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.

Doesn't surprise me that you're inferring that you'd hurt the cat, you sound completely OTT and hysterical about this. It's not good, focus on the things you can change.

I can change a lot of things about cats in my garden. I have some great help there.

Cats should be kept inside, they do untold damage to wildlife, and I say that as a cat lover and former owner
This made me smile. Is it last week we had a thread about someone asking how to get a cat because cat shelters wouldn't let her have one as no garden and most posters agreed it was fair not to allow people living in flats to get cats.

So which one is it? Cats better indoors or better out?

Bells don't work well; they tend to learn how to silence them. There are cat bibs which work better (stop them pouncing). Or keep them in and stop breeding them.

I can change a lot of things about cats in my garden. I have some great help there.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon, you sound an absolute delight! You still won't stop cats roaming though, no matter how much you huff and puff and get stressed. It just won't happen, cats will go out and roam!

I have two big dogs who spend their time in the garden now. They chased off at least two cats yesterday. Well, there was some noise, so I hope that's what happened.

I'm sitting in my garden now with Dcat on high alert because the birds are going mental with the tweeting.

The thing is they are in trees, as birds are supposed to be, tantalisingly just out of reach. The birds have clearly cottoned on to building above the cat line. The issue is when people introduce bird tables that lure the birds from safety.

I wish cat owners would compromise and keep cats in during fledgling season.

Blackbird and robin young don't fly initially when they fledge, they hop along the ground taking cover while their parents feed them. Not only do they have magpies, jays etc to contend with but also Tiddles next door!

I have two big dogs who spend their time in the garden now. They chased off at least two cats yesterday. Well, there was some noise, so I hope that's what happened.

You're really covering yourself in glory

Your neighbour should come and watch the gulls hovering around the ponds and lakes near where I live waiting to take the baby ducks year after year; very rare that a full clutch survives.

Poor woman would never recover.

Someone I know had all his koi carp taken from his back garden by a heron over a period of several days.

All carnivorous animals kill other animals, nature is cruel. She's being ridiculous.

@rosiejaune where on earth did I say I was breeding them? They're all from Celia Hammond 🙄

What can I say? You said it's on me to cat proof my garden. I'm doing the best I can.

@pigsDOfly I saw a crow ripping the head off a pigeon once. Scarred me for life.

I think as upsetting as it is, another bird taking a young fledgling I can cope with better than over fed Tiddles just out for kicks!

We have a menacing magpie who I loathe but ultimately it raids nests to feed its young.

Tiddles chows down on Go Cat and then goes and ‘plays’ with the wildlife. It’s not really nature is it, they’re just arseholes!

I didn't necessarily mean you personally. Just people in general. Then eventually there will be no cats left in the UK (except the ones that belong here, like the lynx and the Scottish wildcat).

SweetMarmalade

What happens if the cat is feral? Even if you could ask all cat owners to keep their pets in there will still be thousands of feral cats looking for a meal.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon i sincerely hope that you don't mean you intend to harm those cats.

I don't.

Oh cross post. You're just on the wind up.

It's not the local cats that trash my seedlings. It's the fucking birds, digging for worms.

And I still like the feathery little sods.

My NDN, who I get on with, knows my feelings about cats and she knows when her half Bengal killing machine comes anywhere near my garden the hose pipe comes out or it gets firmly shooed away! It’s a bloody menace!

@ChardonnaysPetDragon, if your dog injured the cats, would it be guilty of murder/GBH as a murdering thug?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon i sincerely hope that you don't mean you intend to harm those cats.

I think that it's a barely veiled threat! But heaven help her if she ever touched any pet of mine!

@Birdmurderer Similar thing seen by my daughter a few years ago.

She lives in a seaside town and the gulls are vicious. She was really shocked to see a large gull tearing lumps off another gull lying dead in the street.

We have so many cats around here, it's not the circle of life, as they're non-native and in nature you'd never have so many predators in such a small space.
We used to have lots of birds nesting in our trees and some hedgehogs. Neighbours moved in with 4 cats. All gone now, bar a few brave pigeons, and our lawn is covered with cat poo that is a real pain for outdoor play. She's overreacting but I think that cat lovers are often similarly irrational.

Cats will be cats they hunt they kill it's what they do. It's the circle of life it's what they have done for hundreds of years it's only us humans that try and stop them as we see it as a problem or apparently murder.
I have 2 cats they bring home "gifts" can't say I'm happy about it but I can't stop them I've had birds. Mice. A shrew. A bat. Baby squirrel and a baby rabbit.
I love animals I love them more than the majority of people but I can't stop my cats doing what they do.
The stupid woman next door needs to get a grip.