AIBU to be surprised my neighbour objected to us entering their garden?

[JoJoMamaBeeBee]

Next door neighbour, and I share general chit chat and relevant tx messages about the neighbourhood, I often roll their bins in if they are blocling their driveway so they dont have the hassle and can just park up when they get home.

They were out for the day, we were due to be travelling at 10am for the weekend. Our naughty cat got out just before we were leaving and ran into their fully open garden, there is no fence or gate at the side of the house.

Hubby goes down the side of their house with a bag of dreamies, sits on the patio to try and coax cat back in (unsuccesfully)

Couple of hours later I get a message asking why he was there, I explained what had happened and apologised, the response was do not go in our garden when we are not there without asking first.

I didnt respond. If im honest it took me by surprise, our garden is open the same as theirs and I wouldnt have an issue at all, if anything it was funny. Thoughts please!

I wasn't sitting on their patio. I was lying on my stomach trying to coax my cat out from under a bush!

People need to be willing to help one another in life.

For clarity the camera is at the front of the house, the patio to which I am referring is at the side of the house - all they saw was him go past, not sat on the ground

I wouldn't have liked that at all but I probably wouldn't have said anything. My garden is my sanctuary. Also, my neighbours very sweetly bring my bins in sometimes (more often I bring theirs in though) but they actually put them in the wrong place where they are completely in the way so I wouldnt care at all if they stopped.

For heaven’s sake, he was just trying to get his cat to come home. He was not weeing in their garden or breaking into their house to steal the silver! What harm was he doing? None. Obviously, these people have never had a beloved pet accidentally get loose. Which is good, because if this is how they treat their very nice neighbors, imagine how they’d treat defenseless animals. They are being precious and obnoxious.

if you were my neighbour I would have messaged to ask why he was there just incase he was loosing the plot or something 😂 once you explained about the cat that would be the end of it and I would laugh it off. I am a very anxious person and tbh would live in the middle of a field on my own if I could but I couldn’t get angry about this I think they are nuts 😂🙈. Obviously it’s their garden their rules and all that but if they didn’t have cameras they wouldn’t have even known !

lol people are always wandering Into ours to collect their dogs! We have a walled garden that you can get to via a fairly open wrought iron gate which little dogs can squeeze through it’s really quite entertaining watching through the bifold windows but we usually go and help!

I will add though I’m very much an animal person so if anyone lost a dog cat sheep or anything I would want to help ! Not a rat though I’m not keen on them 😂. I think some people are just not pet people and they don’t get it at all

Well, I guess since they’re not allowed to step foot in the garden, if the cat gets escapes again and poops in their dahlias, the neighbors will just have to live with the consequences of being so uptight.

Ditto

Why do people think they were angry? All they said was don’t go in our garden again without asking.

James, you must not be on this site much. Some Mumsnetters absolutely lose their minds about balls accidentally landing in their gardens. They can get VERY snarky and act like flaming bags of poo have been lobbed over the fence specifically to bother them. Your reasons around trying to entice your cat to come make perfect sense and you did no
harm. Your neighbors are being unreasonable. In future however, be sure to notify them anytime your cat or even your toes cross the property line.

Why? Do you think OP and Hubby usually go in and clean up their cat’s shit out of courtesy?

I think based on OP’s post they have an indoor cat who accidentally got out. I think the cat being in the neighbour’s garden was a one off.

Nonsense. Nobody asked them to do this, it doesn’t give them free rein to come and go as they please.

Lying on their patio for 15 minutes trying to coax the cat is bloody ridiculous. I’d be concerned if I saw someone doing that in my garden. The neighbours have set their boundary, nobody has a right to go into their garden.

People need to respect other people’s boundaries.

Honestly, I'd hate someone just coming and sitting in my garden. It's invasive and, the fact is just because you live next door to a man doesn't mean he couldn't be a threat. The fact it's not got a fence does make it less bad though IMO.

I once found a random man in my back garden (fenced all the way round and a terraced house) who was also trying to get a cat. He did live on our road but I'd never seen him before. It was a shock. I was polite in the moment but I did text later (I got his number off the street WhatsApp) to knock on the door or text if he ever needed to get his cat again.

I've had a lot of instances of our neighbour in my garden and also taking liberties. It freaked me out the first time because my rear ring camera didn't show their cat had got out, I just saw him sauntering through, trying the gate, then hopping over the wall.

I was freaked out bigtime because of CPTSD caused by severe domestic abuse - having a notification when the whole family was indoors made me feel sick, and having a not instantly recognisable man in my garden was just too much. They didn't let us know what was going on.

I don't like people in my space without prior permission, it unsettles me and its honestly not my fault - yes I've done therapy for it. And I kmow plenty of people who haven't been through what I have, would find it makes them uncomfortable too. Just let them know next time.