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AIBU?

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Original poster

Neighbour very ranty about our cat

259 replies

CaptainWarbeck · 15/02/2016 04:41

Right I have just been accosted while putting the baby into the car by our neighbour who is a (generally) lovely elderly woman. She is very garden-proud and not at all happy about our cat.

We have a ginger cat who is outside during the day and in at night. There are lots of other cats in the area. Our cat is digging occasionally in her flowerbeds, which I do get is frustrating for her as she loves to garden.

Her very cross suggestions: I should be watching the cat at all times he is outside so digging cannot happen (ffs sake I have a 9m old and a job) OR we should be keeping him inside and never letting him back out again OR we should be madly erecting fences everywhere to prevent him getting anywhere near her (he's a cat, he would climb and jump them).

AIBU to think if you live in a communal area with cats around, the occasional bit of digging is annoying but kind of just one of those things?

I'm admittedly hormonal and grumpy (despite being very polite to her) and this has not been a good start to the day. Any practical suggestions on either the cat or ways to make her stop banging on about it?

OP posts:
jevoudrais · 15/02/2016 09:01

Our garden was the local cat's litter box. Whenever I see one I let my dog out. We used to have cats, he likes them. The sight of him is enough for them to bugger off and not come back though.

The problem is they don't bury their poo and then my small dog will rummage to find it. She had done this one morning and then on the way to the vets promptly sicked up cat shit inside my car. Didn't do much for my love of cats I must say.

HazelBite · 15/02/2016 09:01

The thing is you can never be sure who's cat is doing what. Mrs next-door- but-one accosted me one day at the local shops (she had several friends with her) to tell me that my disgusting ginger cat was pooing in her garden. I took great pleasure in telling her that was very strange as he had died the previous year!

NerrSnerr · 15/02/2016 09:02

Katnis- where has anyone threatened violence and abuse on this thread. It's surely fair that people don't want their garden damaged after they have worked hard on it?

pinkcan · 15/02/2016 09:03

You chose to own a pet that is irritating to other people. So therefore you will have to suck up these rants from your neighbour. There is no solution/control to cats' antisocial behaviour apart from people choosing not to own them.

alltouchedout · 15/02/2016 09:14

Why do people have gardens if they cannot cope with the fact that, the gardens being outside, animal life may enter and not give a fiddlers fart about how neat and pretty it looks?

Iamnotloobrushphobic · 15/02/2016 09:18

Why do oriole have cats if they can't be arsed to keep them on their own property?

Iamnotloobrushphobic · 15/02/2016 09:20

The threats of violence and abuse are horrifying

I must have missed the posts threatening violence and abuse, can you point them out?

thebiscuitindustry · 15/02/2016 09:23

YABU

hazellnut56 · 15/02/2016 09:55

People own cats ! Even if they didn't have homes and lived in the wild, I bet they'd still poop in everyone's garden the only difference being that there wouldn't be a human to point the finger at!
I'd pick dogs over cats any time and I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the amount of cats who come in our garden, poop and annoy my dogs (who tbf chase them out on sight!) but unfortunately that's life, my husband has a set of supersoakers fully loaded by the back door and will fire on command. As long as it doesn't hurt them! Happy days and peace in the animal kingdom Smile

Katnisnevergreen · 15/02/2016 10:30

On this website in general, not on this thread specifically. I guess this was one thread about the evils of cats for me.
And for the record, cats bury their poo, they are clean animals. Unburied poo on grass of beds is likely to be a fox or other wild animal

JacquesHammer · 15/02/2016 10:43

I feel her pain.

Next door's cat is damaging my car Angry

thebiscuitindustry · 15/02/2016 10:45

And for the record, cats bury their poo, they are clean animals.

Not so clean if you're trying to re-plant the flowerbeds...

Cheby · 15/02/2016 10:47

YY Katnis, I think a lot of people blame cats for fox poo.

The suggestion of litter training is odd. What do people think happens with kittens? All cats start off litter trained. Ours were kept inside for a full 6 months, until full vaccinated, neutered, healed from their ops and trained to use the catflap to come back in. Our male cat sat at the window and howled to get out from 4 months onwards. Every morning was a battle to get out of the door without him escaping. There is NFW he would have been happy as an indoor cat, no matter how much attention he got. He was kept in for 2 days recently following an eye injury. He cried at the door for that whole time.

So ours were let outside, fully litter trained, at just over 6 months old. They are nearly 4 now, they still have a litter tray available and clean at all times. They stopped using it the minute they could go out. I made no attempt to train them to toilet outside, they just did it.

Cats can't be trained in the same way as dogs. They haven't been bred to be domesticated in the same way.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 15/02/2016 10:53

I agree with others - it is perfectly possible to fence your garden so that your cat does not roam and shit in your neighbours garden - why not do this?

To the PP who puts cat shit in her compost I seriously hope you are hot composting or you are infesting your garden with all sorts of lovely things....

ceebie · 15/02/2016 10:56

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eternityleave · 15/02/2016 10:56

Why do people have gardens if they cannot cope with the fact that, the gardens being outside, animal life may enter and not give a fiddlers fart about how neat and pretty it looks?

YY to this. Animals (all animals, not just cats) will go into gardens and shit. That's what they do.

If people have an issue with animal life of any kind doing what comes naturally maybe they should pave over their entire gardens or put down that grim astro-turf fake grass. Hmm

ceebie · 15/02/2016 11:00

YY Katnis, I think a lot of people blame cats for fox poo

Wrong again. A cat regularly poos on our lawn. It's not a fox. If there were any foxes about, our three hens would be long-since dead.

Cat owners are in denial about the horrible habits of their cats in other people's property.

backinthebox · 15/02/2016 11:02

In a civil world it is possible to accept that:

  1. Cats are allowed to roam and poo where they like, there is nothing you can do about it.
and
  1. People are free to not like cats and to make statements to that effect.

Cat poo DOES carry toxoplasmosis and is unpleasant, and it is not unreasonable to be a bit ranty if you find it with your fingers. If a wild animal is causing enough of a bother in a private garden it is actually allowable to get in a pest control officer to remove the animal. But when it is a neighbour's cat, the only course of action most people have is to complain to the cat's owner.

amazingtracy · 15/02/2016 11:03

wow- some of the cat owners on this thread is outstanding! Why bother having a cat if you are not responsible for it?
As for the claim that cat bury their shit???? There must be a fox with a key for my house as my cat never buries its shit in the liter box!

If someone told me to fuck off following a complaint like this- they would find their cat in the pound!

Mag314 · 15/02/2016 11:04

I feel sympathetic to her. My neighbours (two elderly ladies) have two cats and a dog, in a row of terraced houses, and their menagerie of animals is always either pooing in my garden, barking loudly, being let in, let out, let in, let out (each time the back door slams hard) or their owners are calling them loudly when I'm in bed.

Katnisnevergreen · 15/02/2016 11:06

I wish the law could be changed to allow me to trap and kill any bastard cats that step onto my property.

Said above- threats of violence anyone?

ceebie · 15/02/2016 11:09

Animals (all animals, not just cats) will go into gardens and shit. That's what they do.

We don't have foxes, and the birds, squirrels and hedgehogs are not creating a poo problem in my garden. Only the cats.

Dogs being allowed to roam around and poo in the neighbourhood can be a problem too, but it's a lot easier to keep them out of one's garden.

Another cat-owner selfishly thinking other people should put up with their lovely fluffy poo-poo-kins.

gotthemoononastick · 15/02/2016 11:09

I love my garden and spend a lot on it,but I do think cats get blamed for fox poo.Squirrels dig out every new bulb and blackbirds can excavate an area like badgers.

Many cats pass through here(we have no animals) and even have their stand-offs.I know them by name and am the old crazy who you will see shouting
'go home,leave the birdy,don't spray, Tallulah,Oscar,George, Charlemaigne,Catticus!'Enriches my life.

Do the water gun thing so that she knows you took her complaint on board .Things will calm down when her precious new beds have filled out.

SquidgeyMidgey · 15/02/2016 11:10

Buy her a dog? Seriously though I agree with giving her a water pistol or deterrent system. My neighbour's cats like to crap under my buddleia and it stinks there, pisses me right off. I throw water at them if I see them and they go away for a bit.

charlestonchaplin · 15/02/2016 11:11

People are generally fine with wild animal poo. Cat poo is different, one, because it is entirely avoidable and two, because the sheer number of cats means the nuisance is considerable. Cats, even many feral ones, are protected by humans from the forces that keep the numbers of foxes and other animals down. A quick google gives fox numbers at 240,000 and cat numbers at 8 million pet cats plus an unknown number of feral cats. I think it is very clear what is causing most of the nuisance.

In any case, video evidence shows cats do not always bury their poo. And even when they do, that is no solace to gardeners who end up digging it up.