Finally lost it with neighbours

[FinnalyCracked]

There’s four houses on the close - and none for miles (converted country barns - hence the being so close together and yet nothing for miles).

Neighbour A has three cats and all are outdoor cats. Me and Neighbour B have dogs. Neighbour C is irrelevant to this pet debacle.

Neighbours A’s cats, since they moved in, have constantly shit in everyone’s garden. Don’t come at me and tell me it’s not them as the closest village is six miles and no one else has sodding cats!! They sit on the garage and hiss at anyone who goes by and are, quite frankly, obnoxious.

I’ve bitten my tongue but neighbour Cs and B have not. Neighbour B has taken much delight in having their dogs chase the cats off. Neighbour C has invested in barbed wire and other such things to keep the cats out

Yesterday, neighbour A knocked on my door and asked me to call my dogs in as they were ‘destroying her enjoyment of her garden.’ I was very polite - but very firm - and told her to fuck off (not quite that frank, but you get the idea). I’d just finished work, so the dogs had been inside with me so they’d been out about five minutes when she appeared. She launched into a a bit of a diatribe about how B and I have been ruining her summers for years now with our dogs barking and running around.

I snapped. Said her cats constantly shit in my garden and I had to pick it up as I had small children and that her fucking hot tub was obnoxiously loud, so was their music and their shitheaps of cars (her partner always has a rotation of them that he tinkers with) all over the driveway lowered the tone and created exhaust fumes, and that if I ever saw her cats in my garden again I’d be taking a leaf out of neighbour Bs book and setting my dogs on them. Then I told her not to come onto my property again and slammed the door in her face.

It’s a first world problem, I know. But I am just so fucking sick of biting my tongue and being a good neighbour )including taking her fucking parcels) and she has the bloody gall to tell me my dogs can’t be in the garden, as their playing ‘ruins her enjoyment.’

WHAT ABOUT MY FUCKING ENJOYMENT, DEBBIE?!?!

That’s it. That’s all I wanted (just a place to rant)

Also cats do also make plenty of noise, usually scrapping with each other at around 2am if our neighbourhood cats are anything to go by!

And they don't always bury their poo.

When you "quote" the OP which is LITERALLY ABOVE YOUR POST, then yes, there are the 'how to respond to a thread' police, as obviously you need some direction

Setting dogs on cats…..my dog chases the cats out of the garden. He never catches them. Even if he did I think he’d turn around and run back in.

Does deter them though.

it can contain parasites and bacteria

So does dog shit, so does bird shit, so does various other wildlife shit. So what?

People act like 'wildlife' doesn't shit at all.

'L'enfer, c'est les autres' according to Jean-Paul Sartre - usually translated as 'Hell is other people' but maybe it ought to be "Hell is other people ... and other people's dogs and cats.'

And what fencing would that be? Bearing in mind that some leases have restrictions on the height of a fence that you are able to erect. And why should any animals movements be restricted to that degree because it’s inconvenient for some humans? Ridiculous!

My dog is allergic to chicken - if he eats cat shit (if the cat eats chicken) he gets the shits for two days straight. Thankfully I don't have a garden so it's not a regular occurrence, but on our walks I have got to know the local cats regular shitting spots - there are quite a few.

Nothing to disagree about. There is not one single verifiable evidence that a cat has smothered a baby. If there was, you'd post it.

Dogs also have Toxoplasmosis, as do some forms of wildlife.

I expect they are as most people have no idea how to recognise the difference. and actually fox poo looks more like cat poo than dog poo.

The point is not about how nasty the poo is - we all know that.

It's about whether an innocent neighbour regularly finds it in their garden, as opposed to it only being done in the animal's own garden or picked up and taken away when it poops in a public place.

Human poo is disgusting too, but it isn't a problem because we do it in the appropriate place and flush it away. On the other hand, if we didn't do that and instead flung flying pasties into our neighbours' gardens, you could quite rightly expect them to complain; you couldn't just exclaim that humans poo, so they just need to deal with that fact!

To be honest you seem like an awful neighbor yourself . Dogs barking is a nuisance under a legal perspective but cats are free to roam . You are creating an issue where you don’t need it imo .
If her cats bother you you can use things to discourage them from your garden . You can ask her to not be loud in the hot tub too , the same way she can and should ask you to keep your dogs barking controlled .
I have cats , dogs , chickens and I would never allow them to annoy the neighbour’s.
Show respect for others if you demand respect .

It doesn't sound like the OP's dogs are barking continuously either

Because I live in London. There are about 10 cats on my single road. Our gardens are not littered with cat poo. I have never seen cat poo anywhere. My cats have never pooed in the middle of the garden nor have any other cats. I have, however seen fox poo on the streets. Most cats do bury it. It is instinctual so they can’t be tracked by their scent.

Lob the cat shit over her fence.
I sprinkled black pepper in all the areas my ndn cat used to shit in. It stopped it.

Agree with other people here that neighbours with barking dogs are the worst.

Well exactly, cats don’t like certain scents and actually can be deterred quite easily.

Why is everyone banging on about the dogs "constantly" barking when she had already said they aren't? You aren't being unreasonable. It sounds like they have pissed all their neighbours off and you wouldn't have said something until you where provoked 🤷‍♀️. The "WHAT ABOUT MY FUCKING ENJOYMENT, DEBBIE?!?!" Really got me 😆 I wouldn't get my dogs to chase the cats (I like cats too) but I would definitely be returning their shit to their owners house.

A topper for existing fences - https://oscillot.eu/#:~:text=Cats%20use%20a%20jump%2Dgrab,on%20top%20of%20your%20fence.

Another - https://protectapet.com/en-ie/pages/cat-fence

Another https://www.purrfectfence.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooQVBG4oifT2JFae2QN5aS8enIYrSY5YYFzb_Xx838ZVM1HRhAU

So it's perfectly ok for the op to be inconvenienced by the cats shitting in her garden? That is just so typical of most cat owners' attitude. So inconsiderate.

To ask you to take your dogs in after 5 minutes is ridiculous

perhaps if they have been barking for ages that is different , but it’s your garden they are allowed to have a run around in it and bark a few times, they are dogs!

I have cats and dogs, cats pooing in other peoples gardens is unavoidable but very annoying and unpleasant, if a neighbour told me my cats had pooed in their garden I would apologise and offer to go and clean it up, I don’t think I’d have the balls to moan at neighbours about things if I knew I was a nuisance too in some way

Can’t believe so many posters are against you

You can get netting that covers the garden so they cant jump over the fence. We restrict every other domestic animals movements - normally for their safety and for others, except for cats. So it's actually stranger that we dont than do. I like cats but they are completely decimating wild bird populations, often get squished and do shit in other people's gardens. They cover their poo they don't bury it and it's not ideal if you have small children. You would get pissed off if your neighbours dog popped round to your garden for a dump everyday too.

you have made the claim - do you have a link?

What do you do when the person's name is Karen or Debbie? Call them Brian?
I've never heard Debbie being used in the way you're insinuating - I think this is a you problem!

Yes, let’s just imprison everyone and anything that we find annoying. You may find someone longs for your captivity for similar reasons. Is that acceptable?
I can only hope that this sense of entitlement is limited to MN.

Pointless response.

Get a man to pee round the garden that deters cats. Also there are high pitched sound devices that really do work. I have a cat but luckily she only goes in my garden and cones in again to use the litter tray. My neighbour used to have four cats and I just used a water pistol or my daughters dog to keep them out. I am on your side about letting the dogs chase the cats. Unless the cats are elderly they are unlikely to be actually caught.