Catgate

[SirSugar]

This rumbles on and on, so far have done the following;

asked nicely
got cross
written letters
telephoned
offered to get them a cat (they don't want one)
kept cat indoors, except for 15 mins in morning

but they are STILL feeding mine who is greedy and if I'm not on the ball during his 15 min morning run will be let into their house and not let out until I telephone to ask them to let him out.

Apparently, they used to keep a cat and for sentimental reasons they keep his bowls and 'put a little food down' which my cat nibbles on YET they have done everything they reasonably can NOT to feed my cat

[now absolutely fucking furious emoticon]

I'm so sorry this is still going on OP I'd go crazy if anyone tried to entice my kitties away. I really hope you manage to sort something out. I can't imagine why these people are doing this.

Could you possibly spray something that cats hate outside their door? A repellent or something?

Call police every time they take your cat. Hopefully the police will get tough as they have enough to do without dealing with daft cat stealers.

This is one of the most bizarre things I've read on here. This situation would probably drive me so crazy I would have to move. I really feel for you.

Contact your local newspaper- they may run a story.....

Phone them really late at night and really early in the morning....

YANBU. Say you have taken it to the vet as it hasn't been too well recently. And he advised special food. Or food strictly twice a day only. Honestly, some people!!

wtf?! that would drive me crazy! Yes saves on food bills but sounds like they are keeping your cat for hours and spoiling him so that he wont leave. they don't want a cat. they want YOUR cat! If your cats only out for 15 mins get a lead?! my friend had his cat out on a lead once a day as too scared to let him out as his last cat was ran over :(

Fucking hell, I would be deranged with anger tbh.

I would call the non emergency 101 police number each and EVERY time they won't let the cat out. I would do the civil court thing too.

They don't want just any cat, they want YOUR cat, and unless you fight fire with fire, they will get what they want.

I would go batshit mental at them, but that's just me. I would fight narcissictic and mental with righteous indignation and complete batshit craziness!

I now you don't want the cat in their House but I'd be tempted to fit a cat flap in their back door next time they go out. At least that way your cat can get out when it wants to.

This is ridiculous. I would be going fffing mental if this were happening to one of mine, and mine are just mogs.

Have you sent them a solicitor's letter? One letter is not too expensive and sometimes is enough. We had a problem with an old lady once when I was a child - not as bad a problem as this, but she had enough cheek to take our cat to the vet and then ask us for the money it cost her (she also asked for money to cover the cost of food!). Dad got his solicitor to write to her, and she stopped. Mind you, that was many years ago.

You could do something really disruptive though. Call ss and talk to their vulnerable adult team. It sounds like this wife needs help anyway, so you might end up doing her a favour and seriously pissingnim off. Won't effect the cat situation though.

You could rig up a cctv camera on your property pointing at theirs. I know you have loads of evidence but more is always good.

Would they be shamed if you gave the story to the local paper, with pics of him letting the cat in, the cat miaowing to get out and him letting the cat out?

Hope the legal route works. Looks like nothing much else will.

Trouble is, Jux - if you're going the legal route you have to have something in the bag to back it up if necessary. These people sound deranged and not necessarily the sort to care two hoots about a lawyer's letter. Except to reinforce their paranoia if they have any.

I would be stumped. Mind you, if I was the OP my family would have..... taken action ........ long before now. The OP is a flipping saint.

Yes, I have friends who might have taken it upon themselves to do something inventive but very very off-putting

I'm thinking along the lines of marking territory. When our flat was invaded by a strange male cat who terrorised our two elderly females, dh went out (darkest night) and peed on the doorstep and round about where the cat came into the garden etc. Apparently the male hormones are detectable to animals and this was enough to put the cat off.

DH hates me telling people that, btw. He is not proud of it, but it did work.

OP, you will have to find a man whom your cat hates (or detects as a stranger) and get him to pee around your neighbour's doorstep and grounds periodically. Your cat will think that there is a rogue male around and keep away from them, like he did when they had their son's (?) cat.

Maybe you could make friends with one of the local Saturday night blokes and give him a tenner a time?

Maybe get some lion poo and throw it liberally around their garden?

I would wee round their hedge for a tenner..

You really need to do the dead cat thing, just so you can report back to us what happens!

I've just got in from work, so thanks everyone for your support.

I'm going to read over everything tomorrow, including what I have said here and write the final letter including copies of all correspondence I have sent them previously and police visit numbers dates etc.

It started two years ago.

Kept cat in today, it didn't want to go out when I came home as it was hungry, since being fed its desperate to go (straight across to their house).Keeping it in anyway, too many fireworks going off outside.

Had the same issue with neighbours - keep themselves to themselves, only say hello if I said it first, speed up to get in the house if they see me coming to avoid any unnecessary friendliness BUT they liked my cat. China saucers left outside with the expensive food, I could even hear them talking to my cat when they came home from work !! (Darn sight friendlier to him that any of the rest of us). Anyway I finally went round - caught him with his trousers down (literally) he'd just got in the shower and thought I was his daughter so came running to the door in a hand towel. I offered to come back but he was so embarrassed at getting it wrong he wanted me to tell him my request - so pointed out the tabby darling was getting on the porky side, will happily eat two dinners one after another so just want to know if they are feeding him - which meals are they covering? He sheppishly admitted it was now again, then blamed his daughter as they used to have cats but cant commit to one now, blah blah - ! I could see they wanted some furry lovin and when I couldnt have cats I had serious cat envy and could be regularly found hovering round a friendly mog on someones wall. So I decided cat share was good, halved the food bills - they've since moved away and my relationship with the tabby one is no lesser - he still ignores me when I dont have what he wants and sits at the bottom of the bed rather than be in cuddle range. He still knows where home is though !

Load the cat up with Vaseline, they love it, but it goes straight through with spectacular results! Small amounts are good for getting hairballs to pass but too much and

Ooo this riles me. Had a similar scenario with a neighbour who exclaimed 'oh, so he is loved' then turned her back on me when I tried to tell her he was OUR cat. Grr, It was all I could do to stop myself pulling out her ash-blonde upper-middle bob.
My housemates thought I was losing it because I wrote a strongly worded letter. It still makes me angry.

Buy one of those mosquito noise things and hide it n their garden somewhere. Or kids will be able to tell you if it's run out if battery.

Or put something really smelly on our cat, so that when they touch it they get smelly too!

What about cat proofing your garden? I've seen someone cat proof theirs by fixing poles on the top of their fences all the way round. They put lengths of plastic pipe round the poles so the pipe span round when the cat put it's paws on it.

Sounds hideous, but at least you'd know you could let the cat out into your garden, and it wouldn't be able to get out. :(

This happened with my neighbour. I asked at christmas that they stop feeding the cat as he was being ill and needed special vet food, the neighbour still didn't stop feeding my cat. Then my cat went missing for 6 days and the neighbours were asking where the cat was. I found the cat in the local vets, he had been run over, thankfully he was not too badly hurt. So when the neighbour came and asked again i explained what had happened and asked them to contribute to the vets fees. Strangely enough they have stopped feeding my cat!!!! oh and didn't pay anything towards the vets fee.

Probably a crazy idea...but could you get them a cat of their own and then feed it and shut it in your house Maybe they would then lose interest in yours? Obviously you'd have to get their permission first, but might be better in the long run?

You have my sympathy OP.

I have given up and let them have the damn cat. (I still feed him when he comes here, if he's really hungry)

Now he (the cat, not the neighbour ) pisses in my house every chance it gets to mark it's territory :(