Really can't decide whether we should suck this up, or talk to the neighbours about it - especially as I know you can't make a cat do a damn thing it doesn't want to!
We have a cat, and an unlocked cat flap because she goes in and out 24 hours a day. Had no problems with other cats coming in for years. Six months ago our neighbours got a cat, who's turning out to be a bit of a bully. During the first few months the neighbours cat started coming into the house and fighting with our cat; admittedly our cat was a bit of a wimp which didn't help! We've had a few occasions where we were woken at 3am by the cats actually fighting in our bedroom, and I was thinking about getting a different cat flap, but then they seemed to sort themselves out. Now they aren't friends but tolerate each other and will be in our garden without fighting.
I've suspected for a while that the neighbours cat has been coming in and helping herself to our cat's dried food, but there's not often much available (we tend to put down only what she needs to eat) and it wasn't a problem. I have to say I don't mind at all someone else's cat being in our house if they're not causing problems. While chatting to the neighbours a few weeks ago I mentioned their cat occasionally trying to steal food and they said they've put her on a diet.
Which leads to the last few nights, when I've come downstairs to find more often than not that our kitchen caddy has been tipped over the food gone through - only when we've put bones in there. Our cat has never done this. At first I thought it had just been knocked over while the cats were fighting or one of them was chasing a mouse, but this morning the bag was clearly ripped and the chicken bones strewn all over the floor.
Anyway - first time cat owner here, is it up to us to pay and install a microchip cat flap (which I've always been slightly unsure about in case it breaks when we're on holiday or something), or is it up to the neighbours to try and keep their cat in at night if it's so destructive?