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

Cats with killer instinct will hunt, chase prey and eat them. It's just what they do and part of nature.

What isn’t part of nature is owning a cat, causing them to live in a domestic environment. Once you do this you accept some responsibility for managing them and their impact on others.

Exactly, and you’ll always get a few extreme cat haters drooling on their keyboards as they type a reply to a post like this. Enthusiastically justifying the killing of a cat and thinking it’s fine for someone to just ignore the law. Let’s face it you get this type of person cropping up everywhere vehemently opposing all sorts of things, adamant they know better. Not everyone has to like cats but some of the antis are definitely more balanced and intelligent than others

I am so so sorry about your cat. Feel so upset for you. Please take your other cat and move…I don’t like your neighbour.

I sympathise with you. Although I don't like cats I would never harm any animal, however I disagree with you about the cats only using litter trays, as my next door neigbour's cat does its business in my garden, a nuisance. You cannot prove he killed your cat and he sounds horrible, have some sort of a "run" in your garden to keep it safe.

How scary and cruel. There's some evil people in the world. How awful.

Sadly it happens. A friend had a colleague who hated cats. He told her he put food outside with glass in it. She was disgusted he had done that.

"A superb mouser, she would bring in live ones, set them on the floor an made the kits catch them"

And this is a good thing? Mice running around outside minding their own business, not camping out in your kitchen or anything,you're pleased your cat brought them in to train her offspring to hunt!

I reported my neighbour to the RSPCA, and although there wasn't enough evidence for a prosecution, there was enough correlating information for them to pay him a visit, as you made the observations in your post, noises, movement, injury type etc. If you don't do anything about it, he'll do it again. And he feels he has a right to, because cats kill the beloved birds in his garden. I say catproof your garden, that your other lovely will stay on your property 🙏

If I were you, I would put up cameras all around my house and garden. This person sounds deranged whether or not he killed your cat and i, quite frankly, would be very nervous for my children around this person. I think it's time to beef up security, make sure he can't get into your backyard and have cameras capturing every inch of your property

Im with you. The fact he was seen coming from where the cat was found, just seems too coincidental.

I'm so sorry you have had to suffer the loss of your little cat.

I'd definitely look into a catio so your cat still has some outdoor freedom and so that maniac can't get his hands on them.

This

A perfect sensible, balanced piece of advice based on personal experience

Get all of the cameras including one on your cats collar with gps. Also get a big fake hawk/owl to put just inside your fence but close enough to scare away his birds. Apparently hanging shiny things around also deters birds. Play recordings of birds of prey sounds. Buy a trampoline for your kids, also put it along his fence. Get a small yappy dog.

I would go door to door to get camera footage. If it’s all been erased simply ask “why did you kill my cat” and see what he says and then tell him he was caught on a door camera and see if he reacts. People like that should be in prison, animal cruelty is not okay.

I would seriously consider keeping your other cat indoors. I have 5 and only 2 of them are outdoor cats. The others are happy inside and I have the peace of mind of knowing that no harm can come to them. The outside world is a dangerous place for cats these days! We have had 2 cats in our family run over and killed in the last 18 months. Your remaining furbaby doesn't need a deranged neighbour on the warpath as well!

You've got 9 cats and you haven't cat proofed your property and you let them shit all over your neighbour's garden - but you think they're the unreasonable, crazy ones?

I'm actually shocked at how antisocial you are.

Do other cat lovers consider this to be reasonable behaviour?

No, I disagree that it's understandable for someone to deliberately cause the death of somebody else's pet, however much he hates cats.

It's not unreasonable to expect others not to kill a cat. That's psychopathic behaviour.

It’s never understandable to kill a cat. Agree it’s psychopathic behaviour. My DH grew up with cats and it was a great comfort when he lost his mum. He took it really badly when our cat was shot dead.

He shouldn't have killed your cat if he has imo but this is the risk you take with an outdoor cat (not getting killed by a person just in general being harmed etc).
It could have been hit by a car, maimed by a dog or the cat could've gotten parasites or injured by something else.
However that doesn't excuse him if he has done it.. Harming animals intentionally is still wrong.

Get a catio or keep them indoors, much safer for the cat.

If you lived next door to her you'd have a very different view but who cares what you think. Our cats don't shit in her garden, they don't even go in it - she throws drawing pins over our fence, takes cat poop over the road & throws it in her supposed 'friends' gardens who has cats but she's never thrown any over our fence. She's damaged every car we've had & is obsessed with everything we have that's none of her business. She's even been caught going through a neighbour's bin - reason she gave was 'I wanted to know who you are'. If that makes me antisocial I think you need to do your homework love.

Oh my word this is appalling as it does sound like yanbu. Hope you've asked everyone who has cctv. I couldn't let this lie, heartbreaking, cruel and illegal. So sorry, and if this vile neighbour has been so sadistic it's beyond disgusting.

I'd love to have lots of cats but don't have the room.
Some people are so cruel.
I love cats, they are nicer than some people.

I would report to rspca. I feel so sorry for poor little kitty and you and poor family.

Some people are so cruel.
I love cats, they are nicer than some people

Definitely.

@sesa145 our neighbour hates many things, cats just being one of them. We held off getting cats for three years because of him. We did not know he killed a cat until long after we got them. Of course we wouldn’t have got cats knowing that he’d killed one!