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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be a bit freaked out by DPs behaviour..

290 replies

Meanderer · 29/12/2013 23:26

There's a cat that has been coming into our garden and even our house occasionally and frightening our two young cats. They are getting braver at hissing at him but he still dominates them and we think has sprayed scent on them. Today while I was out DP found this cat in the house so shut him in, chased him around shouting at him, then put him in a bath of cold water, all to frighten him off. He'd mentioned before that he was panning to do this and I asked him not to, because it seems really cruel and excessive and also I thought about how I'd feel if someone did that to one of ours..he's an aggressive cat yes but just doing what some cats do. My question really isn't whether he was unreasonable to do it, because I think he was and have told him so..but I'm feeling really uncomfortable that he could do this at all, even though he believes it was right to defend our young cats that way...I feel a bit creeped out by it. Am I being soft and should I be grateful on our cats behalf? I was hoping they'd just eventually be able to defend themselves.

OP posts:
Thetallesttower · 30/12/2013 09:29

How on earth did he get it in the bath? I'm surprised he wasn't scratched to death, most cats won't let you just pick them up and shove them in a bath of cold water, and he wouldn't have had one run especially for this purpose. If he held it down, it would likely struggle, scratch or bite, even a usually nice cat, they themselves are very self-protective.

This is an odd tale.

LiberalLibertine · 30/12/2013 09:33
YoureBeingASillyBilly · 30/12/2013 09:35

Do you know many cats that stand out in pouring rain?

Because ive owned cats and had neighbours with cats all my life and if they cant get into the house out of the rain they hide under bushes, cars, wendy houses, anywhere at all to avoid getting wet. They hate it.

GideonKipper · 30/12/2013 09:43

Completely agree with saintmerryweather and I'm pleased I wasn't the only one to be agog at the hypocritical poster bleating on about causing suffering to animals whilst admitting they're partial to a bit of huntin' and fishin'.

Ime the magnetic cat flaps don't last five minutes when you've got a tom determined to get in, and the smell of cat piss in the house is absolutely disgusting.

You'd think the dh had dismembered the cat from limb to limb and ate the still-beating heart the way some people are going on.

Shitehawke · 30/12/2013 09:43

Oh my GOD, its a fucking pest....how is it vile/psychotic to deal with a cat by scaring it, but poisoning rats is just fine???
Mumsnet has a weird obbsesion with cats.

I have done plenty worse to local cats to make sure they know MY house is not part of their territory. Will consider the cold bath treatment from now on!

oldgrandmama · 30/12/2013 09:44

That's just horrible. A well aimed water pistol should be the most he could do to deter the cat. Dunking it in a bath is unacceptable. And that soaking wet poor cat will have gone out into the freezing cold ... I hope he survived.

I get several 'bully cats' coming into my house to scare my puss, and I shout and sometimes throw a bit of fruit, to miss the cat but make a clatter. The cats still come back, though! My cat will have to toughen up. I can't have a cat flap, due to 'burglar bars' on the back door.

eatyouwithaspoon · 30/12/2013 09:44

I have had to bath a cat twice, a young male once when he smelt strongly of petrol and once when he had rolled in mud and dried all over in spikes. It took two of us and gardening gloves and I think we were lucky to get away alive Grin on the other hand I had a cat who would sit in the sink and cry till you turned a tap on and would swim in the pond.
An over reaction - a water pisol would do. I hope you cat never craps in the house goodness knows what he will do to it!

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 30/12/2013 09:46

Ive never seen a cat soaked in rain. A very light dusting while they run from bush to house but thats it.

LiberalLibertine · 30/12/2013 09:49

Shitehawke I dread to think what size things you've done to cats Confused

But if I caught anyone doing this or 'worse' I'd string them up, then call the police.

LiberalLibertine · 30/12/2013 09:50

Size= worse...fucking kindle

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 09:51

I knew the anti cat lot would use this thread as an opportunity to say how much they hate cats.

Optimist1 · 30/12/2013 09:52

He's lying, unless he's covered with deep scratches and bites.

Shitehawke · 30/12/2013 09:54

Oh, here we go. The usual bolshy mumsnet bollocks.

inadreamworld · 30/12/2013 09:56

I think he is lying as would have been v difficult to get the cat and get it into the bath without getting v badly scratched. I love animals but I don't think this means your DP is a psychopath - though I would never do that to a cat. Ask him again - I bet he is winding you up. Not very nice though as you are obviously upset by it.

Jengnr · 30/12/2013 09:56

Am i seriously seeing getting a cat wet compared with throwing a rabbit across a room or kicking a dog? It is water.

As for being outside in the freezing cold, it will have fucked off home to dry off, where it should have been in the first place.

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 09:56

No here we go the usual I hate cats I've done worse.look how hard I am bollocks.

WooWooOwl · 30/12/2013 09:56

Personally, I reserve the right to do what I want to things that come into my home uninvited.

That might mean whacking a burger over the head with a frying pan, hoovering up a spider, or giving a cat a bit of an unpleasant experience with some water.

I agree that a mere human being is unlikely to come out of that kind of a cat encounter completely unscathed, but that's all the more reason why cat owners should control their pets.

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 30/12/2013 09:57

To be honest, putting aside the whole issue of the traumatised moggy.

The behaviour was disproportionate and frankly weird. I would be freaked out that anyone could lose there rag so much with a cat. He seems to have skipped any logical ways to deal with this.

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 30/12/2013 09:58

I don't think it's so much about cat owners controlling their pets as people controlling their tempers.

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 09:58

Whacking burgers over the head is a bit ott.

WooWooOwl · 30/12/2013 09:59

Grin typo!

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 10:00
Grin
PicardyThird · 30/12/2013 10:01

WooWooOwl, I now have a lovely image of you flattening an intruding Big Mac Grin

I am a cat owner. If I found out my cat had been harassing yours and in your house and you had given it a firm word and a squirt with a water pistol, I would say 'well done, so sorry he's been bothering you'. If I found out you (or your dh) had chased it shouting and put it in a bath of cold water, I would go to the police. Completely disproportionate response. And mine are indoor cats so don't annoy anyone except us sometimes

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 30/12/2013 10:01

Weirdly and completely off topic but I used to have a cat that got in the bath with me. Grin great big black thing he was, but he loved warm water.

PicardyThird · 30/12/2013 10:01

(second para was to the OP obv)

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