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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Neighbour keeps asking us to chase her cat out of our garden

101 replies

summershere78447 · 18/07/2026 20:02

Our neighbour has a rescue cat that was abused by its previous owner, so I completely understand why she’s protective of it.

However, around 80% of the time we’re in our garden, she’ll call over the fence asking us to shoo the cat out if it’s wandered in. When I say shoo, I don’t just mean a little shoo as she’s a friendly cat and not frightened by us at all. It therefore ends up a big performance essentially chasing the cat out of the garden.

Yesterday it was just lying quietly in the sun while I was outside playing with my one-year-old and stepdaughter. It wasn’t bothering anyone, if anything it was keeping both of the kids happy but she was looking through the gap in the fence to see if it was there.

She knows us well and knows the cat is perfectly safe with us.

We’ve had our garden done this year, so understandably we’re spending much more time outside and making the most of the nice weather. We’d just like to be able to enjoy our own garden in peace. She’s also complained about us having barbecues in our own garden.

I’m happy to move the cat if it’s causing a problem, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect us to interrupt whatever we’re doing every time it wanders into our garden.

AIBU?

OP posts:
Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 22/07/2026 12:42

ScartlettSole · 22/07/2026 12:04

Then don't complain if she gets run over, is injured by an animal, ingests poison, someone feeds her etc like the majority of cat owners in Facebook groups. Let them out alone, take the risk.

I actually don’t complain in either of those scenarios. If my cat has been in a fight with another cat and needs vet treatment then I take them there for it. No one else feeds my cats and they’ve never ingested poison.

There is no way on earth am I going to keep my cat in a catio or cat proof my garden so she can’t get out. She likes going to other gardens, presumably as a pp said for territorial reasons.

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