Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Shitehawke · 30/12/2013 10:02

I am not trying to act hard. I dont think scaring a cat takes much bravery. Neither am I psychotic, or need help, or should have my children taken of me for disliking cats as I have seen on various other cat threads. Guess what, if your vicious animals come at me or mine, I'm going to sort it.

TartyMcTart · 30/12/2013 10:02

Well done your DH, OP!

If you're a cat owner then you just don't get how annoying some people find them and you definitely don't seem to understand that not all people like your choice in pets.

If I had the chance to actually get a cat wet in this way when they've crapped all over my flowerbeds then hell yeah, I'd do the same!

WooWooOwl · 30/12/2013 10:07

I'd let a Big Mac stay. I like those. The pickles would be goners though.

I'm not saying that I think the ops DH did the right thing, I agree that the amount of effort it would have taken to get an aggressive cat in a bath full of water is OTT. But I can't feel sorry for a cat that has been terrorising smaller cats. Cat owners take a considered risk when they allow their cats out, and any harm that they come to by going on to someone else's property is their owners responsibility.

There are far too many cruel things done to animals that society actively buys into, a cat getting wet really isn't worth getting upset about.

lollilou · 30/12/2013 10:11

I do think that was cruel and I'm amazed your dh wasn't scratched to pieces.
But we have a cat that is coming into our garden and fighting with our (neutered) tom. Three times he has had to go to the vets with infected bites. The last time nearly ended with stitches and a £150/200 bill! Luckily the bite is healing now but he still has one of those plastic collars on and can't go out. One very miserable cat.Sad
So if anyone has an idea to stop this I'd love to hear it. We never see the cat so the water pistol won't help.

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 10:13

It's not the cat getting wet that bothers me.

Although my cat never goes out in the rain.

It just seems a bit weird to think about dunking a cat in a bath of cold water.

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 30/12/2013 10:13

You dont have that right woowoo, personally or otherwise.

Shitehawke · 30/12/2013 10:20

Not one thing woowoo said she would do is illegal in the slightest. You are perfectly at liberty to do these things.

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 30/12/2013 10:27

Did i say they were illegal?

Shitehawke · 30/12/2013 10:29

So, why does she not have the right? We all have these rights. Its called freedom.

volvocowgirl · 30/12/2013 10:29

He's either lying about being a premeditating psycho or he is one. I wouldn't trust him with any other animals, or children for that matter. What on earth made him think this was normal behaviour?! What a violent nob!

poppycock6 · 30/12/2013 10:34

I don't agree with what he did but it's not a reason to LTB. He hasn't injured it - just scared it shitless. I don't think it will be back!

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 30/12/2013 10:35

She doesnt have the right to do whatever she wants. Which is the comment i responded to. Made clear by my reference to her use of the word 'right'.

WooWooOwl · 30/12/2013 10:37

Yes I do.

Getting a cat wet is not illegal, or immoral.

The cat will be fine, and hopefully ops little cats will be better off too now as well.

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 30/12/2013 10:40

You said you had the right to do what you wanted. You dont.

LambinsideaDuckinsideaTrout · 30/12/2013 10:42

Getting a 'cat wet' is not immoral.

Locking it in and holding it down in a cold bath is.

It's disgusting behaviour. No excuses. Only a total cunt would do that.

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 10:42

Getting a cat wet is not illegal.

Deliberately dunking it in a bath of cold water probably is.

WooWooOwl · 30/12/2013 10:43

Yes, but I followed it with examples.

I wasn't suggesting that I have the right to break the law or make unaccompanied children dance a naked jig on my kitchen table FFS!

You are allowed to look at context when you read my posts.

Shitehawke · 30/12/2013 10:43

So woowoo has no rights to conduct herself how she wants in her own home, despite the things she wants to do being perfectly legal!?!

This is a new low. What CAN we do then?

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 10:45

No one has the right to be deliberately cruel to an animal.

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 30/12/2013 10:49

Shitehawke learn to read.

Woowoo- as i said- you dont have the right to do whatever you want. Fine to follow it with examples of things you think you might do but that is of course not an exhaustive list and "whatever you want" might mean legal things for you (doubt dunking a cat in a bath is legal mind) but illegal things for someone else. Do whatever you want within the law is what you have a right to do.

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 30/12/2013 10:50

I`ve managed to make it through my whole life without terrorising small animals. I really do not feel that my human rights have been compromised.

KittensoftPuppydog · 30/12/2013 10:51

He's a cunt. And seems to have reserves of rage that would really worry me.

LambinsideaDuckinsideaTrout · 30/12/2013 10:51

What CAN we do then?

Invest in another way to keep the cat out, plenty of sensible suggestions on here.

What you can't or shouldn't do is indulge in some sick twisted fantasy of torture on a defenseless animal.

Weirdo.

Shitehawke · 30/12/2013 10:52

Your idea of cruelty is what I'd call discipline. Which is not illegal. Some people need to realize that we are not all pathetic hand wringers who think a wet cat is cause to 'string people up'.

usualsuspect · 30/12/2013 10:56

Haha at disciplining a cat.

He should have sent it to the naughty step.