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Original poster

Neighbours dogs have killed my cat. Distraught.

296 replies

MissingKittyCat · 19/04/2015 13:52

I've name changed as this will totally out me.

On Thursday night, my darling 5 year old cat went out. she was the most timid cat, I rescued her as a kitten from an abisive household. It took her months to trust me but for the past 5 years, she has been my shadow. Scared of everything, she took huge comfort in me.

She didn't come back on Friday, I knew then that she was never coming home. I kept the faith and asked all my neighbours to keep an eye out. She had never been missing for this long. She hardly ever left the garden, if she did I knew her hiding place and she used to pop out when she heard my voice. She wasn't in the hiding spot.

Saturday morning, I started a social networking missing cat campaign. I was still half hoping she was in somebody's house (very unlikely as she was so timid) but I assed she had been hit by a car or something and just wanted to know. Tried the local vet, neighbours again. People on social networks were so helpful.

I went searching. It transpired one of our neighbours, who erected a 12ft fence lately (with spikes on top) has three dogs. Two Staffordshire bull terriers and an enormous bull mastiff. He welled up as he told me he had found my beautiful cat in his garden on Friday morning. He had taken her to the vet who were going to keep her for a few days to see if an owner enquired. She was dead. I asked if his pack of dogs had savaged her, he said not. I told him she had no chance of escape, that his fence was too high, he was visibly upset, profusely apologetic. He told me 3 times what he'd done, said he thought he was doing the right thing when he erected the fence. He took my number and said he'd get the vet to call me when they open tomorrow.

I am heartbroken. My cat was a nervous wreck, scared of her own shadow. I can't understand why she's end up in a garden with three dogs. She barely left the house, she followed me around like a lamb. I'm so upset, I feel her trauma, she must have been so frightened.

I know it's not the dogs fault but I cant help but hate them for it. I don't want to live near them anymore. My other cat (who is very old and frail) looks so lonely and keeps crying at the door for her.

It's unbelievably tragic. I'm utterly heartbroken. She wasn't just a cat, she was my friend, she was my therapy. And I miss her.

OP posts:
Mypubesarestraight · 19/04/2015 17:18

I have a 10ft fence to protect my rabbits with plastic spikes across the top to protect them from predators.

I only put it up because of a neighbours cat coming into my garden mauling them. It's seems to have done the trick though.

Sorry about your cat OP Flowers
I was devastated when I found my poor rabbit at deaths door, we had to put her down. It was a horrible experience.

FireCanal · 19/04/2015 17:19

I am not believing the vet story either Planning, unless you are also spectacularly pissed.

bumbleymummy · 19/04/2015 17:19

So sorry OP :( Thanks

GratefulHead · 19/04/2015 17:19

Flowers for you OP. Am so sorry to read your thread, of course you are devastated and heartbroken and it's awful.

I can't say what made your cat enter the neighbour's garden but if the dogs did indeed kill you cat it would have been very quick. The worst thing is the shock for you.

Remember that your cat had a wonderful five years with you and knew more care and love than some cats experience in an entire lifetime.

Does your vet have any kind of bereavement support?

whatlifestylechoice · 19/04/2015 17:20

Why would I want to PM you, plannng? Confused And I don't think leylandii hedges are generally thought of as a good deterrent to armed robbers. Even more Confused

Psipsina · 19/04/2015 17:20

What a peculiar thread.

OP - I am so sorry this has happened.

I'd be very wary of a person who puts up a 12ft fence. I would think they were particularly paranoid. I'd probably report it to the planning department if it looked awful or blocked out the light, etc.

I feel sorry for the bloke but then again I feel a lot sorrier for the cat and the OP. I don't understand people's desire to keep huge unfriendly dogs that scare other people. I really don't. But as long as they don't kill other people's pets, they are Ok I guess.

Not the case here.

We have nice neighbours next to us with a very beautiful pointy hound and he is very interested in our chickens, however he is controlled and trained very well so I don't feel they are in peril. I have them in an enclosure in any case but we only free range them when we are in the garden too.

It would be awful to feel we couldn't have animals because someone else had more dangerous ones.

GahBuggerit · 19/04/2015 17:28

agree, im terrified of pissy little snappy shitty rat dogs that solely live to bite ankles but i would never suggest thatpeople should only keep big, daft, docile softie bear dogs

ambientolf · 19/04/2015 17:33

Again, some really bizarre posters on this thread. Don't let your animals enter somebody elses property then you won't have a problem - the end!

whatlifestylechoice · 19/04/2015 17:35

What about huge (or even normal-sized) unfriendly cats that kill other people's rabbits, such as happened to mypubes? Should they be put down? Or perhaps just muzzled?
I saw my neighbours lab kill a vole once - should I report them to the council?
What about all those people driving cars who have knocked down other people's pets. Who should I report them too?

PlanningMyFuture · 19/04/2015 17:36

Cut down the 12 foot solid fences. Society does not need them and it ends there.

GahBuggerit · 19/04/2015 17:37

very bizarre posters. id suggestthey are forming a pack like dogs except that would be a load of crap

PtolemysNeedle · 19/04/2015 17:37

Psipsina, the dogs were just being dogs, and the neighbour can keep whatever legal animals he wants to on his own property. They wouldn't have killed the cat if the cat hadn't been on their territory.

GahBuggerit · 19/04/2015 17:40

well if were getting rid of what society doesnt need.......ill start with getting rid of Eastenders. noone needs that.

Moreisnnogedag · 19/04/2015 17:40

Psi I don't understand. Staffies are beautiful loving dogs who make great family pets. To you they may mean something else. But your own perception wouldn't stop me owning one. I detest pugs but people still insist on buying them.

Any dog could have done this. The breed is irrelevant.

parsnipbob · 19/04/2015 17:42

Psipsina your comment about unfriendly dogs is ridiculous. Just because s dog goes for a cat doesn't make it unfriendly. It's the natural instinct of many dogs. Do you say the same about cats that go for mice and rabbits? I doubt it.

parsnipbob · 19/04/2015 17:42

And Staffies are fantastic dogs. I'd actually trust a staffie around a child more than I would trust some smaller breeds.

BoneyBackJefferson · 19/04/2015 17:43

Planning

I put up a 10 ft fence with 2 ft of trellis because the neighbour's kids could scale the 8 ft fence that we had.

We had the 8 ft fence because the NDN's kids would taught the dogs from behind the 4 ft fence and would still have been able to do so if we had the 6 ft fence.

I put the fence up not because I wanted a "fortress" but because I didn't want to have to put my dogs down.

(and this doesn't include the drunken arseholes who used to use my garden as a walk-through)

Psipsina · 19/04/2015 17:49

Psipsina, the dogs were just being dogs, and the neighbour can keep whatever legal animals he wants to on his own property. They wouldn't have killed the cat if the cat hadn't been on their territory.

You cannot control where a cat goes though. Trying to make a cat come for a walk on a lead, telling it to 'sit', keeping it from going exploring are all equally implausible suggestions.

This is the nature of a cat, to go wandering. Often it might kill rats or mice; it will very rarely kill fish or other pets.

A cat will generally do very little harm - maybe a bit of poo now and then in a recently dug flower bed. Irritating but hardly vicious.

Dogs can be controlled, and they often do kill other people's pets, and this is something that needs to be addressed, not by other people not having pets, but by responsible dog ownership.

As I said if a dog doesn't kill other people's pets, that's great. If it does it's a problem.

Or should people just not keep cats in case they wander into a garden that has a dog in it?

OurGlass · 19/04/2015 17:50

I'm sorry for your loss x

PushAPushPop · 19/04/2015 17:51

Shock A high fence means MH issues??
We built a high wall but only because we had a very nosy male neighbour at the time and he was quite open about gawping into the garden at us even when we were just nipping to the dustbins!

Sorry for your loss OP. I have a (very friendly) German Shepherd and occasionally when I let him out the back, he catches sight of a neighbour's cat darting across the grass and makes a play for it. I would be horrified if he ever caught one although I don't fancy his chances and would feel so guilty.

It sounds like your neighbour does too. Flowers

RandomMess · 19/04/2015 17:54

So sorry for your loss, our neighbours dog very nearly my first cat - witnessed by us all. They were arch enemies and my cat teased her on a daily basis.

Dog spotted the opportunity as their gate opened when my cat was sat just outside, cat ran like the wind and hid under a car, dog thought she'd gone around the side of the wall. I have no doubt if cat had gone around the wall he would have been no more and we'd have seen it.

Not the dogs fault, not the owners fault but it would have been horrific.

Flowers
pollypocket123 · 19/04/2015 17:54

Made me cry. Very sorry to hear that x

PlanningMyFuture · 19/04/2015 17:54

BoneyBackJefferson

That is my point Flowers
Cut down the fences. Why would someone want to walk on your patch if we all did that? Google Earth the rest of the world.

High fences create mazes.
Open areas mean everybody is visible.
If you don't want to be visible then you have something to hide.

GraysAnalogy · 19/04/2015 17:55

you told us earlier the neighbour was a victim of criminal violence and now you try to do a U-turn

What are you talking about, the OP told us not me Hmm. I'm not going to magic up some story about him being robbed am I.

Like I've said, repeatedly. The fence and the dogs aren't the issue here and no-one is to blame.

OP please understand that my posts are directed towards those accusing the neighbour not yourself.

parsnipbob · 19/04/2015 17:55

Psipsina should we also do something about cats that kill hamsters?

I keep my cats indoors so I know they are safe. Nothing wrong with having outdoor cats (and not ok to keep some breeds indoors) but if they do go outside you need to accept that they're more at risk of coming to harm. From anything, not just dogs.