opinion at the end of the day.

I’ve said several times. Asked why specifically she was so distressed at it. Still no word on that.

Sarcasm isn’t necessary.

Yep. In seriousness though we have had the odd drunk person knocking for the wrong house (one fell asleep in the garden) as we live in a terrace in a town centre near pubs and I'm just not risking opening it for a sob story. They can knock on the door of my 6ft3 neighbour who has a Ring doorbell.

Fuck being kind

YANBU. I don't doubt she was worried about the cat but given you've seen it in your garden most nights and she couldn't give a reasonable explanation as to why she needed the cat to come home so urgently she shouldn't have been ringing your bell in the middle of the night.

I think a lot of posters who are responding 'Well I would've helped' are basing this on how they feel now. Certainly if someone knocked on my door at 2:30PM I would also do all I could to help even if I was thinking 'well this is a bit insane'. At 2:30AM when I've been suddenly awoken by the doorbell going, been awake for 30 seconds worrying that my house is on fire or that someone's died only to look out the window and see my crying neighbour say 'my cats in your garden'. Yeah? I'd be fuming actually?

"My cats in your garden and he looks injured."
"My cats in your garden, I know it's late but he's a house cat who escaped and I'm worried he'll roam further and I won't find him if I don't grab him now."
"My cats in your garden, I was about to take him to an emergency vet and he got out of his crate."

All fine and acceptable and I would understand. "My cats in your garden" with no further explanation as to why that's a problem in the middle of the night is not.