To break into my new neighbours house *THREAD 2*

[Catsos]

Following on from my thread yesterday https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4881905-to-break-into-new-neighbours-house-serious-question-not-trolling

to update all of the lovely people who are trying to help me rescue my cat who has got himself stuck in an unoccupied house.

Updating very shortly

Oh shit that is hilarious!

My windows don’t open wide enough (without a window key) for him to get out. I have a balcony with tall glass sides which he’s allowed on under close supervision so I’ll have the door open then. He likes being outside but only for brief periods, and tends to just curl up on a chair and enjoy the breeze. I had him out there today but he wanted to go back in after 10 minutes and play with a the feather wand. He’s never once pawed at the balcony door to go out, unless I’m out there already and the door has blown shut. He doesn’t scratch furniture or have any behavioural issues.

I do feel bad sometimes but it’s all he’s known, and he seems very content. I put a lot of effort into enrichment for him and we have three good play sessions a day. He’s pretty lazy though. My next move will be somewhere with a garden which I’ll cat proof if possible so he can come in and out as he pleases. I don’t think I could ever have a cat that roamed unless I lived somewhere a long distance from roads. In my area there’s a constant stream of posts on neighbour groups about cats going missing, usually followed up by a post saying they’ve been found in the road.

You keep all your windows and doors shut at all times in case a random rogue cat decides to enter your house @MumGMT?

Thank you for your answers @Dontknowwhatjusthappened and @IDriveMySupernova. At the moment we have a rescued tom (probably was a stray) and I think it would be impossible (and unkind) to now turn him into an indoor cat. It would be something I would think about in the future, but we do leave windows and our french doors open when it is warmer, so we'd have to think of a way around that.

Our tom is incredibly nervous of other people and there is no way he would be going into other people's houses! Not that that ever has been a problem around here or anywhere and there are several cats that live nearby.

I did for a period of time before I got a dog.

Had one regular nuisance in here who eventually stopped when I threw water on it a few times.
Then others came in a few times, one came in when I was having a nap and scared me.

I wouldn't mind so much if they had came in downstairs but it was always upstairs in the bedrooms on my bed, freaked me out thinking they might be on my sheets without me knowing about it so yep I kept the windows closed.

If it makes you feel any better OP, a cat got trapped in my parents house a few summers ago and was so stealth they didn't realise it was there for about 72 hours. (they found it when they had a hair-raising encounter with it during the night)

The neighbours who owned it were complete gits about all the damage it turned out to done to DPs' spare room and didn't help them at all or compensate them (they had to replace a mattress and all the bedding). You however sound like a lovely and considerate neighbour!

I would be so pissed off if I was your neighbors. Obviously you have to pay for the damage! Tough luck if the rug is expensive to clean. You have no plans to keep you at from doing this again, aaah 😭

At the end of a BH weekend, it’s kind of comforting to see that the MN arsehole quota is being maintained at optimal levels!

OP -you are probably asleep now, so this advice is for tomorrow. If you have to leave for work in the morning, pop a note through the door. Don’t go into huge detail, just along the lines of “there has been an issue with my pet in your property, please knock/call me asap so that I can explain and rectify”. If you don’t have to go to work, I’d be keeping an eye out for when they arrive and then go straight round there - a face-to-face conversation is best.

Dont worry about HUGE expense. I can’t imagine an expensive rug would be left in there while builders are working. You aren’t going to have to replace the whole floor, maybe just 3 or 4 floorboards.

As an aside, I’m kind of laughing at the “cat will find something to drink” comments. All loos here have the seat down and there are no dripping taps.

It’s definitely worth looking at trying to secure your garden re the cat. Have a look at this website. Yes, it CAN be expensive. But if you or DP is handy re diy then you can save a bit by installing yourself. I can’t access photos now, as they’re on my old pc system, but I had this on my old home around 13 years ago. Would definitely recommend, they figure out a solution for pretty much any configuration. I’m very lucky in that my cat truly is a garden cat. He has zero interest in popping over fences etc.

As for those who laughed/questioned re crab sticks. I’ve had my boy over 13 years now - I’d have to google this too, I have no idea if he’d like them!

And I would probably, at some point, have considered ham. Maybe not through the vents, but definitely through the slightly open window. Only reason is that lots of crap ham has a “high” water content, so there could be a chance of food and water content at the same time. Obviously a short-term solution, but trying to make the best of a crap situation.

I can’t believe people are saying you need to keep your cat in doors - how cruel that would be! We have indoor Ragdolls but were advised by the vet to let the male cat come and go as being indoors was triggering cystitis for him.
Quite frankly your neighbours having a cat door which opens to any cat doesn’t make sense to me if they don’t want any cat to go inside their house.

This is so strange to me. If an animal got into my house and created problems I would think it was my own fault for not securing my property. Most particularly if I wasn’t living there.

I hope everyone who has read this thread will make sure their neighbors have contact info for them, too.

I know people who left their property for months and didn’t have anyone checking it. Their postal carrier noticed water coming out the door one day. There was so much damage that even a year later it was not resolved.

forgot the link!

https://katzecure.com/gallery/

Well, OP, there seem to be two types of people in the world. Miserable, humourless arseholes happy to take you to the cleaners over a unique situation & would prefer to find a dead cat rather than a crab stick hoping you would Learn A Lesson.

And then the rest of us who think this is hilarious & even if a bit put out by any damage would see the human side of this (and praps even be grateful it wasn't rats getting in the flap!) laugh about the absurdity of it all & move on.

Fingers crossed your neighbours are the latter. If not then you know there's zero need to have any relationship with them beyond this point.

Good luck! The only thing you're legally obliged to do now is update us on the fallout ;)

Good luck withthe neighbours @Catsos
Hopefully MR nice Irish builder might let you in early to clean up your crabsticks & ham before the owners pop in..... tell him the story & I bet he helps you out!

Terry White as a new name?

OP Glad nice Irish man has been in touch.

@Evenstar is your cat deaf in the ear the same side as the blue eye? It might have Waardenburg syndrome.

when i was visiting america 1989 someone had a couple of cats, kept in, they had declawed them
never realised that wasnt a thing over here

Glad that the cat is safe and sound, OP. And hope that the new neighbours will see the funny side!

Same. As I previously pointed out: the cat door sounds faulty.

once upon a time cat doors let everyone (well, of the correct size!) in and out. Which was hugely annoying for cat owners due to having strange cats inside their house.

so cat doors were built to only let specific cats in (aka be chip sensitive).

but having a cat door that let’s a random critter in and then traps it? Never heard of it, sounds faulty.

the one issue I do see is that OP has previously written that her cat has previously destroyed cat doors to get inside other people’s houses. That would obviously be something she would have to pay for (and cover other kinds of resulting damages). But it honestly doesn’t seem like this has happened here, seeing as the cat door still kept him inside!

I would however worry about people trying to take their anger out on OP’s lovely cat 😢

based on this OP might want to do her best to keep peace with her new neighbours… or cat proof her garden with cat nets etc. But not sure she’d manage to keep an “artist” like this one contained.

That’s quite a generalisation?
If a dog left off a lead got into your garden and your kitchen while cooking (or had the door open on a hot day) to bite you, you’d accept it’s your fault for « not securing your property?
You sound like you don’t have the average uk home where it’s very easy to get into gardens, etc

It's illegal here, as it should be everywhere. It's basically amputating the end of the paw.

No one who cares about their cat would do it.

I agree it's the house owners responsibility to secure their property. I'd see it as their fault but offer to pay damage.

I'm so glad you got your cat back.

Maybe it's time to consider finding a way to stop your cat wandering so this can't happen again. Cat proof fencing or a catio or something. You don't want to go through this again. It's just awful. My cat got lost once and it was just horrendous.

@catsos soo glad your gorgeous kitty is safe. You've none nothing wrong or unreasonable just tried to keep your little pal as happy and safe as possible.

Genuinely impressed that your cat weed on the plastic bag he was really trying wasn't it.

I agree with my dh that it's the builder's who have to take some responsibility here. Clearly the catflap was installed incorrectly. The flap that only works with the right chip is supposed to be on the outside surely. What they created was a cat trap, it endangered your cat and caused you a huge amount of stress.

so glad you can both relax now, I rather suspect you cat isn't going to do it again.