They buried their cat in our garden!!!

[OpiesOldLady]

We rent our house and we live at one end of a five house terraced row that has a communal garden stretching from one end to the other behind the houses. The gardens havent been seperated just to make it easier to mow. At the back of the garden and going round either side is a fence with shrubbery and bushes/trees in front of it. We haven't lived here long and havent really used our part of the garden much. NDN knocked and introduced herself when we moved in and asked would we mind if her grandchildren played on our bit of garden as well when they come to visit. Of course I don't mind.

Sadly, our ndn's cat was recently run over and killed out on the road. I've just been to peg out our washing and have noticed that they've buried the cat in our garden. Not just a little bit in, but proper under the tree halfway down the edge of our garden. Complete with headstone and flowers.

I can't understand why they would do this. They have trees/bushes in their own garden they could have buried it under, and they didn't even ask!

*WIBU to dig up the deceased moggy and deposit it on her doorstep and tell her to rebury it in her garden?

*Obviously I won't but still..

Wow. They really are taking the piss. Install a sprinkler and every time you see them going into your garden turn it on.

If it were me, I'd buy a toy cat, you can get some really live looking ones, tie a thin rope around it's neck, preferably one that is not too obvious, lay the cat ontop of the grave, cover it in leaves, sit at your back door and when NDN comes out gently pull the cat towards your

Are you definitely definitely sure the garden isn't communal in the traditional sense? I've never encountered a situation where 5 homeowners would choose to have their properties connected just for the sake of mowing the lawn!

I know someone who is renting - the LL is a leaseholder of that flat and the garden is communal and owned/kept by the management company on behalf of the freeholder. The renters all consider part of the garden to be 'theirs' and ask permission to spend time in the other parts of the garden, but it is a respect thing rather than a matter of ownership.

A couple graves in the local cemetery have pint glasses for when mourners visit and pour them out a pint. Perhaps you'd like to add one?

They should have asked before burying the cat and should have done it near their house. It's obvious.
I like the previous posters suggestion of ten little hamster graves outside their place.

I reckon they are going to add something every night now ....

Polpot but regardless of the legalities, the OP's neighbour recognises that the garden in front of each house "belongs" on whatever basis to the occupier of that house, illustrated by the fact neighbour asked OP if it was OK for her DGC to play on OP's bit of the garden. Neighbour's subsequent actions of burying a dead animal on OP's bit of the garden without asking OP therefore contradicts her earlier take on the garden situation.

I still think neighbour just didn't want to bury dead animal on her own bit of the garden, even if it was her own beloved cat. NIMBY personified!