To suspect my neighbour killed my cat

[Mani2024]

Three years ago we moved to our new house. Day one we met one of our neighbours and he asks whether we have a cat because he hates them. We didn’t at that point but we had planned to get one as we and our children really wanted one. neighbour begged us not too even though there are many many cat in the area. We reluctantly agreed to keep the peace but after a terrible year with lots of heartache we decided it was non of his business and got two kittens.

When he found out we had cats he made a passive aggressive comment to my six year old child about how one of the cats in particular had been in his garden and on his bird table. Some months later I heard our cats squealing. I thought they found themselves in a fight with another cat so called out to stop it but turned out to be my neighbour doing something to them to get them out of his garden. He said they were stalking his bird house.

We tried to settle things down with him, said feel free to spray them with water if they come over, we would look into a fence with a slope and if they ever mess in his garden (which they doubt they had as they still used litter trays) he could put over the fence with a spade. That conversation went well but he did say he’d killed a cat previously because it had chased a bird and that the killing had been unintentional.

fast forward some weeks and one of our kittens was found at the end of the road dead in the road with a sever head injury. This is the cat that both neighbours had said was the main culprit of jumping on their bird tables. Initially I was extremely upset and couldn’t think clearly but after a week or so I remembered that morning I had heard a cat scream that was worse than you would usually hear and had looked out my window to see what was going on. My husband saw my neighbour around that time walking up the road away from where she was later found and when asked what he was up to today said he was going for a long walk. I saw the neighbour in his garden briefly a week later, when our eyes met he went straight back into his house which is unusual as he usually chats to me. Generally he has been quite friendly apart from the issue with the cats.

i have spoken to my husband and a few friends about this and generally the consensus is that I’m overthinking and that this theory is just generally wild. Im
absolutely convinced he killed her and placed her at the end of the road to make it look like she got run over. Then again, I’m so desperately upset by it all that I’m not sure if the grief is clouding my judgement

Keep your cats indoors. Teach them to walk on a lead & harness, install a catio so they can spend time in your garden and don't let them out to not only piss off your neighbours, but damage wildlife populations, and be at risk of being run over by traffic.

I hope your neighbour didn't do anything to your kitten, but if you want to keep your pets safe, take responsibility for them and don't let them roam unsupervised.

Nine cats?

Your poor neighbours

I am really sorry that this has happened OP. Sadly, you have no proof and I agree that there is every chance that he may have killed your cat. But he may not have. Please try and put this to rest in your mind, you will torture yourself otherwise. Your cat is at peace now

You mean they went and saddled themselves with a cat for potentially 15+ years just to throw off suspicion?! Mad!

I'm very sorry about your cats what a scumbag.

@Clarabell77

Because some people don't think that's a good life for a cat.

People could be made to remain in their homes & other people would be safer, but we don't insist on it.

I love cats. I don't have one now because of my disabilities, but when I did have them I loved them dearly.

Do those posters who think they can keep a cat indoors right? You have to declaw them, because there are no trees to scratch, but they miss a whole other world of cats. I have such memories of my cats that belie the belief generally attributed to cats.

We rescued a semi wild tabby one time. Beautiful markings, escaped the farmer's gun. We had her months before she came indoors. We fed her outside. Then she became pregnant and only went into my dd to have them, only they took a long time to come, so we took her to the vet. She has lovely kittens, half tabby like her, and the others a mysterious black, without tails. She looked after them well. We lived in the country then, with a long passage from the kitchen door to the back door. A superb mouser, she would bring in live ones, set them on the floor an made the kits catch them. If they missed, she cuffed them. It was magic, very entertaining.

I never knew cats were monogamous. She went on to have several more litters (*until she broke her hip and we had her spayed). Every litter was the same. We had no idea until from the bus I saw this great Manx cat speeding across the field to our Ginny! She never had any other colour cats. They were always like him or her!
Sorry, I don't mean to hog the thread, but there are some things irresistible.

Sorry, but I don't agree I would shop them to the nearest branch of the RSPCA , in fact any animal charity plus the local constabulary

Just wondering, why on earth would you get cats if your neighbour has already said they hated them and had previously killed them????

When my cat was killed (by a car) I went crazy with grief too and asked for cctv footage, knocked on neighbours doors etc. But it didn’t answer the question as to why he was so far down from our house (I suspected a visitors dog had spooked him). Basically, you live next door to a crazy cat hater who kills animals. I would rescue 2 more kittens to replace and not leave the other one lonely. Air tag them and see what happens. But you can’t change your psycho neighbour so you will have to think of tactics around managing his presence. Or move, which of course is a big deal. Sorry about this. I much prefer cats to dogs but this country is overly dog crazy so you’ll never convince some of the maniacal dog owners to give you sympathy or help.

I'd put my house on the market and move before this ends as a dispute with your neighbour. You'd have to disclose any dispute on paperwork prior to a sale - move now before things deteriorate.

You'll never trust him and always be worried about your cat.

Why would you want to remain living next door to someone who dictates what pets your children can enjoy?

I know cats can be a pest on bird tables, I had the same problem, but bird tables also attract vermin - and cats can be very useful then!

I’d keep your other cat inside at this point. The wide eyed “my cat would never poop in someone else’s garden” doesn’t do you much favours though, my cats use their litter box and shite all over the neighbours garden too. It’s just what cats do

He killed her alright... Get as much evidence as you can and report him. My neighbour killed my cat and it's the worst possible pain there is. Don't give up.

That's horrible🙀and no YANBU it's quite possible.

I have zero friend who has 3 cats they can't get out of the garden the fences have aloped tops. I am so sorry I eould be so upset psycho neighbour.

Cats are not pests! Clearly there are people who are anti cats, but if you owned a cat you would realise they are most definitely beautiful animals. I adore my two cats, they sleep on my bed, greet me at the door, cuddle with me all the time and are so affectionate and they adore my children and my dog. Yes they bring me the odd 'present', it's a fact that cats bring dead animals to their owners as a gift, they are not yet trained to purchase gifts from shops 😉 and when they poo, they dig and cover it. And mine poo in my garden only. My neighbours don't have cats and they will shoo mine away if they go into their garden which we laugh about, and they feed them for me when we go away and give them a cuddle. Cats are not dangerous to humans, they are prey animals so they will kill the odd bird or mouse and I know this is sad, but it's only if you actually like/love cats and can see the rest of them and their worth/love that you can accept this as part of nature. Wild animals like foxes kill more. There will be many that won't agree with this, but they probably don't like cats. I'm just offering the other view, that cats are not pests. Cats will always be pets for many, and for those I am just explaining it's because of the joy they bring, we don't own a cat just for the prey behaviour. They also don't kill very often, anti cat people probably assume they kill daily, we are talking once a month.

People generally do. Despite several examples here it’s really not a common thing for people to deliberately kill cats. Normal people put down stuff that smells bad, get movement activated sonic devices, spray water etc. You can dislike cats wandering about freely and be irritated by it without thinking that’s any justification to kill one.

You could always say to the people at end of road, with doorbell camera, you are looking to see the car that hit your cat.

@AbraAbraCadabra Thats very contested info about cats only killing weak birds.

I agree with the source of his frustration, it’s horrible feeling like you have a sterile garden because of animals that have been introduced as predators. And nothing worse than the smell of cat shit. I’m sick of clearing it up in my garden.

But if he’s done that that’s very disturbing and way beyond the normal of being upset by the above.

It is always amusing to hear pet owners talking about their pets 'entitlements'.
The free roaming creatures, the wild animals roaming their rightful place in the land.

Thing is, a fox IS a wild animal.
A cat is not. A cat is a pet you keep for YOUR own enjoyment.
But if you said the truth, that you feel entitled to have your cat roam on other people land freely, that would not go too well with neighbours, wouldn't it?

Thing is, setting up your own garden, so to keep your pets confined to it, can be expensive and, god forbid, can make the garden unsightly and less attractive to you, the cat owner.
So you would rather limit you neighbours peaceful enjoyment of their properties, something they are entitled to, for real.
You get the pleasure of owning the pet, and others get the disadvantages.

Cats have made holes in our gazebo twice, they love to use the fabric as a scratching post apparently. Hundreds of pounds to replace each time. We gave up eventually.
And weeks trying to ignore the smell of piss while sitting there.

Nothing I can do about it.
But pet owners like that are massive CFs, that is an undeniable fact.

Really no different from dogs howling all night long, neighbours thinking you will enjoy full blast music at night and early morning, or a nice petrol mower singing 8am on a Sunday morning.

Pets, radios and lawn mowers have no entitlements. Their owners can be very entitled and selfish though...
It is a case of people abusing people, not some natural law, as you conveniently describe it.

@Sparkle849 They sort of are. They’re an introduced predator that would not have been here naturally. But they are still sentient creatures that deserve no harm. No animal deserves harm because of a label we created.

Oh, that's awful. I'm so sorry.

if you get evidence he did something I would definitely go to the police. They should act with evidence. I am pretty sure it would be consider criminal damage, and the RSPCA would do the animal cruelty bit. Without evidence there is little they can do.

I would just maintain the safety of your other cat most importantly. The fact he has proudly admitted to killing a cat before make him sound like a psychopath

Sadly, you already know what type of person you live next door to. Ĥe hates cats, he's already killed a cat - you are not overthinking this. I would do everything I could to protect my remaining cat - can you consider a catio?

Sounds like he did it. They say people who harm animals are much more likely to go on to hurt people. This man is mental, I'd move away from him. I don't like pigeons pooing on my decking. I try to prevent them from sitting there. It's never crossed my mind to kill one. Cats have every right to exist. It's very hard to stop them roaming. You need to keep the other cat safe. You know now you are living next door to a nutcase.

It definitely sounds like he's behind this from the info you've provided from before, day of and how he's acted since. As someone who's always had cats, literally since the day I was born because my parents always had cats, I know how heartbreaking it is to lose one, I'm so sorry you're dealing with that.

The sadder thing is there is no evidence to prove he was responsible. As soon as you heard him do something the first time, I'd definitely had gotten a camera to make sure nothing else happened. I suggest maybe getting one now just incase as you have another cat to protect. Put it in an upstairs window but make sure it covers your garden and his so he can't claim you're only looking into his garden. They are cheap enough on Amazon.

If you catch him hurting your fur baby again, go to the police and report him. This time you'll have the evidence.

Again, I'm sorry that you lost one of them :(

I'm so sorry your going through this, I'd definitely ask him out right and be prepared for his response and how his body responds to what he says,
Its all very different.
It maybe eating him up, and he just admits it! And id post a note through the doors of those houses - it may work.

Did the vets do an autopsy? (I've no idea of they docthose kind of things, I generally don't have pets.. not because I'm some anti cat weirdo.. I just can't justify the expense and leaving it home all day)
But I would be devasted I this happened to me, and want to get to the bottom of the reason the cat sadly died. Big hugs!