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)

Isn't barbed wire just the same as growing a prickly hedge - there as a deterrent for animals and humans?

A cat can clamber over a 6ft fence, so good luck getting planning permission for an 8 ft one.

YABU

OP this is missing the point of your original post but honestly if your neighbors did not have cats then living rurally you would absolutely have a rodent issue or would ne forced to use rodentice which isn’t a pleasant, cheap or perfect solution for many reasons.
Both myself and my close ( but rural!) neighbors have had to get a cat in the last 12 months for this reason despite being ‘dog’ people and also having dogs.
ps letting one type of domestic animal lose on another is never a good look

You said you'd set your dogs on her cats? You sound like a thug and I think it's very clearly you who is the issue here. Dogs barking in the garden in anti social, no one wants to hear your chavvy hounds barking. Train them.

None of you sound particularly nice people.

Not clicking the link because I can’t find the energy to care. Animals poop and cats are roaming. You are welcome to hate it but that doesn’t mean others have to change their behaviour.

Sigh. My dogs don't bark - that's the whole point! I WISH they did.

Separately, definitely not chavvy 😉

Agree with this

Says a poster with name @MrTiddlesTheCat
fucking cats shitting everywhere, it’s disgusting and they should be kept in their own property. I’d let my dog chase them off too if they came into my garden.

Sounds like a lovely place to live, but with awful people living there.

I have a cat, and a dog too but my cat is indoors only. I understand the frustration with cat muck and the amount of destruction they cause. I also understand how annoying it is for dogs to be constantly barking.

imo the laws around cats having the right to roam needs to be looked into, I love cats but I understand why people are pissed off with them. My next door neighbour has 6 cats and they shit everywhere, one of my neighbours cars is always being scratched by one of the cats too. I think if we have pets we must be caring for them 24/7, not just allow them to leave the house and do whatever they please

You need your own cat. This is the solution 😂if any of my neighbours cats set foot in my garden they are swiftly removed by fat mog

No, barbed wired tears your skin/organs apart. It's why prisons are surrounded with barbed wire. Google what barbed wire looks like.

That’s the crux of it.

I don’t agree at all. I would much rather have dogs barking than other peoples cats using my garden as a toilet. I used to have to pick up huge piles of cat shit off my garden in my old house because they liked to shit on the garden and in the plant borders. We grew tomatoes in raised beds at one stage and the neighbours cats used to shit in those as well 🤢

Pick up the cat shit and throw it over her fence OP.

It really isn’t.

Yes we know your view of it, Debbie’s was they bark a lot more than this. The truth of it is somewhere in the middle no doubt.

You keep conveniently dodging responding to threatening to set your dogs on someone else pets and how your response to her probably made the situation even worse.

I'd say pretty much. I doubt proper barbed wire is especially cheap either, so they've clearly felt forced into responding, to protect their garden and prevent it from being continually fouled.

I can't believe that people are being criticised for not wanting to just welcome animals in to poo in their gardens! Just because your Tiddles is your fwuffy wittle snookums, it's hardly surprising that other people don't want it crapping in their private leisure space.

There are so many different things out there that could potentially hurt or even kill a cat. If you let your pet roam freely without supervision, that's your clear decision and your way of accepting that you value its freedom more than you value its life or physical wellbeing.

Your toddler would equally love to roam and explore everywhere on their own too, but there's a very good reason why you wouldn't dream of merrily letting them do so.

Oh thank god for telling me that, anything that isn't a "statutory nuisance" or an actual crime will henceforth not bother me one jot.

Amazing to be able to do so!

Actually - OP mentions noise from that nature as well. I guess that's not a problem because the shit bothers her more?

@FinnalyCracked I'm with you, although I wouldn't have any type of animal if you paid me.

Didn't you say they were GSD? We're not exactly in chocolate lab territory here are we. Plus, you're talking about "setting them" on some cats. I think this tells us everything we need to know!

Another here who’s sick of the stench of NDN’s cat shit in my front garden and getting it on my hands when I tidy borders. The owner giggles to me that it won’t use its litter tray to defecate. Spices and densely packed kebab sticks haven’t deterred it but prickly holly leaves seem to be working.
Some days we have dogs in the house but they don’t roam or shit in ND’s garden. I dream of the reaction if they did but the law is heavily weighted towards cats.
I feel your pain OP.

You all sound like the neighbour's from hell. Its good you are all contained together so you don't bother decent folks. 😁

Your neighbour is annoying. You sound like you have the self awareness of sea lion. I’m thankful I don’t live anywhere near you idiots.

Don’t set your dogs on other animals. It’s just plain cruel and makes you lose any moral high-ground.

If you allow your dogs to harm cats, you will be charged with having dangerous dogs and your dogs will be taken away and destroyed. Is it worth that? Deal with cat poo, you're dealing with dog poo anyway.