Is she BU or are we bad neighbours?

[TravellingSpoon]

We have a cat who is an outdoor cat and who likes to roam but normally within the proximity of our nearest neighbours.

She likes to hunt and is a prolific hunter. At one point we were getting a bird every other day or so. Neighbour mentioned she didnt like her round her bird table as she 'stalks about looking for little birds.' WE got her a collar with a bell, now neighbour is complaining that she can hear the bell tinkling as she runs round the garden, both hers and ours.

She has been round this evening to say that our cat is ruining her enjoyment of the garden and can we keep her in the house or in our garden.

I would say that the cat is out maybe 30% of the day, the rest she is being generally lazy laid out on the sofa.

Sorry the girls cat did this, not the girl 🤣

Just wanted to add... be careful with the motion activated cat scarers, people with more sensitive hearing, babies & young children can hear them. Unfortunately my husband is one of these unlucky people and it has rendered him completely unable to use the garden in several of our previous homes. If set up properly and good quality I’m sure they are fine... but they can be as much, or even more of a source of neighbourly dispute than a free roaming cat...

Buy her some climb proof paint for her to use on her fences.

I am not a cat fan but a tinkling bell would not ruin my enjoyment of my garden - ignore your neighbour

IncyWincySpiderOnRepeat . Oops. Sorry I meant to recommend the motion activated WATER SPRAY pet scarers. Like the one I posted a picture of. They shoot a jet of water at the ‘pest’. I’ve used them for years and they work brilliantly. I wouldn’t recommend the ones that make a highpitched noise either.

The only problem with the water spray ones if forgetting about them and accidentally getting a soaking. I swear the local cats learnt to avoid it long before I did. 😅

Twinkly that's an interesting read.
However, I still don't like the attitude that our wildlife is somehow disposable.
Similarly, we don't want to think about cats being caused pain but seem able to brush off the pain they might inflict on other animals as 'nature' (the semi-mangled vole under my aunt's sideboard shrieking in pain, crawled to where the cat couldn't get it, springs to mind).
I just think somewhere we have slipped into an attitude that our wildlife isn't exciting or interesting enough, or it's not unique to our country so doesn't matter as much, so that when it comes into conflict with us it's reduced to 'just' a few birds.

There are certainly far bigger problems than cats, and maybe they don't have an impact on a whole-population level, but if you have spent years lovingly feeding birds, and attracting good numbers to your garden, then a cat can certainly impact that.

Why the neighbour should then complain about the bell is the bit I don't get...

Is not if

Carrie:yes birds get killed, tough, its nature, much more natural than us eating bits of cow in a bun, (though probably not as tasty

Again, don't confuse the nature of the individual cat (to kill because it is a predator) with the natural order of ecology in the British Isles. Cats are not native predators. Cat populations are not controlled by the availability or otherwise of prey.

Cats can, and do, have massive impacts on native wildlife - maybe the evidence isn't there for the UK but in countries as varied as Australia, Mauritius and various islands in the Caribbean they have contributed hugely to the decline of native species.

The nature of an individual animal and 'nature' as a concept of how things work in a wild ecosystem are 2 different things.
Although I wouldn't disagree with your second part!

We had this same problem with our neighbour, who actually told me to my face that she had booted our cat up it's arse when it was stalking the birds in her garden. He was wearing his bell, so the birds would have flown away once he tried to make a move. So I kicked her up her arse, reported her to rspca and bought all our neighbours a spray bottle to spray him with water. I don't like that they kill wildlife and never encourage birds into our garden, which is a shame. (Funny how same neighbour never complained when he dealt with her rat problem though) Your neighbour is batshit.

Dogs solve the problem

Not in our house. The cat is most definitely in charge. She's a tiny little thing and the dog is a huge lab😂😂

I can’t stand cats. I never used to mind them but the street I live in is inundated with the bastard things now. There are at least 5 cats that think they own my garden (1 ginger, 2 black and 2 tortoise shell). They crap everywhere, even on my gravel drive, and terrorise my dog. I’ve started encouraging the dog to chase them in the garden now, she nearly caught one once. I think it’s fair game if she does, hopefully it’ll be the one that craps on my drive as I keep forgetting to check before I get out the car and keep standing in it (I have CCTV so I know it’s cats).

People keep going on about dog poo, but quite frankly I think cats are worse and I’m sick of having to de-poo the garden before we can use it. Cats are not clean creatures and just shit everywhere without bothering to bury it.

Putting out poison for pets is not legal, although that may not stop people doing this.

Our last NND put mothballs down in her front garden to stop local cats (we didn't have one) going on the flower beds. The front gardens were open plan and we complained the the local Police, who initially made light of this. We asked them to come round and actually see how exposed the mothballs were, just sitting on top of the soil. A young child could easily have put one in their mouth.

Surprisingly a bobby turned up and as he stood in the front garden with my DH, two little 6 years old girls came running up the path with a younger child to call for our DD and play. Once he had looked up the facts, discovered how poisonous mothballs are if ingested by a child, the woman was spoken to and the poison removed.

We live rurally, I can't even see my neighbour's house but she wanted me to keep my cat in as it's 'terrorising' her dogs and they're too scared to go in their garden because of it.

Reminds of when we lived in the country and we were commenting to our farming neighbours about their outdoor dogs barking at night. Turned out it was our cats just sitting outside their kennels taunting them!

Pretty sure the RSPCA would have something to say about cruelty to animals if the neighbour did some of the things suggested here, and they'd be backed up by, oh you know, the law.

I'm also pretty sure that even if you did keep your cat indoors, another local cat would just expand their territory and move in, as it were. And then she'd really be fucked if she can't find the owner to harass.

This makes me 😁😁😁

You are a bad neighbour because your choice to have a cat is impacting her and her enjoyment of her own garden. She is BU because cats are bastards and cannot be controlled.

Get some wind chimes to cheer ndn up??

Ha, that's what I was going to say

We cat proofed our garden to keep our cats safe rather than cats out, as PP said it's expensive. Not something viable to do just to keep cats out your garden.

Cat proof your garden to keep your cat in. I hate cats killing our beautiful wildlife and shitting all over the garden spreading toxoplasmosis also hate the cat scarers as I can hear them

Offer to cat proof her garden for her. I heard that man urine in a bottle, sprayed around the garden deters cats.
I don't know if it would impact her that it's her Dad's owner's wee, but it's worth a try.

Ah... didn’t know you could get water spraying cat scarers... but think they are a brilliant idea, wish more people would take that route than the high pitched ones which can actually be pure torture for others...

The effect cats have on wildlife is miniscule compared to the effect humans are having. The environment will support both if humans font continue to screw it up.

She's NBU about the cat killing wildlife - no one wants to watch cats killing things or find mangled corpses in their garden. Complaining about the bell on the other hand

One of our local cats likes to wind DDog up by standing on the garden wall while he barks furiously at the cat and the cat arches its back at him. I do fetch him in when he does it but if the black cat's owners complained they'd get short shrift.

I’d buy 10 wind chimes and put them up around the garden .. that’ll cheer her up no end !