Neighbours, cats and birds.

[Birdmurderer]

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.

I don’t hate cats, it’s their nature. But I can understand the neighbour’s distress.

Is it just when cats kill birds that is an issue? I have a couple of cats, and not yet had a bird death of my doorstep. However, a few weeks ago it was evident our next door neighbours had developed a rodent problem in their garden. A few had made a nest under some old wood, and my boy cat had a field day for about a week. Haven't seen any squeakers since that week. So was my cat a murdering bastard, or did he do my neighbour (actually probably the entire street) a favour?

@MaudesMum absolutely. Our old neighbours used to feed the deserter (she's very well fed and cared for but very good at pretending otherwise 🙄), when new neighbours moved in they've been given the nod to shoo / water pistol if she tries it on them.

Also should point out that the accused cat has only ever successfully caught a moth and was frightened of a frog that jumped into the house. Said frog was promptly taken to a neighbouring pond.

@Herpesfreesince03 you know cats are individuals? The vast majority don't spray a baby to mark it as their own.

But every bird or mouse killed by a cat is not ill or starving to death.

If it isn't killed by a cat, that's how it will eventually die.

Of course cats are designed to roam free, just like all members of the car family, cats should not be confined and this includes those in zoos.
The 'pacing' you see big cats do in zoos whilst you ooh and aah at them is a sign of distress. It wants to run free. It's similar to people in lock down going stir crazy, except in the UK you are not confined to fall walls all day every day.
Yeah I know those shielding etc etc.
Anyhow if you don't like birds being killed stop bloody eating them!
The bloody irony is astounding.

@Winterlife of course, no-one wants to see that at 8am on a Sunday. I just don't think sobbing and having a go at DP was the answer.

Yes, and it's fine for animals to kill for food.
But fox hunting isn't.

Now I categorically don't agree with fox hunting. However, those in favour would very much make the argument that they do so because foxes kill for the thrill as it were, rather than always for food.

@81Byerley, it’s not cruel. My sister had two cats. One roamed. He was sitting under a tree a block away when a woman spotted him, stopped her car, picked him up, and took him home. My sister found him and went to the woman’s home to retrieve him. The woman told her the cat had fought her a bit when she started walking with him. Since that time, about a year ago, he doesn’t venture outside their yard, his choice. Her other cat has always been an indoor cat.

As I posted elsewhere, I have heard the screams of cats caught by coyotes. It’s haunting.

If the woman is was "taking care of" the bird and it was dependent on her, I'd say it was probably weak or vulnerable and potentially ready to go.

Birds don't naturally get their food from tables- they forage or scratch and dig for it.

It's nice to put out some treats and attract birds to your garden, but if you feed them a lot then the weakest will just rely on being fed and lose their natural behaviours. It can make them easy targets for whatever predator is nearby.

Cats are predators and hunt. It's normal.

And a bell won't necessary make the blindest bit of difference - ours can hunt wearing a bell and not make a sound!

@Pelleas, no. We have a lot of birds in our yard. My husband feeds a family of crows, though not daily. He recognizes each. One has died, of old age (and crows live a long time).

Not all wild animals die of starvation, in fact, in cities I suspect that’s rare.

OP, I never posted it was right if your neighbour to verbally attack your husband.

MouthBreathingRage

Obviously its fine for them to kill rats but not birds because birds are cuter. It makes no sense at all as surely both should be unacceptable using some of the arguments put forward on this thread but I doubt the neighbour would have been distraught at a cat killing a rat.

Chop their legs off and kill one of the three. Hang it in your garden dead so the other two can learn the error of their ways.

Go into your garden and sob loudly over a dead worm that you were looking after and one of the birds killed.

@Winterlife, I get that, sorry if my post didn't come across that way!

She's having a good old shout now so back to normal.

@Standupthisisnotateaparty I think thats the only sensible resolution. Might throw some self flagellation in there so she REALLY knows we're sorry.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon I doubt a cat would go into a garden where there are 2 dogs. Murderous Thugs indeed, I've heard it all now

My cat is a huntress. She brings in mice all the time and kills them. I put a collar on her with a bell. It's quite good, means she doesn't get the birds. (Hasn't yet anyway).

Having said that, I regularly have to replace the bell and collar as she somehow gets it off herself. So it's a bit of a pain, but necessary for my cat.

Your neighbour isn't U for being upset about birdie. But crying loudly in the garden... nutter.

Also, I'm singing this thread title to the tune of Gypsies Tramps and Thieves

Winterlife Your husband is creating an artificial environment for the crows to prolong their survival. It's a lovely thing to do, but it isn't natural.

In the wild, a bird might be said to die 'of old age' but the reality of that isn't the bird being fine and dandy one minute, and then keeling over the next. The reality is that the bird becomes weak and feeble and unable to get to food before it's taken by younger birds.

At that point it's quite likely a cat, other animal or even another bird will catch it and give it a relatively quick death, but if that doesn't happen and there's no kind Mr Winterlife around to feed it, the reality will be protracted starvation and/or illness.

Obviously its fine for them to kill rats but not birds because birds are cuter.

And they make pretty sounds! And drop toxic shit all over your car, but I'm sure they don't mean to....

I don't blame her for being upset but she is being silly having a go at you for what is nature.

I love birds, lije cats. I had two little and they did bring dead birds in. One day, I found 6 dead baby bluetits. I cried my eyes out too and felt so cross but couldn't really create my cat for what is cat instinct.

No he isn’t. There’s plenty of food around here. He just makes it easier for them.

Cats should be kept inside, they do untold damage to wildlife, and I say that as a cat lover and former owner.

I always find dead mice and birds under the hedge at the bottom of the garden. I know it's my next doors cats as they are the only ones that come in it. Yes it's not nice but I don't kick up a fuss about it. If my partner isn't in to get rid of the dead animal then next door will if I ask. Just part of like animals killing other animals.