Advice re Neighbour Issue

[squadronleader87]

Looking for a bit of advice dealing with a neighbour issue.

Yesterday my cat disappeared for over 24hrs. He’s never been away for more than an hour or two at a time before so we were frantic. It was sub-zero last night, and we were out looking last night and from first light this morning. I’m 39wks pregnant, so was totally distraught.

No sign this morning, but around lunchtime we saw our neighbour was home. DH went out and asked if she’d seen him. She immediately went on the defensive denying she took him (we never said she did). The cat then started meowing from her garage! DH retrieved him and we’ve got him back.

The neighbour has an unhealthy interest in my cat, we’ve seen her taking him in before and we assume feeding. We’ve repeatedly asked her to stop but no success. Last night was extreme though, she’s never gone so far before. What can I do to prevent this escalating further?

With all kindness: Keep your cat indoors and this problem will disappear.

Letting a domestic animal roam free when the nights drop below zero is not responsible pet ownership. If one of my neighbors were doing so, I'd probably take an "uhealthy interest" in the animal as well.

I say this as a veteran cat owner whose pets go out on leashes only, or not at all.

Helpful.

My cat went out at 10am - it was not subzero at that time.

Is cat proofing your garden an option? It would keep him safe as well as preventing the neighbour encouraging him in. We cat proofed ours and it's a relief knowing he's not going to be run over, hurt or enticed away.

I'm glad he's home and hopefully someone with better ideas than me will be along soon!

That could be an option as we have sole ownership of the outdoor space at our property. Do you have any advice or tips from when you did it? Could be a project for me on maternity leave!

My husband did ours (and turned it into a project to redo the garden and get himself a new shed!) and it was a lot cheaper than having a company do it. He's put netting on top of the fence to stop our cat getting out and others getting in. Have a look at the Protect a Pet and Securacat websites for ideas - I'll try and find a picture of ours.

It doesn't look pretty (although not as bad as I was expecting!) but it's a huge weight off my mind as the UK cat killer has killed near us, there are kids using catapults on pigeons and no doubt wouldn't mind catapulting a cat and some idiots speed along this road.

Here’s our cat proofing

I'd cat proof op, she sounds a bit odd. I fuss next doors cat but I don't take him in the house.

Definitely yes to catproofing. If you can't do whole garden try a lean-to arrangenent. I don't have pics on my phone any more but I had a thread on here not long ago about the "catio" we had built. Took my DP and DF 2 days and cost us under £200 for the wood and netting. The cats love it