Neighbours dogs have killed my cat. Distraught.

[MissingKittyCat]

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.

"Good fences make good neighbours"

How the actual fuck is this useful When i saw so many posts on the thread i assumed that many posters were simply offering condolences to the OP.

^^ with bells on. I can't believe the shite people are spouting on here. I'm so sorry that your poor wee cat died under these circumstances OP.

I also wouldn't expect a cat to go into a garden where there were dogs, missy and would also be shocked and upset if that happened to my cats.
Again, not you, but other posters seem to be blaming the dogs and their owner. I'm just trying to point out to these posters that no one is to blame for this tragic accident.

There are some very skilled psychologists in this thread! Who knew that you could assess mental health based on one's fence? Fascinating.

Grays a couple of people have actually insinuated that it's my own fault. That I should have a pen or a house cat.

i knew the risks. I know the risks if we ever get another. I've had cats all my life, I'm well aware they roam and are fickle. This cat wasn't a roamer, or fickle. She was so obsessed with me it was sometimes irritating! She never strayed further than the edge of our garden/her hiding place. For some reason, she ended up in their garden. Just because cats roam doesn't make it any less painful that I've lost my friend.

PlanningMyFuture

If I wanted my dogs to be tormented to the stage where they attacked a child I would have removed the fence.

As it was I wanted my pets to have a nice life without the NDN's kids tormenting them.

I had no control over the kids, I did, however, have control over the immediate environment around my house. So I did what I could to protect my pets AND the NDN's kids, everybody won.

OP, I hope that you are feeling better, and I am sorry that the thread has been taken over.

She was once so scared of general outside life, she hid in my car engine. She was a terrified cat. Her eyes were like saucers 80% of the time. Even my DH freaked her out!

It's not your fault OP missing and I'm sorry if people have said that or if my posts have come across that way in anyway.

I say it as more something we accept. Like I have to accept there's a risk of them being hit by a car. Doesn't make it any less painful but it's there and in most circumstances no-one is to blame, just a tragic accident.

Again I'm so sorry you've lost your friend I really am. You gave her a better life though always remember that, she loved you and you loved her and that's all a cat can ever ask for (as well as some Dreamies or something ha)

I read your thread, OP. You're in shock and very sad, understandably. You didn't blame your neighbour. I can't understand 80% of these posts.

I'm so sorry about your cat. Take comfort in the lovely life you gave her.

This is terrible. I'm so sorry

dont know if it's been said.....too much sniping so i skipped bits

But the cat would have smelt/heard/sensed those dogs beind thd fence and, imo, wouldn't have ventured near

Psipsina because a lot of the time they are lovely dogs in all other ways. My gran has a staffie. It is a fantastic , friendly, very safe family dog. But unfortunately it would probably go for a cat. My point was that just because a dog would go for a cat doesn't make them unsuitable to keep. Just like having a cat that would go for a hamster doesn't make that cat a strange pet to have.

A neighbour's cat killed my pet baby rabbit when I was a child. I don't go around saying I don't understand why people keep cats (obviously, I have two). I love all animals and it really baffles me when people tarnish all breeds with the same brush.

Yee hah! BoneyBackJefferson

Yep let's ride them anti-social fences on the back of pure speculation......saddle up them horses and get some guns....

Read your post again. Count to three. Breathe deep. Look around you.

Did you really mean to post that?

I mean its not rocket science

What the fuck.

planning why do you think businesses spend thousands on fences, railings etc? For the good of their health? It's security. To protect their property.

My dad lives on a main road, and across that road is a nightclub. He used to have hedges. When he had those hedges they ended up with a gap through them because people were using them, and thus my dads garden, as a shortcut. A fence soon put a stop to that.

But according to you people's land should be a free for all

That's a very good point parsnipbob - my dog doesn't like strangers, he would almost definitely kill a cat, he's not good with strange dogs and he can't go off the lead as he won't come back (the shit). However, he is loyal, affectionate, comforting and adorably funny with the people he loves. He gives the best cuddles (forgetting he's 34kg as he sits on my lap), he squeaks with excitement whenever he sees me (even if I've only been upstairs for 10 minutes), he knows when I'm sad and will lay his big soft head on my lap and he's an excellent guard dog. And that is why people like me have dogs like that.

Robert Frost, Mending Wall
Written a long time ago. That's important

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

OP I am very sorry about your cat.

It sounds like this man has done everything he can to keep his garden secure, and it doesn't sound like he built a big fence because his dogs were dangerous. He sounds genuinely sorry about your cat.

I know you are waiting for the results from the vet, but is it possible the cat wasn't killed in his garden?

It sounds unlikely that she would be there. You say she would have known the dogs were there, the description of the garden makes it sound like she wouldn't get in easily even without the dogs, and you say she's not just a timid cat but a terrified one. And according to the neighbour your poor cat shows no signs of being savaged by dogs.

I don't want to upset you any more than you already are, but there are some awful people about who would be just as likely or more to harm a cat.

We've had a warning locally about people putting antifreeze out for cats to drink. My son's friend at school had his cat poisoned in this way recently.

And my friend lives near a popular dog walking area and they've been warned that someone is putting down poisoned meat for dogs. They are putting slug pellets in sausages and scattering them in long grass.

It makes me wonder if someone else might have harmed her and then thrown her into the garden expecting the dogs to get the blame.

It's something to ask the vet about, and I'm truly sorry if I've added to your worries, but if it is possible then you need to know as other pet owners need to be warned.

For what it's worth, it sounds like you gave your cat a lovely few years of life being loved and well looked after. Please try to take comfort in knowing you did that for her, it's a wonderful thing to do.

26point I thought the same. Maybe she was trying to pinch some of their meat? Or fell off the spiky fence? Or got spooked and ran in out of desperation? I don't know. She wasn't 'normal'. She was fearful and jumpy.

Well you're defo on a wind up.

Perhaps when you've got grown men sneaking onto your trampoline at 4:30 in the morning you'll want a good fence :)

GraysAnology why do you think businesses spend thousands on fences, railings etc? For the good of their health? It's security. To protect their property.

Errrm... yes and I do to, to protect my business at night where nobody lives. But not in residential areas where we all live. Our homes are our sanctuary. Unfortunately, homes are now targeted by criminals and they will often beeline to that property which is the most 'curtained' by hedges fences or other areas that are easier to hide behind.

I didn't start posting this for any other reason.

"The other part of your post challenges me more. Your neighbour. Whoever erects a 12 foot fence and keeps three dogs has a real issue with society. I do not know the full facts, but it is not impossible they have MH issues."

Wow PlanningMyFuture, I'm glad as hell you're not planning mine!

You're just not right, you know that? In fact, your opinions is a special kind of wrong. They're nasty and insular.

Missing, I'm truly sorry. Please try not to dwell on "what ifs" but remember the 5 years you spent making your little cat happy.

I've given you three examples of why people I know personally had to have fences and you have adknowledged none of them

Do you know any criminals personally? I do, unfortunately. A lot of them are opportunists. A lot will simply see somewhere easy to break into and try their luck.

Anyway I think the OP's thread has been derailed enough without your free-the-gardens shite.

alice I work in a garden/homewares shop and we sold an amazing amount of antifreeze to people who were using it in there outdoor water features over winter.