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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not do what my neighbour has asked?

74 replies

Helenagrace · 19/08/2012 21:36

Backstory - about four years ago I asked my neighbour to remove a distressed cat from my house as I don't like cats very much. Despite this "stray" being chipped my neighbour decided to take the cat in and thinks I should pay its vets bills.

Tonight she has asked me to cut down a tree in my garden because she says it has poisoned this cat (she even produced cat sick with red berries in it which do look like the ones on my tree). The thing is the birds really like the berries and myself and the children love watching the birds eating the berries.
The tree is opposite my kitchen window. It screens my kitchen from the neighbours behind. I do not see why I should cut me tree down. I think it is a rowan or mountain ash. It has big clusters of bright red berries on it.

She has said she will report me to the RSPCA for endangering the lives of animals.

AIBU to refuse to cut the tree down?

OP posts:

StellarforStar · 19/08/2012 23:21

Moongirlscat, I think I know you!

YANBU, kitty should be reunited with her owners.

MoongirlsCat · 19/08/2012 23:23

How do you know me??

Are you local??

StellarforStar · 19/08/2012 23:26

Well, I think you posted about your missing cat on FB, how she'd gone for 4 weeks and you missed her?

I'm local if you live midlands.

NickyNackyNooNoo · 19/08/2012 23:28

I'm assuming the tree was there first, therefore the tree stays hth

MoongirlsCat · 19/08/2012 23:29

He's a he.

Four weeks today.

Midlands isn't local, but have family in Knowle.

Hello!

StellarforStar · 19/08/2012 23:34

Oh, I thought I had found a RL MNer then!

Hello Moongirlscat! If it's any consolation, my friend had a cat that went missing for two years.

One day she came home and opened the windows, then she found him asleep on her bed that night!

Bizarre creatures, cats.

MoongirlsCat · 19/08/2012 23:40

I'm still in real life!!! Just not very near!! :)

Nice to hear about your friend's cat - I live in hope!!

There's been some possible sightings and I still go out looking every day/night. Also had some nice people get in touch to tell me stories about their cats going off for weeks at a time!

Maybe he's being looked after by a mad lady who bags up his sick, goes through it and matches it's contents with neighbouring plants??

Do you still have the bag of puke, OP? Was it a gift? Or was she just showing you the contents?

cocolepew · 19/08/2012 23:40

I cant believe she kept the cat! Why didnt the vet phone the owners? Imagine if it belonged to a small child and they were crying themself to sleep every night?

Op you have to catnap it back. Rescue kitty from the mad woman.

Sallyingforth · 20/08/2012 10:28

It's terrible that she has stolen this cat.
Do you know which vet she used? Go round there and ask for the cat's ID details so you can call the owner, or ask the vet to do it.

ChippingInNeedsCoffee · 20/08/2012 10:32

Your neighbour is deranged. Frankly I think you should get another friend to come and get the cat, take it to the vets and reunite it with its family. I'd be fucking livid if someone catnapped my cat!!

WerthersUnOriginal · 20/08/2012 10:35

I would tell her you'd welcome the involvement of the rspca or anyone else she cares to bring in. The fact that she's kept a clearly owned cat is bad enough. Expecting you to pay vet bills? What's that all about?? As for the tree - yet more evidence she's crazy.

WerthersUnOriginal · 20/08/2012 10:37

Me too chipping - I'd be furious. Our (microchipped) cats mean the world to us. Imagine how the owner feels. Probably thinks their cat has died years ago

D0oinMeCleanin · 20/08/2012 10:45

I would report her to the police for stealing someone's cat. In the eyes of the law pets are property. We got the police involved when some one stole our cat. The police phoned him and told him he had an hour to return the cat or they'd be coming to get and would charge him with "theft by finding"

He turned up my doorstep with a tearful child (who I did feel bad for) and a tearful mum and a very expensive cat bed and scratch post they'd bought their "new best friend"

He'd only had him a weekend and knew from day one that the cat had a good home after asking neighbours if they knew who it belonged to. His story was he took him in to 'look after' until he could get hold of me but then his nephew fell in love with him so he decided just to keep him instead

WerthersUnOriginal · 20/08/2012 10:51

Good lord doinmecleanin that's awful

If someone wants a pet there are thousands of cats and kittens available to choose their own. Sounds like you were lucky to get your cat back.

cocolepew · 20/08/2012 11:01

DOoin
Why do people think owners get their pets chipped? Doesn't it occur to them its so we can get them back if they have been found?

quoteunquote · 20/08/2012 11:24

she is lying mistaken cats do not eat berries,

but they do eat birds that have been eating berries,

don't cut down the tree, it would be terrible for so many reasons,

We have lots rowans and mountain ash, and lots of cats,never seen a cat eat the berries, stalk the birds eating the berries, yes, but not eat the berries.

2rebecca · 20/08/2012 11:47

That catnapper sounds nasty. If you take a cat you know belongs to someone else and your nephew likes the cat why would you then drag the nephew with you to return the cat deliberately upsetting the boy? He could easily have told the boy that he'd discovered whiskers already had a family who loved him and wanted him back. That was unnecessary emotional manipulation of a child. His mum should have had more sense as well.

SlightlySuperiorPeasant · 20/08/2012 12:06

YANBU. She has stolen a cat that could easily be returned to its probably distraught owners. I would be reporting her TBH.

TeddyBare · 20/08/2012 12:18

OP have you been catnapping yet? How did it go?

UC · 20/08/2012 12:26

If the cat is chipped, and had wandered into your house, it should have been taken to the vet so that its real owners could be contacted.

squoosh · 20/08/2012 12:32

Bonkers with a side serving of loopy.

HazleNutt · 20/08/2012 12:35

what a horrible person, not to mention nuts. The cat had a collar and chip and she "thinks the owner might not want it back"? Has she asked?
Poor owner must be searching or thinking the cat is dead.
I would actually offer to kindly take the cat to the vet, scan the chip and contact the owner myself.

ratspeaker · 20/08/2012 12:39

She's kept this cat for four years????
I hope you have never paid a bill for it OP, if the vet had found a chip surely they'd have informed the owners

I'd never cut down a Rowan tree, we Scots are superstitious about that sort of thing.

Let her report you to the RSPCA and see how it goes

fluffyraggies · 20/08/2012 12:48

God i missed the bit about it being 4 years I was thinking she took the cat on a few weeks ago.

The real owners probably do think their pet is dead :( AND i'd be saying that if the cat has survived 4 years living next to your tree it's likely to be ok in the long run.

Bloody woman. (neighbor, not OP)

Please see if you can trace the original owner?

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