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)

Sadly, Neighbour B tried and was told that 'cats have a right to roam' - as so many people on this thread have said! Hence why B now sets her dogs on them.

My study is at the back of my house, desk by the patio doors, so I see the cats frequently. They're yet to appear in my garden today, although that might be because my dogs are out on the patio...

You can contol where they go if you use the correct fencing. But I wasn't even asking for that. All I asked was some form of reasonable effort. He's an asshole generally though.

The cats still come in but don't seem to crap here since we got the dogs. And no, there is zero chance of the dogs harming them.

Same! I think it's hilarious they'd consult the police over a dog scarring the cats away. In the dogs own garden 😂😂😂😂

You know cats are the ones with retractable claws that meow and dogs are the ones that bark?

I recommend a very powerful water pistol that you can fire down the garden at the offending cats. Causes them no harm and hopefully acts as a deterrent.

Your neighbour isn't very nice, and as long as you don't rely on her for anything, you shouldn't have cause to regret burning bridges with her.

I’m with neighbour D and think you all sound horrendous to live anywhere near.

why are people delighting in setting their animals on other animals? Why is no one capable of using their words?

I hope neighbour D moves out and the new one is just as bad as you three. It’ll be saving at least three streets from having to put up with any of you.

It's quite hard to fence cats in, actually. We tried to do it when we last moved house but one cat managed to scale a 7 foot chicken wire fence from ground level, which is technically impossible. She had to practice for 3 days, but she managed in the end.
Nowadays we encourage out cats to poo in our garden and also provide an indoor littler tray. If neighbours have dogs it is fair enough for our cats to be chased in the dogs' gardens. I'd be devastated if one was killed or injured by a dog (as happened to my friend's kitten) but non-violent deterrents including canine ones are reasonable.

@Icanhearabee “huge piles of cat shit”..Huge piles? Are you sure they were cats, not Shetland ponies?

A woman who walked her yappy dog down our road would cross over approaching our house because our cat used to lie under the bushes and 'look' at the dog, she did once complain to us!
In another house, built on a steepish road the neighbour bred salukis and had a penned area for them next to our house. Our cat, a different cat, would sit on the low wall that was level with the top of the pen and the dogs would go mad. Again, they complained but as our cat was doing nothing but lie on 'his' wall we ignored them and their neurotic dogs.

Have a look at the link to the fence toppers I posted upthread. There is no way a cat would get over them.

As someone who has her summers ruined every year by inconsiderate neighbours, I’m with them OP 😂

I love cats. They are real knobheads.

"It hissed at my toddler !" was my favourite out of this thread.

They would work in a suitable garden but if there are any trees or tall plants they may be able to get higher and jump over.

I did once read about a burglar who broke in through the roof of somebody's garage and then got trapped and couldn't get out again.

The owners of the house (and garage) had gone away on holiday for a week.

The burglar managed to survive by drinking a big stash of bottles of pop that the family stored in there.

He sued them for wrongful imprisonment - and he actually won his case against the householders, who then had to pay him a lot of compensation for their outrageously wicked decision to deliberately have a home and then also to go on holiday!

As a cat would usually be judged less severely than a human, who knows how it could play out?!

The sound of barking dogs is unbearable. I don't know how people can stand it right in their ear.

Why did you quote the whole OP for Christ’s sake?

🙂

Give me a barking dog over a screaming child any day.

Chavvy hounds?

I think having pissy cats and pissy smelling litter trays and gardens ruined with cat shit is much chavvier personally.

I am so with you on this!
The worst thing is Cat shit in the garden! Im with you in the entirety! next doors cats just sit outside the fence and wind my dogs up!
The dogs have every right to be outisde in the garden running around! Mine will bark for a couple of minutes when first let out, then they settle down - other than when the flipping cat is sitting on the fence staring at them! Plus the cat shits in my veg patch.
Quite frankly i would have told her the same thing!

It's very trivial middle England neighbours wars.

Try living in a densely populated/run down area these days and they'd really have something to moan about.

Feel the same about both, but I have sensory issues.

The thing is - a dog barking a couple of times wakes me up often at 6 am or at 11 50 pm whereas my silent cats do not wake up the neighbours! oh, and I've cat-proofed my garden so my 2 cats can only shit on my own property before you come at me. Dogs are a far greater nuisance than cats! Don't get me started on them running over and jumping up at me if I dare take a stroll through a park or barking constantly everytime i meet a friend for a coffee at our local café that is now overrun with anxious dogs who would rather be asleep at home. I used to be a vet nurse and I like dogs btw. Or, at least I used to, pre-pandemic 🤷‍♀️

YABU.