to go and kick my neighbour's arse?

[Springersrock]

We have an 18 year old cat. She's quite thin, a bit rickety and looks like she's been dragged through a hedge backwards. Her sight is a bit dodgy and she's doesn't go far these days, just mooches around our house and garden.

We've had some glorious weather lately and her absolute favourite thing ever is to snooze the afternoon away on a manhole cover in our front garden (I assume the sun is warming the manhole cover up for her)

5 times in the last few weeks someone has taken her to the RSPCA as she's being neglected. The cat is chipped and the RSPCA call us and we go and pick her up. After the second time the RSPCA recommended we put a photo of cat in our front window explaining she's elderly and that she lives here and to come and knock if anyone has any concerns. Which we did.

Yesterday I get another call. Someone has taken cat to the RSPCA, can we go and get her.

I was chatting to the man behind the desk and he said it was the same person each time and that the RSPCA have told them 4 times that cat is fine, just old and to stop taking her in. The man described the person and it's my bloody neighbour (5 doors down). Looking back, I've caught my neighbour in my garden a few times but just assumed she was stroking/making a fuss of cat

Cat would have found the whole thing distressing. She's always hated the cat carrier and going in the car (for this reason, we use a mobile vet who comes out to us). Cat always stops eating when she's stressed and her eating is pretty erratic at the moment as it is.

I went over to see neighbour yesterday but she wouldn't speak to me and just shut the door in my face.

So now, my poor old lady is going to have to be confined to the house and I'm fucked right off

I would include in the note that the act of taking her to the RSPCA is affecting the cats eating after she is picked up
so she is in fact causing unneeded distress to an animal (ideally asking vet/RSPCA to state similar)

Poor cat :(
Like someone said earlier, write her a polite letter, maybe send copies to your other neighbours too so she doesn't feel singled out. Perhaps introduce the cat to them in the letter, with a photo?

As she won't speak to you - Letter and if she still continues try to speak with the local community policing team they may be able to come out and have a word with her which she may take more seriously than coming from you.

QueenArnica, you clearly haven't got or had cats! You don't allow them to go anywhere. They choose. You are owned by them in a totally different way to dogs. The op would literally have to keep the cat in to avoid her finding a way back to her favourite spot
And regarding your second point, she is in a way stealing the cat or at very least causing suffering to an animal by repeating the same unnecessary behaviour time and time again....and has been told to stop by said animal charity!

Op, you need to involve the police. The distress she is causing your cat is not right and you've tried to speak to her, rspca have but she is ignoring any advice. I'm a vet nurse and the police will take this seriously. ) They'll probably want a letter from the contact at the rspca confirming her actions and the response they have given her. Your cat deserves the right to live out her life stress free and the best way for that to happen is without her habits being curtailed.

We haven't got a front gate or anything like that. We have a knee height hedge along the boundary but no way of putting a gate up - plus we have some covenants on our house which stop us from building a wall or anything like that.

Cat goes out through the back garden and under the back gate - I blocked off the gap but cat climbed the fence in her determination to get to the manhole cover. I was a bit worried she'd do herself a mischief so unblocked it.

I was a bit worried that if the RSPCA refuse the cat, she'll just take it elsewhere. There are a couple of animal charities nearby, and at least the RSPCA recognise cat and know what's happening. I'll give the others a call tomorrow and let them know though

I've written a letter and I'm just going to run down and drop it through her door

I'd send a letter too - nicely explain her age and reiterate what the RSPCA told her and that they're not going to tolerate her behaviour any longer
I'd tell her too that if it comes to yes you'll be contacting the police for advice
Copy the letter so you have evidence, and date it
Too

She actually goes into your garden & takes your cat?

That's wierd.

You need to put a sign next to the manhole cover for when your cat is there.

"Leave me the fuck alone, I'm snoozing in MY GARDEN!"

I know you shouldn't have to but how about a big poster on a stake next to the manhole cover. Photo of Dcat with a note. Please do not touch this elderly cat she find it's distressing, let her enjoy her last summer sunbathing in "her" spot.

I agree about contacting the police though she needs to be told by someone official that she is causing the cat harm

Just a thought but can you put something in your back garden that would heat in the sun like the manhole cover? Perhaps put a pot plant on the front one so the cat can only use the back garden option?

Poor you and poor springerscat

DS once reported a cat to RSPCA as he always saw it on his way to and from school and it was looking increasingly thin and shitty. They called him back to explain that the cat was fine and loved but very old and frail. They said the owners appreciated his concern but were a bit upset.

He knocked on the door to apologise and explain he was an animal lover and didn't mean to cause any upset. They really appreciated it and all was well.

This is what a normal person would do, and he was only about 14. Your neighbour is a shit stirring fucker.

No I've not had cats but given the OP stated that the cat hands about at home or in their garden then this clearly wouldn't be that hard to manage.....

And sorry but given what's going on at the moment I think it would be truly ridiculous to call the police over this!

Hangs not hands!

Sitting in my garden with my fluff bomb and feeling angry and sad on your behalf. I second everyone who has said:

• Get a statement from the RSPCA about her actions and their response
• Inform the Police of the problem
• Send her a letter with the cat's photo, politely informing her that what she has been doing is unfair to the cat

I would also add that preventing your old lady from going to her favourite place is going to cause her to feel distressed. Perhaps only let her out when you are in? But she shouldn't suffer because of this nut job.

Sorry, x-posted again

I'll call 101 too and see what they suggest

I'm not particularly "allowing" her. She just does her own thing. Unless i keep her in the house for the rest of her days I can't stop her going out the front. I keep an eye on her when she's out there but I can't watch her 24/7.

I'm a vet. You can happily quote me as saying she is causing your cat unnecessary distress every time she does this.

I would be so far beyond angry if a neighbour did this to my cat. I have already written about it on here, but my lovely old boy used to wander and about 3 days before we lost him, he found his way into a neighbour's house and they phoned the RSPCA. The difference is that they put his photo on a local FB page to try to find his owner and he had gone to their house rather than being catnapped from his garden. Even so, I was hugely distressed that he might have ended up in an RSPCA centre if they couldn't find his chip etc. Let alone if someone was deliberately taking him.

A neighbour did the same thing to my mum once. She was so upset, she thought the cat had gone missing/died etc. She loved him so much and she was worried sick as he was old and had an incurable condition they were maintaining with meds.

The neighbour kept taking him to the vet and tried to bill my mum for it, knowing whos cat it was and hadnt spoken to my mum once.She's the sort of person who would pay so myself and DSIS intervened and told her that she knew it was my mother's cat, hadn't spoken to her once about him, if she had we would have explained that he's old and has already been to the vet multiple times.

We refused to pay and she ignored us after that but kept taking him
The vet refused to take him and told her to return him in the end.

Sorry for the essay, I just wanted you to know you aren't alone. There are busy bodies like this around and if you can't get through to them in a civil way then the only other option is to tell them to piss off and mind their own business.

I hope it all goes well with the note. Xx

Report her both to the council and to the RSPCA... maybe if they bill her for each wasted visit the old scarecrow can leave your poor cat in peace and stop harassing the animal.

Cuddles for your cat. we have an old cat too and he honestly looks shocking. He's over 21.
(((((((Hugs))))))))))

His fave time to get a pic taken of him is when I am painting my nails... ahaemm

lol, Ignore the washing pile behind me

I'd do a polite but assertive letter through the door, thanking her for her concern but stating that any further unauthorised removal of your pet will result in you contacting the police. Horrible woman. And what about a sign on garden gate saying cat is not unwell, just old? Hope your old girl finds an alternative comfy spot in the garden.

This ^ by rochelle!

I would also ask the RSPCA if they could issue a warning letter to her.

FGS, if she has been told ONCE that everything is ok, that should have been it, but 4 times?!

Oh Springersrock - poor you & poor Springerscat, that's terrible. Can just about forgive the first time (if she'd never seen you interact with cat, never seen cat enter your house, and you weren't in when she knocked on the door - because Old Cats have A Definite Look FGS) but to keep doing it is utterly inexcusable.

Can you drop Springerscat's details off at the other local sanctuaries & a description of the neighbour together with what the RSPCA have said. It might even be worth emailing ones for a few miles around just in case. Grr.

My own cats are only five but a couple of years ago we had a friend of mine & her 21yo cat to stay with us when she was between homes. He was a long-haired cat but v thin under his floof (I'd brush him with a Zoom-Groom when I was doing my spoon-feeding-every-few-hours bit to try to get him to gain some weight [he was happy & healthy-but-old, and not eating much unless prompted - he ate FAR more when fussed over & fed by hand/spoon, so... the things we do for our friends]) but it was just Being Old. Same way lots of Elderly Humans are thin [and don't eat much]. Better watch she doesn't start kidnapping any local old people and hauling them along to Age Concern...

Rawrgh. Am so cross. Definitely think you ought to see if the RSPCA will send an Inspector round to put the frighteners on her.

and I'd be beyond angry if someone took my old man cat from my garden and drove him a town away to the closest vet Practice. cat hates travel or any change in routine and stops eating

Lol Madd I'm reading this thread next to a pile of washing too 😂

Bloody woman. My silly Billy had a skin condition, and yes he looked manky, a few years ago and his favourite thing was to sit in the sun. I caught a woman picking him up just about to take him. When asked what the hell, she said he was a stray and needed to be pts because he was ill. He usually sits in our window that she peers in to look at him every bloody day.