Next doors dog came into our garden and killed my Old Boy

[LondonBus]

I was away with DS2 and DD.

We came home last night and DH told me the dog came into our garden on Wednesday - DH rushed out and despite being a bit nervous of dogs managed to get OldBoy. Poor, poor DH loved that cat so much. 17yo DS1 took control of the situation, phoned the vets (DS1 is painfully shy and usually refuses to phone anyone). Although it was obviously too late they took OldBoy to the vet, who was marvellous. Apparently DH was sobbing and sobbing in the vets. DS1 who doesn't do hugs hugged DH.

The house is so quiet this morning without OldBoy. He wasn't just any cat, he was a funny, amazing, endlessly patient with small DC, super cat.

Anyway, the neighbours haven't moved in next door yet; the new owner wants to put an extension on first. It's unclear who the dog belongs to - the new owners mother let the dog into their garden and it came though a gap between the hedge and our fence. She told DH it was her sons dog, but that might be the new owners brother for all I know. It's the neighbours fence and up until now the gap was useful for us to pop through to mow the previous neighbours lawn (she was in her 90s), pick up her windfalls and retrieve our kids balls.

Obviously we would now like the gap closed. We never want this dog in our garden again.

We will probably have to pay the vet something...cat is still there, we are collecting him today. (DH has told the DC OldBoy looked poorly so he took him to the vet but he peacefully died.)

Can we ask neighbour to pay the vets bill?

I'm not sure of what the legalities are here.

DH is still shaken, and just keeps saying he's glad the younger DC weren't here as it was horrifically bloody.

I'm so sorry, poor old cat

"A court could also decide that your dog is dangerously out of control if either of the following apply:

it attacks someone’s animal
the owner of an animal thinks they could be injured if they tried to stop your dog attacking their animal"

www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview

How unbelievavly grim for all of you. Poor, poor Old Boy. I am so sorry.
Yes call the police. The dog got into your garden and killed your pet! What sort of dog is it? Did the owners not hear the commotion? Of course they should pay any bills and compensation. They should have liability insurance on their dog and can claim on that.

not checking the fence is irresponsible.

Checking fences are 100% secure can be extremely difficult. Especially if there is any kind of hedging, wire fence and foxes or badgers. It can be a absolute nightmare (and my dog can never go off lead even in his own garden for this very reason)

In the OPs case, the gap is big enough for a person to walk through though so one would have thought it is easily seen.

My friend's cat had a similar end ☹️

Because the cat enter the neighbours garden, the police couldn't do anything. If it was the other way around, they could.

So sorry for your loss

I've had a cat killed by a dog before (I will never ever have a Jack Russell, as a result).

Have any of you with cats ever had them kill birds, mice/shrews/voles? I'm a cat lover and a dog lover. I have one of each. My dog (a huge, 38kg GSD X retriever), thankfully, swoons over the cat and sneaks in licks whenever he doesn't get swiped for it. But my cat has brought us dead shrews and voles as presents. She's a cat. It's what she does. There is no malice and she's not trying to ruin anyone's life. She's just a cat doing what cats do. Dogs who kill cats are just dogs doing what (many but not all) dogs do. They aren't being malicious. They aren't inherently violent. They aren't a risk to people or society. They are just following their inbuilt instinct to chase that small moving furry thing.

It is very sad but I do think we need to remember that dogs are animals and don't think like humans. They aren't stalking with malicious intent. They are just acting on instinct when an unfortunate opportunity presents itself.

Agreed Lougle. Which is why the law requires that the owners of dogs take care to ensure that dogs aren't in a position to harm other creatures.

You could argue that all dogs who attack and kill children are 'acting on instinct'.

Because they are.

And yes, they're animals. So precautions need to be taken.

I'd be terrified of an unaccompanied dog. I never used to be but I've been bitten a few times now. I'm no longer so keen.

My cats kill small animals and eat them - not quite the same.

Well then whose boundary is the fence on? Was it the neighbour's boundary which has a breach and allowed the dog through, or the OP's boundary which has a breach and allowed the dog through?

I'm not being heartless here. If my cat was minding her own business in our garden and a dog came in and killed her, I'd be absolutely devastated. But if that dog came through a breach in a fence/hedge that I knew about, I'd feel that whilst it was not my responsibility to control the dog, I could have protected my cat better and I would accept that was an accident waiting to happen.

I disagree lougle, it may be the OP's responsibility to secure the boundary if it belongs to her, but it is still the dog owner's responsibility to make sure it can't escape before letting it off the lead in the garden.

I'm so, so sorry about your dog OP.

As a dog (and cat) owner myself, it's utterly irresponsible of the dog owner to leave the dog loose (and presumably unsupervised?) in the garden of a new house. IMO if you reported them and there were consequences it would be completely deserved.

Ffs - I'm sorry about your cat. Brain fog, sorry.

Oh gosh I am so sorry what a horrible situation.
I would give the vet bill to them and any decent person would be only too happy to pay it plus flowers and apologize and put up a fence! I would probably also present them with the cost of a new cat if you are going that way.
I would also log it with the police because the dog entered your garden and killed your cat in what should have been it's safe place. But if naighbours are sensible and did all the above plus be exteamly nice I may drop that as some dog breeds on instinct do chase and kill cats and other animals as do cats. But that decision would be dependent on breed and if any threat to a human call the police. Despite saying that I in reality would be so angery I personally would probably throw the book at them and be unrational.

So sorry for your loss and your poor DH not sure how you deal with that. Xx

The vet didn't charge DH anything when he went to collect OldBoy. They said to go to the car park and a nurse would bring him out of the side door, so DH went and got him...he's now wondering if he should have gone back and paid so we'll go and ask on Tuesday and drop in a thank you card as the staff were so kind to DH, and brilliant with me when our other cat needed to be put down last year.

I don't want any money off the neighbours; OldBoy was priceless, and we're not ready to get another cat yet.

I popped through the gap today it's the neighbours fence & hedge, but we've always repaired the fence when needed and trimmed the hedge in both sides because it was easy for DH to do, but our previous neighbour would have needed to find someone to do it for her. I popped into next doors garden today because from our side you can hardly see the gap, and as the gap is near the bottom of the garden I presumed it was hard to spot, but I was surprised to see from their garden the gap is really obvious. . Even if you didn't expect your dog to chase a cat, you'd expect to lose it just by a dog being curious.

The dog was small with brown curly hair and wild eyes according do DH. I'd guess that's some sort of terrier.

I haven't reported to the police. It says on the council website Dog Wardens deal with dog nuisance, so I could report to them, but not sure if there is any point?

All I want is an apology from the new neighbour and for them to ensure the dog never comes into my garden again.

Please report it to the dog warden.
And write your neighbours a polite letter telling them what happened and asking them to secure the boundary.
It needs to be in writing.