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)

Team dog here. If a dog was sitting on a neighbours property and growling, or shitting in a neighbours garden - it would be a massive issue. They sound like selfish neighbours and you ANBU to tell them such.

Well, here's my take. You have been kind to your arsy neighbour by not treating her like the other two. I totally get your outburst i would have done exactly the same. It does not make you a bad neighbour. You were essentially pushed to it by your entitled neighbour thinking that their peace and tranquility is all that is important. I like cats, i like dogs. She now knows that the things that annoy you about her far outweigh the noise of your dogs playing in the garden. Maybe you could get some things to deter the cats, and maybe she could just turn her shitty music up a wee bit so she can't hear your dogs. Problem solved..

Cars lower the tone of the area? Who are you trying to impress exactly??? There's no one around for miles!!

Dogs barking is actually a nuisance under council guidelines. And you sound like a snob.

Cats are good a judging a persons character.

If they are hissing at OP then my money is on OP being the problem.

I believe we can all change for the better.

I suggest OP gets a cat as it will teach her to be a better human.

The cat will also deter the neighbours cats from her garden.

A purrfect solution !

Sorry this is a load of crap.

Plenty of killers and rapists have loving cats.

See previous MN thread where Debbie downer was used perjoratively

Team dog here - cat poo is deeply toxic to humans (salmonella, toxoplasmosis etc), whereas dog poo in ones own garden is fine. I am assuming that Ops dogs are not barking all day every day, just occasionally when initially let out? My old dog used to bark at aeroplanes (but never at any other time) so obviously planes only fly overhead intermittently. Our neighbours thought it was hysterical as you’d have thought they were coming in to land in the garden.

Their children make/have made far far more noise pollution on an all day long basis, which we have no issue with. They’re kids. Just as our dogs are dogs. Their children do not come and poop in our garden and we have dog proofed so that our dogs never accidentally access or poop in theirs. Obviously if the dogs were barking excessively or if it escalated we’d intervene, bring them inside and possibly speak to a vet to ensure there was nothing underlying the change/increase in barking.

OP’s neighbour needs to get a cattery build on the back of her house, frankly.

There are lots of names used pejoratively, like being a Mary Sue, a Shaniqua, a Dave, a nice but dim Tim.

But if someone’s name is Debbie, you have to call them Debbie.

Indeed, and tell that to my brothers piece of shit cat that took a swipe at my 18 month old daughter who was just walking past, not even looking at it.

What a load of bollox!!

The person with the barking dogs is the problem neighbour.

I was using the term Karen last year until I was challenged here for using it. I really didn't fully appreciate how derogative it was to women specifically. Because, of course, we don't see men assigned as such in the same way.
Because OP is so frustrated and upset about the annoying neighbours, it's nice to have the opportunity to vent here safely without being told off. Even if neighbour is actually called Debbie.

As an owner of cats I'd offer to pick up the cat shit if my neighbours were rightfully upset with cat shit in their garden. But dogs need to be trained to keep quiet as well. What an unpleasant neighborhood you live in.

OP would know immediately if it was fox poo as her dogs would be upside down in it, rubbing it ecstatically into their coat. It's distinctively foul. And FWIW even very rural country gardens don't turn into a wild animal defaecation festival at night - it's not like badgers and munjacs discuss whether to go round to Debbie's for a poo tonight, or just do it in a field, as normal.

Your dogs and her cats cancel each other out, but her hot tub and car tinkering tips the balance. Unless you're going to reveal you've got a basketball hoop and Neighbour D has a Olympic standard trampoline that's set to a height that can see into everyone's bathroom? I say up the ante and get a cockerel.

This thread is off the rails. I can’t believe grown women are doing the whole ‘team dog / team cat’ thing, arguing that dog shit isn’t as bad as cat shit and having a Debbie vs Karen debate.

How did such nice people get such nice houses lol.

So cats are allowed to do their natural behaviour (crapping in the garden and hissing at people) but dogs aren’t allowed to bark (guarding )?

To deter cats I’ve found orange peel works well. They don’t like the smell. Also spraying the hose at or near them tends to get them to disappear. When I had a cat it used to bother the neighbours rabbit and she found a quick spray of the hose soon stopped it.

As for the dogs barking, you need to make sure it isn’t a nuisance . A minute or two a few times a day is to be expected. Hours on end- not at all. As soon as my dogs bark, they are called in. But I have people who live near me who let their dog barks until midnight. That’s annoying.

That's an SNL character.

Cats “love” whoever is currently feeding them.

That has to be the most hysterical over-reaction I have seen on here in a long time😂

Enclosing cats would result in fewer dead cats on our roads, less wildlife killed, less risk to health of children who may inadvertently handle the poo in their own garden and fewer neighbour disputes. Seems like a commensurate approach to me.

I have cats, I love cats, I would never harm cats.

My ex neighbour was convinced that mine were the only cats that shit in her garden, when there were 10 other cats around the area. My response was to give her a super soaker (massive water pistol that fires jets of water quite a long way) and tell her to 'shoot' any cat she saw in her garden. After saying that she couldn't because it was 'too cruel', I told her that she had two choices - continue to moan or do something about it. She did use the super soaker and had the result she wanted. A cold jet of water is an excellent cat repellent and does them no harm.

OP, where cats in your garden is concerned, my advice is to use a super soaker, your neighbour however, has unrealistic expectations regarding how you (and your dogs) use your own private garden and would probably complain about children playing outside. She can be safely ignored.

Setting your dog on a cat (or even threatening to do so) crosses a line in my books.

My cats are indoor cats but if they were bothering my neighbours I'd be happy to work at finding a solution (I'd have no qualms about you using a water gun to move my cat off of your property for example but I'd like to have a calm and rational conversation about it first)

I imagine it's been asked a thousand times but are you sure it's cat shit? Foxes shit in gardens too.

I love dogs. But to be fair, I do not love barking dogs, at least not for any prolonged time. Mine are lazy Greyhounds that do not even bark if the door bell rings. In the past, I had to growl and bark myself at the door to get Jehovah's witnesses to feck off.

I adore cats and other critters but they sadly aren't compatible with my lot. I find it really sad that the other neighbour relishes chasing the cats off with her dogs. I always check and warn any visiting cats before I let mine out.

Lion poop and other large predator cats' poo is quite effective. Someone else suggested that it might actually be foxes that shit in your garden. Having several dogs, I just do the daily scoop and hose down the patio etc, so I think you are overreacting a bit.

In my experience of dogs and cats I can't imagine many scenarios in which a dog would be able to catch a healthy cat in a garden the cat had got itself into. If it got itself in, it will be able to get itself out before the dog gets near it.

"Lion poop and other large predator cats' poo is quite effective."

Although what would be even more effective is a lion.