My cat is spending most of the time at another house/garden down the road, and it's pissing me off. What can I do about this?

I would tell this lady he’s on a special diet for health reasons and he really mustn’t have any other food.

do you lock the cats in overnight? Just close the cat flap once it’s dark and they’re in and they’ll spend the evening with you. It’s safer for them as well, less chance of being hit by a car

My neighbors send me pictures of my cat hanging out in their houses. She is a very social little thing- six dinners Sid.
We lure her home with very good food. We keep our neighbors in line by talking loudly about the cost of pet insurance and vet bills.

Someone has already mentioned it, but you could try the allergy angle but she’ll probably take no notice as she isn’t doing anything wrong.
This happened to a friend of mine, cat defected to a neighbours house as it was quieter. She asked the neighbour not to feed it. They ignored her. She was really angry and upset about it. Eventually she went and reregistered the cat chip in the neighbours name.
She occasionally sees her ex around the neighbourhood. Cats can be harsher than men !

Maybe he’s miffed ‘he’ was spayed

We've kept that part of the garden with long grass and wildflowers purposely - I like it a little wild! I don't mind them hanging out in the garden really, I think neighbours have got fake grass too so that might be why they don't hang out there!

I think you are being unreasonable having a cat called Lenny. Daft name for a cat. You'll probably find your neighbour calls him something sensible like Marmaduke and he just prefers it.

Picture of our Lenny enclosed 😆

This is just a cat being a cat. No loyalty.

You could try getting better food and making your garden cat-friendly (i.e. wild).

We had a mother and daughter for years, and they used to “fall out” sometimes: there were times when they’d groom each other, and other times they didn’t seem to be friends at all - the mother in particular would swipe at the daughter if she came too close but it was no more than that. Not fights, just “p1ss off and leave me alone”. Maybe your older cat does that to Lenny so he’s spending time where he isn’t annoying the older cat?

You just need to accept it. One of my cats moved in with a neighbour, I only saw him at feeding time and sometimes had to check with her that he was still alive! When she died he moved back home - wretch. Now another neighbour's cat spends much of his time at my place and usually sleeps here. My neighbour is quite happy with this. I really don't understand why you are so bothered about it, it's just what cats do.

Tbh the hedgehog food probably attracts rats and in a wild garden he will hunt them with better camoflage. My 1 year old cat centres on where the prey is, but he cuddles all our neighbours along the way!

Thank you. Little Lenny clearly likes the slightly challenging nature of finding the food in the hedgehog place. It's probably like a game?

I guess you can ask the lady to shoo him away but she may not have the heart to do so. If she's got attached to him. But you should try to insist and say you're really missing him being around.

He sounds adorable and I hope he starts spending more time at home! X

You need to have a tough talk with Lenny about loyalty. It's not the neighbours fault he prefers her garden to yours. Maybe review his dinner menu to let him know which side his bread is buttered. On the other hand, perhaps neighbours garden has more interesting wildlife than yours, so not much to keep him interested at your place?

We have about half a dozen cats hanging around our garden from time to time (never at the same time). I don't feed them, let them in the house or encourage them in any way, but they like hanging around. We're on their circuit.

Haven’t read the whole thread (sorry!) but this post makes me wonder if he doesn’t get on with your other cat? Or she doesn’t get on with him!

@GirlsInGreen🤣🤣🤣

My neighbours cat likes to spend time in my garden too. It's overgrown so there's lots of places to hide and watch birds. He's been round more lately, i think he wants a bit of company and is a bit lonely at times. He likes to chat. I noticed he's been wearing a tracker 😂

Good luck. Come on Lenny.

I think cats like having different places to be, it extends their territory. Your Lenny is just spending a few hours a day at his club.

At least it is all peaceable and lovely. My mad bastard cat took to spending time on a front wall about ten doors down. Did she like those neighbours? No, she had started a bitter feud with their (indoor) cat and was waiting to fly into a howling rage if it showed its face at the window. Bit embarrassing.

Argumentum ad lapidem.

Feel free to give me something to respond to if you have an actual question though.

Lenny is a great name for a cat.
Lenny Katvitz 🐈‍⬛

operation Get Lenny Back commences. Maybe you need to get some Nepeta planted in yours. Get a hedgehog.

please can we see a photo of the lovely Lenny.

Does your neighbour work from home? If so and you and your DH are at work, even if only some days, I’m guessing that’s it. My neighbours cat, despite a lot of attempts to get him to go home when she was home, was always at mine as he was hugely sociable and he didn’t like the hours she wasn’t there. He favoured me as I wfh. She moved abroad and couldn’t take him and I acquired a cat! He just loved people. I’d spot him prancing around in other people’s gardens if they had a garden party as he loved the attention.

My mum has a local cat who absolutely adores her

We’ve had a few nights where we’ve had to call the owner because otherwise she’ll sit outside and yowl indignantly because we won’t let her in the house and I don’t know how long she would do that. I suspect she would go home eventually, but she’s done it on quite cold nights so that’s why we phoned.

They take it in good humour but there really isn’t anything else we can do. We do love having her around and we do pet her of course. We would never feed her. But this lady isn’t trying to feed her either.

I think you have to make your garden more appealing for your cat.