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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To hose next doors cat?

50 replies

FerdinandsRevenge · 18/04/2017 12:05

New neighbours moved in last month. They're very nice, however the husband informed me upon seeing our cat that their cat was a territorial bully Personally I think this means he should stay inside but they let him out and now he's over giving it the large and picking on my cat.

He has just now jumped off our shared fence and attacked my cat in front of me. Mine was doing nothing to invite a fight he's a wimp and had to run inside but this cat is twice his size. I'm thinking of hosing him next time. If your cat is a bully would you expect it and be ok with it? I don't want to cause a war with neighbors but this is ridiculous if they're going to let him out

OP posts:

RainbowChasing · 19/04/2017 14:17

Cat owner here. I wouldn't care if you hosed my cat and I wouldn't expect you to tell me about it first.

ErrolTheDragon · 19/04/2017 14:23

Supersoakers have better range than hoses. When we had a neighbour's cat regularly sitting under our birdtable, I kept a 'loaded' one by the back door. Much quicker to use than having to turn on and unreel a hose.

Perfectly justified to protect birds or another animal - its not 'cruel', nothing hurt but its dignity.

WoopWoop200 · 19/04/2017 14:23

I am dreading this exact scenario when we move! Our cat is very territorial so i expect him to be a menace when we first get there. He usually settles down after a week if being around new pets.
I usually let new neighbours know, just in case. I'd be fine with them squirting him as long as they aren't half drowning him into shock lol

kirstxx · 19/04/2017 14:33

Speak to them about it then spray it if the cat is attacking yours. If they are just squaring up and hissing leave them to it. New cats like to establish their territory.

I know my cat can be feisty and when we moved in she stood her ground over our garden against the neighbours cat, who used to use our house as her own with the previous neighbours. I know she could beat up the other cat but there's no way I would have kept her inside.. she wasn't seeking out the other cat.

The neighbour used to tut over the fence 'that awful Lily-cat'. Unfortunately cats will be cats and fight over territory.

KC225 · 19/04/2017 14:40

My friend moved into a neighbourhood and presented the neighbours either side of her with a bottle wine, a decent water gun and a photographs of her two cats. She said it instantly broke the ice.

Hitmewithit · 19/04/2017 14:41

Nope, nothing wrong with it. Douse the fucker. I too have new neighbours, and their cats love to mark their territory all over my lawn, no matter how short the grass is they are shitting on it daily. I've chucked pints of water at them, thrown balls, prodded them off the fence with my washing line prop. If my neighbours have a problem with that then I'll gather the shit up and chuck it into their garden.

I guess in both of our cases, it's a little hard for the neighbours to stop a cat, you can't monitor them! But you can stop it from being a pain in the arse when you see them!

ImBreakingBad · 19/04/2017 14:47

We have 5 and our largest boy is way over 10kg and lovely. He's the biggest wimp ever. A new male cat has started coming to ours and they have been fighting at least 3 times a week for the last fortnight! I took it upon myself on Monday to water him - he's undettered but petrified of me so here I am placemarking for ideas!

QuizTeamaAguilera · 19/04/2017 14:54

Our cat is like yours (the victim rather than the bully). There's a grey cat that bit our previous cat on the arse, requiring antibiotics - and I saw it doing the same to another cat, just crept up and attacked it unprovoked. There's also a black and white one who doesn't like ours, hissing and chasing him and smacking his paws on our cat flap trying to get in (luckily it's chip activated so only our cat can get in).

I got a water pistol last summer after our cat was chased in, but I can never get out with the pistol quick enough to actually spray the attacker cat! Our previous cat once came in drenched, he was very soft and tiny so I assume he'd been discovered using someone's garden as a loo.

Original poster

FerdinandsRevenge · 19/04/2017 18:08

How cruel

Not as cruel as letting mine get the shit kicked out of him though eh?

Neighbors are very nice and this cat was from a rescue centre as an adult so I'm sure he's neutered, just a bit of a bastard

OP posts:

lalalalyra · 19/04/2017 18:23

I have cats and I don't mind people spraying them. The only thing I ask is that they're not sprayed whilst on the fence as I had one who shattered his leg falling when that happened.

Any good cat owner will understand people will use deterrents sometimes. I taught my neighbour the best way to soak mine (it's better if they don't see you) as the alternative would be keeping them inside which my 18yo cat would hate.

SaorAlbaGuBrath · 19/04/2017 18:27

For people saying it's cruel, how about the cat attacking OPs cat? My lovely placid boy was continually attacked by a local cat, so I kept him in. He escaped and that fucking horrible bastard of a cat chased him into the road and he was killed. I was tempted to drown the fucker but resisted, however I did chuck a bucket of water over him when he attacked my new cat!

choochooo · 19/04/2017 18:35

Spraying a cat is cruel.

When you have cats in a neighbourhood with other cats there are territorial spats when new cats arrive. That's an unfortunate side effect of us living in such close communities and the rise in cat ownership.

Leave them to sort it out - it'll settle down in a couple of weeks. Spraying causes stress to cats and won't fix the problem as they'll just fight it out instead when you're not there to spray.

It's a pita and I do sympathise (I have 2 cats and live in built up neighbourhood where cats come and go all the time) but it's unfortunately part of cat ownership, unless you either move to the country or keep your cat inside.

choochooo · 19/04/2017 18:40

PS I'm not saying it's cruel just to be a bunny hugger or a dickhead. It does really stress them out.

I do sympathise though - my cats have had many an abscess from evil cat bullies.

SheSaidHeSaid · 19/04/2017 18:42

My neighbour and I both have water bottles at the ready waiting to spray each others cats. He's a vet & we are both in agreement this is the best thing to do to separate our cats as it doesn't actually hurt them, they just get pissed off.

maddiemookins16mum · 19/04/2017 18:46

Don't hose. Get a spray bottle.

lizzyj4 · 19/04/2017 18:54

Hosing seems a bit excessive, but a spray bottle or supersoaker, definitely.

MycatsaPirate · 19/04/2017 19:05

We have cats, four of them. In our old house we only had two but next door had seven and it was awful. One morning DP got up and went to the loo, and as he looked up found a black cat sitting on the edge of the bath stock still trying to look invisible. It was give a rather short shower of cold water and shown the door!

Now we have a huge main coone from three doors down who thinks it owns our garden. Strangely, it's not territorial boy cat who has seen it off but my rather tiny, timid 10 year old female who generally spends all her time asleep. I was very proud of her trying to raise non-existent hackles and baring her teeth :o

The biggest issue is the dog the new neighbours have got four doors up. It's a small yappy fucker which is never on a lead, keeps escaping the house and when it's taken out is just left to rampage across every garden. I managed to speak to the guy recently and asked him how his dog is with cats. He said fine. I said, well that's a shame because my cats hate dogs and if his dog comes across boy cat, it's likely his dog will need vet treatment due to being clawed across the face. I didn't say it in a nasty way but made it clear that it was down to him if his dog gets injured because he lets it trample across our garden.

Scottishchick39 · 19/04/2017 19:06

Our two cats are forever getting picked on by other cats, we've had to pay hundreds in vet bills after one got an abscess from a bite. I hose the bastards whenever I see them in our garden.

Scottishchick39 · 19/04/2017 19:07

And they spray everywhere! Hate them!

user1492458803 · 19/04/2017 19:08

We keep 2x water pistols locked and loaded to shoot our neighbour'a cats, I don't allow my dog to foul in their garden and it's the easiest way to deter their cats from fowling in mine.

P1nkP0ppy · 19/04/2017 19:11

I hate the filthy creatures; both my neighbours know I will hose their cats. Don't see why I should have to tolerate them killing birds and crapping in my garden.

ChocolateSherberts2017 · 19/04/2017 19:13

Just put a water sprinkler on intermittently during the day. I do this and the cats are wary now and stay away, they got a fright the first time it happened.

HarrietSchulenberg · 19/04/2017 19:13

My old cat was a bully in his younger years and used to attack my neighbour's cats, go in her house, steal their food and spray. I bought her a waterpistol and some chilli powder (to scatter along her fence).
It worked a treat and we're still good friends, even though all cats involved have long since died of old age.

ragged · 19/04/2017 19:22

I would be fine about my Pest cat being hosed.
My only worry is that the cat shouldn't be driven somewhere dangerous (like into the road).

Phoebefromfriends · 19/04/2017 19:29

Two cats were fighting below my balcony doors in the middle of the night and I dumped a bottle of water on them. I don't consider myself cruel. They woke me up and were ripping shreds out of each other. They weren't near a road or on a fence so it was as safe as possible in that situation, if I hadn't intervened they could have injured themselves with the scrapping. They tried it once more that week and I got both of them wet and they've not done it again since.

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