AIBU to think neighbours should have warned me about their dog?

[CaraMP01]

My cat has been killed by a neighbour's dog in their garden. We are a row of 11 houses and the cat roames, helping to keep the rodent population down and generally being sweet and lovely. They've had the dog for 2 months..it's a lurcher and has a high prey drive. They are infirm and fairly elderly. The dog needs massive amounts of exercise and although it has a sizeable garden ( 50ft ) I think they struggle to exercise it sufficiently. AIBU for thinking that they ought to have warned me, and I could have made an informed decision about letting her out, and getting such a dog, knowing that there are lovely neighbourhood cats around that may be seen as prey?.. i am very upset..

It was in its own garden …

Sorry you lost your pet. Kindly, this is not your neighbours fault. The only way to ensure cats don’t stray where they shouldn’t is to keep them indoors. And that’s not really fair on them.

My neighbours cat roams around our garden bothering my cat, I can’t stand it. But it’s a cat and this is what cats do. if my dogs see it they chase it. I don’t interfere.

Oh OP, how absolutely devastating and shocking for you. As a huge cat lover and owner of two now elderly cats i really feel for the pain you are going through, such a traumatic situation.
I really don't know what the answer to this is though, cats by nature roam, its almost impossible to stop them unless you keep them as an indoor cat, but on the other hand people are allowed to keep dogs in their own garden. I do wonder if maybe they didn't realise how their dog would react seeing as they've only had it for 2 months. I too have a dog, a mini dachshund who grew up with our cats, I would say he has a healthy respect for cats. Mainly because they're bigger than him but I do discourage my neighbours cats visiting as although I don't think he'd harm them, he would certainly chase them as dachshunds also have a high prey drive. My neighbours cats are very aware of him and tend to stand on the fence mocking him but it sounds like your lovely cat didn't realise how dangerous your neighbours dog was. How did they react when it happened?
Big hugs OP x

What they are doing is letting their dog out in their own garden

what an idiotic thing to post

daft

Why do people let their cats out to kill birds, shit in gardens not their own, get run over by cars and traumatise drivers and make people feel bad about their dogs?

I have had cats and they did not go outside to get killed by antifreeze, cars, other cats, dogs etc.

It's selfish to let cats out into the wild and make us all the babysitters of your pet!

Sorry to hear about your cat and I'm sure your neighbours are upset too.
But they really haven't done anything wrong.
You knew they had a lurcher dog and it's common knowledge that these types of dogs tend to have a high prey drive.
What exactly did you want them to do? Remind you that lurchers have a prey drive? Forewarn you every time they let the dog out in its own garden ( completely unrealistic).

It's not your garden though so you have no right to know what goes on in their garden, including the presence of a dog.

Our neighbours cat uses our garden as a toilet so I have little patience for roaming cats unfortunately.

My dog - a Labrador- hates cats and would have a good go at killing any that come into the garden when she’s out there.
We get loads of wildlife here living inthe country - I’ve never seen her do more than give a puzzled bark to anything else (especially hedgehogs on an evening).
Just because a dog dislikes cats doesn’t mean it’s killing birds & squirrels.
Cats are a menace shitting everywhere they choose and killing birds.
It’s time the ‘right to roam’ was removed and the law changed.
Then at least if a cat gets hit by a car the driver has a legal obligation to report it too rather than drive off.

Cat today, child later on.

Mumsnet never fails to deliver 😂

Whilst I am sorry for the OP in losing her pet, you are talking bollocks. The dog did what dogs do, it’s not a failure of management. If the OP had managed her cat by keeping it in her own garden this would not have happened.

Cat owners are always telling us cats are free to roam and they can’t be blamed for the wildlife they destroy, so unfortunately this is just one of the risks that go along with that story. Live by the sword, die by the sword, quite literally in this case.

Why on earth should a new dog owner go to such inconvenience? Cat owners should control their pets and keep them out of other people’s gardens, if the choose not to so they bear the risk. Life is challenging enough without bending over backwards for randoms who wouldn’t do the same for you ( or they wouldn’t be letting their cats roam).

Royal Mail states that they have 42 attacks every week on postman, over 2000 a year, some with permanent and disabling injuries it is not a small issue. Almost half (46%) of these attacks occurred at the front door, while 28% happened in the garden, drive, or yard.

Glad you find that funny. Can see where the problem lies with these half trained, semi feral dogs and endless amounts of dog shit lying about everywhere.

Because some of us care about other people's pets. The person I quoted ASKED how best to handle it. I didn't say anyone HAD to do it, I said what I would do.

the neighbours cat visits the poster & the poster likes the cat, why wouldn't you keep it safe? It's just a few days fcs, not a lifetime 🙄🙄

If you let your cat roam you are accepting a high level of risk. They are going to encounter other animals that may be hostile, both pets and wild. They are going to go into traffic. They may eat things that are harmful. None of this is anyone else’s responsibility.

Which has absolutely nothing to do with a dog attacking a cat , the fact remains most dogs with high prey drive that would attack a cat are perfectly friendly to the postman .

Some crazy posts on here. My younger lab is a soft as a brush with other animals, she’s grown up being on a farm with me every day since a pup with sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, birds all over the place. She ignores the farm cats because I have trained her to listen to “no cats” and when she is there she will do it, she’s actually a bit scared of them since she saw one kill a bird. She’s even brought a baby mouse up to me very gently in bed without hurting it when she discovered it in the night.
However when a cat in her garden would be different story all together, she would definitely chase it. Sorry but if you let your cat out to roam and you know it goes into other people’s gardens, that’s a risk you take.

If there’s feral dogs and dog shit everywhere you probably don’t need to be warned that your neighbours have dogs.

I’m so sorry OP- this happened to my grandmother’s cat about 10 years ago and the neighbours were distraught. It was upsetting for everyone. It isn’t their fault though. As a pp said, cat could have killed someone’s pet rodent. It’s just the way animals are, they have prey drives. It’s just a horrible, horrible thing to have happened.

I’m sorry this happened OP.

Of course outdoor cats will encounter dangers, but it sounds like your cat wasn’t anticipating this new dog next door. If you’d been warned about it, you could have waited for the dog to be in the garden, and then drawn the cat’s attention to it. Eg walked outside holding your cat and let it hear the new dog next door. That would have been sufficient for most cats to learn to avoid that space.

I think they should have warned you. You must all be devastated by what’s happened 🙁

What a dick comment to someone whose cat was killed! Are you always such a nice person?!

You’re really nasty.

If my cat injured a dog while the dog was killing it the owners would get the precise sum of sweet fuck all from me. Dog should be insured.

And I am so sorry about your cat op. How upsetting. Id be devastated if my dog killed a neighbourhood cat (she loves them though and just wants to play with our neighbours cats but they hate her).

Cats shit in our garden too, but it takes 2 seconds to pick it up and as you say they help deter rats so they're cool.

Its not the dogs fault and im not sure they needed to have warned you, but I completely understand how youre feeling, its natural to be angry at everything in these situations.

I had many many cats years ago, all strays that found their way to our home and just stayed. Only a few died of old age. Its so upsetting when they get run over etc. Partly why I turned to having dogs instead.

Big hugs op. And im sorry your thread has had some real nasty replies, one can only imagine what their reasons are, sad for them really.