Neighbours who spend hours calling for their cat each night?

[OohAahBird]

They stand at the front door calling for their cat, she is very elderly and I know she worries but its also keeping me awake every night when I am trying to fall asleep.
I can't decide whether to keep ignoring it while inwardly going 'its a cat!' Or to have a word with her daughter, if the cat doesn't come she leaves it 5 min then starts again, so just as you think it's finished it can start up, sometimes it can go on for over an hour and she doesn't stop till the cat is in so sometimes it can be really late.

I used to get my cat in by 6pm - any time after that & she would be out hunting & I would worry - she wouldn't come in until gone 10 - there are big foxes around.

So I would kindly suggest she gets the cat in earlier.

Mine is trained to come when called but she'll only do it for me...if am away and neighbour looks after her she sticks two paws up and parties all night!

Shaken treats do largely work though if you can get it into the conversation!

Last time we got a new cat, I wanted to call it Stella knowing full well DH would have to call it in at night

He refused

Ours get a couple of chances (no cat flap here) and if they're not about at last call, they're out all night. Quite often in the summer you can see them laughing at you from the bottom of the garden with no intention of coming in.

Why would anyone call their cat in ever if they had a cat flap?! Genuinely very puzzled by that

Quite simply, if they're not already in by the time I want them back

Luckily, they've been trained with bribes small treats to always come when called, which has only ever failed (so far!!) when one of them got shut in somewhere

@OohAahBird but cats do respond to being called.

She is elderly and it's not "just" a cat, it's part of her family and a well loved companion.

Why should she leave it out all night. YABVU and selfish.

I bet she worries about her cat that's why she calls I certainly worry about mine on the rare occasions she's out and i do call her several times and sorry OP I wouldn't care if you found that annoying.

I didn't know it was not safe for cats to be out at night. But no way am I going to start locking it in at night. I'll take my chances

I think if it is taking an hour to come in, then perhaps the time for calling the cat in should be later. Or in this warmer weather walk a bit to find the cat first.

At least with this cat you know it will be outside Waitrose at certain times of day.

This would drive me absolutely insane, and I say this as a cat owner.

YY to giving her a pack of dreamies and asking her if she could limit it to before 10/10:30.

Otherwise I'd be tempted to lean out if the window and yell her name every time she yells Daniel.

Sleep is precious. Lack of it is used as a form of torture for good reason.

Don't you love it when people don't read the thread

Just tell her that she is keeping you up. Elderly or not, she can't make such a racket at night and disturb the peace.

So for an update, I didn't speak to them but she was out shouting at 3.30 am the other day, woke husband up, her family were out trying to get her back in, so on that basis am not going to say anything going forward as I think she has developed dementia. In which case they have enough to deal with without us adding to it.

That's crap for everyone concerned OP, sorry to hear it

I was going to say YANBU, but I think you’ve got your answer. You sound like a lovely neighbour OP.

Sorry about neighbour's dementia.

Our cats have always been trained to come at the rattle of the treat bottle. One shake and cats materialise from nowhere! Including next door's cat who has now learned about the magic treat bottle!

Hopefully our neighbours don't get annoyed by the noise, as one rattle is normally enough!

Don't suppose anyone knows how to make my diva cat stop catching slow-worms? Poor things keep being brought to my doorstep.