to think my neighbour is being incredibly unreasonable about our cat?

[Objection]

We've recently moved into a very tiny village, two doors down from my in - laws. (moved in December)
We have a dog and a cat. (no kids)
FIL said the other day that my cat was pissing off their neighbour.
Apparently neighbour is absolutely furious and the cat is causing all kinds of hell.
What hell, you ask?
Well, she sunbathes on his dustbin and sits up when he comes out in the morning to stare at him getting into his car.
Apparently the ragey shouting we hear most mornings is him screaming at the cat, who just looks at him whilst he does so.
FIL, I think, expected me to do something about the cat's "rudeness".

AIBU to think this is actually quite funny and neighbour is a little unhinged?

what do you suggest then. giving the cat a map of where they are allowed to go?

struggling yes you posted that before and remember how horrific it sounded. horrible vile ignorant psychopaths.

keep the cat indoors? Many years ago, we had a cat poisoned in New Zealand because a neighbour didn't want it in their garden.

Sorry for the repetition! I am still really traumatized by it, and whenever one of these stories comes up, I want to say to the person - please, please be careful because people can be more unbelievably vile than you could possibly imagine.

Just because you don't like an animal does not give you the right to be cruel to it.

I think the saddest thing about those neighbours was that their attitude towards parenting was no better. Despite their total lack of formal education (I'm not kidding about the difficulties with reading and writing) they were allowed to 'home school' their children. The two girls consequently got no education whatsoever. I used to hear them screaming at their 11 year old to do the housework while they sat around smoking and getting drunk.

I'm quite worried about animal-hating nutcases as well, so the first thing we did when we moved was nicely approaching the neighbours, explaining that we have 3 cats and asking that they let us know if the cats disturb them in any way or shit in the garden, so we can deal with it. (even though I honestly have no idea how we would deal with a staring cat). Luckily our neighbours are fine.

In your shoes I would also apologise to neighbour and tell him that you will have stern words with your cat about manners and explain that it's rude to stare.

I seem to be in the minority here but I find it utterly ridiculous that cat owners take absolutely no responsibility for their pets. Any other animal sitting on your neighbours property and you would be held accountable but for cats it seems a different matter.

Cats are a pest. They are a non-native species that have been introduced in vast numbers and are endangering native bird species and other small wildlife. I can't leave my patio doors open because they wander into my home and try to kill my rabbit and they crap everywhere.

It's out of sight out of mind for cat owners. There's no other pet you could have where its acceptable to be so completely irresponsible as to let it do what ever it wants.

You are being very unreasonable. It's your pet, it's your responsibility. Your cat is a pest, sort it out!

To make it clear I would never do any harm to one, all they get is a gentle shooing as encouragement to leave my property.

struggling no of course post. not suprised you haven't got over this, you touched evil and that's horrific.

sherrif don't be ridiculous. most animals would kill a rabbit if it was roaming free. a dog, cat, badger, fox.

much rather have cats next door than a massive Rottweiler.

How do you 'sort out' a staring cat ffs?!

sheriff, how exactly is the cat being a 'pest' from how the OP describes its behaviour?

OP, your neighbour is a loon and your cat kicks arse (and is beautiful). But you knew that.

Maybe he is worried that the bin is council property and your cat isn't paying council tax as cats are exempt. Never mind the cat doesn't even work.

My rabbit isn't roaming free, it is on my property, in my house. Cats come in to my house if I leave my doors open on a nice day (there is a fence at the back, it is not open). My next door neighbour and I share a patio and they have an Alsatian, they are responsible and mind where it goes. The dog is no problem at all, because my neighbour and I are both aware that we have a dog sharing a space with a rabbit and we both need to be mindful of our respective responsibilities in respect of this, but cat owners take no such care.

thebody the other animals you describe are wild and naturally wary of humans and come out at night when Lily is tucked up inside, in her hutch with our doors locked and it is my responsibility alone to protect the rabbit from coming into contact with those which is why I don't let her 'roam free'. With cats, someone else owns the cat and obviously I take care to not let my rabbit come into contact with them but the cat is someone else's responsibility it is their pet and they just don't give a shit. I should be able to put the rabbit out in a run on my lawn on a sunny day and not go away for 10 mins to come back and find her being swiped at and tormented by someone else's pet. It is her home.

onlylovers OPs cat is on someone else's property and is causing them a nuisance, whether objectively it is a nuisance is beside the point, as a pet owner you have to take responsibility for it.

I accept I will forever be fighting a losing battle with cat owners. You can't reason with people whose standard response is, 'well I can't control what it does, tough shit'

God...I often found next doors manky flea ridden moggie on my bed!! I had to change the bed and only make the catflap an outie... I did actually deflea the poor thing once. My poor (massive ginger tom) was getting bullied by it. These neighbours need to chill...Love the piccies!

sherriff according to the RSBP unless you happen to live next to heathland providing habitat for rare birds cats are unlikely to have anything much to do with bird numbers. They seem to think they take sickly birds that would have died anyway www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/unwantedvisitors/cats/birddeclines.aspx

sherriff my cat can't catch birds. But she does hide for hours in my garden trying! She doesn't go in other gardens because my neighbours all have scary dogs or other cats. Here she is lying in wait for an unsuspecting birdie:

sheriff, what if a neighbour complains that someone's dog, sitting say in the window, is 'looking' at them? How would the owner take responsibility for that? We're talking here about someone objecting not to the cat's presence on his property per se, but to his perception of the way the cat is looking at him. That's so obviously silly that there is no sensible way to take responsibility for it as far as I can tell.

latara a shining example to all other cats, her little white patch is also very cute!

This thread has cheered me up no end!!!

Perhaps he thinks the cat is stalking him, going through his rubbish to find out his plot.

Perhaps it may be worth asking what milk he has. I remember and advert were the cats were trying to get it. Is she an kitty spy?

Loving this thread.

onlylover I agree, objectively 'I don't like the way your cat is looking at me' is very silly and if it's sat on your property at the time then the neighbour is being unreasonable but it's sat on his bin so he is entitled to object to it on whatever grounds he likes however daft.

OP maybe get a dustbin on your side of the hedge over looking your neighbours drive, put cat food on it for a couple of days so the cat sits on your bin, then he still stares at the neighbour but he's on your side of the fence - everyone's a winner! Also the application of cat food smeared to a bin might encourage other cats to your bin so he has a whole chorus line of cats staring at him in the morning that he can do bugger all about?

Yanbu, your neighbour is.

Give the cat a miniture pair of binoculars around its neck to freak the neighbour out further :)

sheriff, I just don't agree. In this example I think his daftness is more the issue than the cat's location, IYSWIM.

I like the binoculars suggestion

Oh dear OP.
I do have a certain degree of sympathy with people who don't want other people's animals in their garden, but 'creating hell' made me laugh out loud, literally.

I'd send a message back that your cat is in no way judgemental, she is simply a supreme mistress of Zen and is simply enignmatic

He's either worrying about her expressions quite unnecessarily OR he harbours a very guilty secret ... now there's a thought.

I think it would be incredibly cruel to keep my cat indoors all day.
I have no problem with indoor cats if that is what the cat prefers but I'll be damned before I lock my very energetic, curious cat indoors just because a bunch of loons have a problem with animals other than humans having freedom.

This is a pretty funny thread. Unfortunately my neighbour or my DS wouldn't think so.

The cat from 3 doors down sits on the bonnet of DS's brand new car which now has scratches all over it.

The same cat wees and poos on next door neighbour's front step.

I can't fully understand why cats can't do all these things in their own homes.