Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbours, cats and birds.

340 replies

Birdmurderer · 17/05/2020 09:02

NC for this but regular.

We've lived in out house for a year, on a "hello" basis with next door. She's got a voice you can hear 3 streets away and her eldest daughter seems to have inherited it. A few issues but generally ok neighbours.

We have 3 cats - one who is old and never leaves the decking area of our garden, one who seems to have another family a few doors down (other side to neighbour in question), and one who likes to peep through their chain link fence at them but is too much of a mamas boy to leave our garden. (we've had a lot of time during lockdown to confirm our theories about where they go during the day). They made it clear from day one they don't like cats and will talk loudly about how awful our cats are when they know we're within earshot .

DP just went outside to get his bike and the woman is sobbing in the garden. Spots DP and starts shouting at him because apparently one of ours cats has eaten a bird that she was looking after (she has a feeding table in her garden).

DP apologised - for what I'm not sure - and sort of left it there and went off about his day. I was still in bed when all this happened.

He's gone out now and I can hear her sobbing and shouting in the garden about this bird.

There are 2 big cats the other side of her, one of which is horrible and has put my little cat in the vets twice. I think that's the culprit over my fat old one who sleeps 23 hours a day, the deserter, and the little one who can't catch his own tail.

AIBU to think she's massively overreacted? I have quite bad social anxiety and I am not good with confrontation so I'm hiding indoors now.

OP posts:
JingleCatJingle · 17/05/2020 09:04

She has.
It’s the circle of life.
Be at peace OP.

ChardonnaysPetDragon · 17/05/2020 09:07

That is awful.

Keep your cats in. Murdering thugs.

Mitzdob · 17/05/2020 09:08

She is over reacting.

I love cats, but the fact they catch birds actually breaks my heart - my cat bought in 3 this week.

But, it's the circle of life. Nothing can be done.

Ignore her.

slipperywhensparticus · 17/05/2020 09:09

Put bells on them?

littlemeitslyn · 17/05/2020 09:10

How remarkably unhelpful

ChardonnaysPetDragon · 17/05/2020 09:11

Something can be done. Keep the cats in, failing this fit their collar with a bell, until you find a way to keep them safely in.

Pelleas · 17/05/2020 09:12

I can understand why she is upset if she'd made a friend of that bird, but blaming the cat (or its owners) is ridiculous. Did she get angry with the bird every time it ate a worm? I doubt it.

ErrolTheDragon · 17/05/2020 09:13

She's overreacting, but cats killing wildlife can be upsetting if you're a nature lover.

Even if it's likelier to have been someone else's cat it's not impossible it was one of yours.

There's not much cat owners can do other than collars with bells, so best thing would be for your neighbour to get a good super soaker to discourage any from her garden.

Pelleas · 17/05/2020 09:13

failing this fit their collar with a bell

Would you enjoy having a bell round your neck tinkling whenever you moved, day or night?

heartsonacake · 17/05/2020 09:14

I don’t know, how about we reverse it. Would you be upset and overreacting if her bird attacked and possibly killed one of your cats?

Yeah, it’s the circle of life of course it is, but she’s allowed to be upset that your animal killed an animal she was looking after.

LakieLady · 17/05/2020 09:14

Your neighbour's a nut job.

I'd ask her which of your cats she thinks it was. Unless it was the one that resides part-time with your other neighbours, you'll be able to explain that it wasn't yours and suggest she speaks to the neighbours who own the psycho bully cat.

Mind you, if next door's new cat killed any of the robins that live in the hedge between our gardens (one of which is very bold and getting really tame, coming so close when I'm gardening that I'm terrified I might tread on it), I might well be crying and sobbing, too.

ErrolTheDragon · 17/05/2020 09:14

Would you enjoy having a bell round your neck tinkling whenever you moved, day or night?

Would you enjoy being pounced on by a larger animal with sharp claws and teeth?Confused

RosesandIris · 17/05/2020 09:15

Put a collar with bells on on your cats! Mine will kill anything it can but I have out a collar on her and it’s reduced her bird kill hugely. She kills a lot of mice, but birds really upset me.
Your neighbour doesn’t like cats. She had two thugs in one side and three of yours in the other. That must be hard going, especially when one of them has killed a bird in her garden. There isn’t much you can do about it now,, but get collars with bells on them for your cats and make them wear them.

Herpesfreesince03 · 17/05/2020 09:16

I sympathise with her. I’ve got a massive garden and for years we’ve had a robin, blackbird and dove nest in the garden. 3 years ago we had neighbours move in with a cat. The last two years it’s been here it’s killed every baby in all the nests. This week I’ve found both adult doves dead and dissected on the patio (not even sure how it caught them). Unfortunately cat owners are too selfish to realise that keeping non native animals and allowing them out to roam to make peoples lives miserable is a bit shit

Pelleas · 17/05/2020 09:16

Would you enjoy being pounced on by a larger animal with sharp claws and teeth?

If I had my choice of ways to die, I'd rather die quickly like that than of illness.

GuyFawkesDay · 17/05/2020 09:18

People with cats impose them on people who don't necessarily want or like them.

They're a nuisance to wildlife and kill millions of birds a year, many of whom are species in recent number decline.

Some people are very allergic to them and don't want cats nearby.

Personally, I have ultrasonic scarers, plastic spikes on my fences and that seems to put off the local moggies (next doors dogs do a good job too). I got sick of removing the shit from my garden and it seems to have worked.

I'm not anti cat, but I do think they need a bell!

overnightangel · 17/05/2020 09:18

@ChardonnaysPetDragon “murderous thugs” 🥴Biscuit
It’s nature taking its course.
Maybe you should advice the OP to complain to the neighbour that “The bird she is looking after” (WTF by the way? Presumably the birds just come and go from the garden?!) is a murderous thug and eating the worms in her garden that she is taking care of?

Get a grip

bluefoxmug · 17/05/2020 09:18

nothing can be done

bollox, keep your pets inside during the night or build them a cat run or secure your garden so that they can't get out.

ErrolTheDragon · 17/05/2020 09:19

If I had my choice of ways to die, I'd rather die quickly like that than of illness.

Except that, as domestic cats are hunting from instinct not hunger, they often don't make a quick kill.

Cabinfever10 · 17/05/2020 09:20

I bet they shit in other people's garden too.
Disgusting creatures

SeriouslySoDoneIn · 17/05/2020 09:20

Laughing at the idiots calling cats murderers Grin

Pelleas · 17/05/2020 09:20

non native animals

They are not non-native animals. They've been present in this country for 1.6 million years.

GuyFawkesDay · 17/05/2020 09:20

Yes my childhood cat brought things in live, injured....it was rank.

Pelleas · 17/05/2020 09:22

Except that, as domestic cats are hunting from instinct not hunger, they often don't make a quick kill

It doesn't take them the months or even years it can take someone to die of a terminal illness, though.

ChardonnaysPetDragon · 17/05/2020 09:23

You are welcome to laugh now, but my dogs are stationed under my bird feeding table.

They have chased off many a cat, and if something happens to a cat, while it's being chased then circle of life and all that.

Swipe left for the next trending thread