Neighbour leaving cat out every night

[RubyGoat]

It's currently below freezing here at night, I think it was about -3 last night, a couple of nights ago it was -5, & felt even colder. We have several inches of snow a few days ago. Their cat is let out every evening but usually comes back by 10-11. They don't let it in & it goes away again. It usually comes back throughout the night, we hear it meowing at the door until they let it in sometime between 7-10 in the morning. Regularly we hear it there every couple of hours through the night. We're high up on the edge of a hill, no shelter & it's pretty windy some nights. There are also diggers etc around as the houses are new build & some houses are still being finished, the cat obviously runs away when the diggers come as they're noisy.

I've never had a cat. Would love to, but I'm allergic. When I get the milk bottles in the morning, the cat sometimes tries to get into our house.

Would you appreciate a knock on the door if your cat was waiting outside? Obviously not in the middle of the night. I'm hoping they're going to get a cat flap.

OP I don't know what part of the country you're in but it's bitterly cold pretty much everywhere tonight.

If your neighbours don't let their cat inside tonight they deserve to be reported to the RSPCA.

Can you at least provide some shelter for the poor cat or let it sleep in your shed etc. With a box and some warm blankets.?

We don't have a shed yet. Literally ordered one a couple of days ago, as it happens. (It's surprisingly difficult to find small sheds in stock anywhere at this time of year!)

We're in Yorkshire. And we're at 160m elevation.

I'll see if we've an empty large plant pot we can turn over & a piece of fleece or something. Poor thing.

Something like this:

alleycatadvocates.org/communitycat-care-center/creating-winter-shelters/

Or these?

balconygardenweb.com/diy-outdoor-cat-house-ideas-feral-cat-shelters/

They also need food to help them keep warm.

Survival does not have to be happy. It can be cruel and miserable. I judge anyone letting their cats outside in this weather.

Lining the bottom with vet bed can help wick away the wetness from them. Don’t forget that heat escapes above as well.

Just to play devils advocate.

Our cat is a total bastard.

He has a thoroughly lovely home, which he has access to 24/7 via a chip cat flap he is the only cat that can use it.

We feed him lovely food, and really want to love him, we buy him treats and toys.

He hates us and continually tries to move in with our neighbour who up until recently was letting him in. He'd cry outside the neighbours window in the night to be let in.

So.... it could be that he does access that house, but it's not his house. If you are 100% sure it's his house, knock the door and say he's keeping you awake with the miaowing?

Mines a bloody nightmare and likes to roam at night and sit in in the day lounging round! He has a shelter in the garden for when he won't come in but he almost never uses it!

Our cat flap is in the wall. Cat is always in and out. The flap does not let any cold air in.

I don't have a cat flap, well I do but its nailed shut, as the bastard brings in anything and everything, doesn't matter if its live, freshly dead, dead for weeks or next doors sausages.

OP any update this morning? Did you see/hear the cat overnight? (Really hope not as it was a very very cold night, hope they let their cat inside)

It's definitely the neighbour's cat. I just went and sat out there with it for a bit. It's friendly but felt a bit cold. I feel like ringing their doorbell TBH.

If you get on with your neighbours ok you could just ask them why they don’t let it in but personally I’d make or buy a weatherproof cat shelter because I couldn’t bear to just leave a cat to potentially freeze to death because it has shit owners.

@Newfluff haha laughed my head off! 😆
It is soooooo true! We no longer have a cat flap for this reason too!

Seriously, cats will come and go as they please...they know their own mind and no human will tell them otherwise! I have two old cats who love to be out at night whatever the weather and yes they will cry to come in early morning but purely for food and then out the door again. I do have a cat house in the garden that has self heating blankets in it (from the cats own body heat) and some blankets that I regularly take out and wash and they do use it. Needless to say my eldest cat is 20 and the other is 16!

Ours come and go whatever the weather, but they don't like rain.

It needs shelter if it is out. I grew up in a farming community and the cats were permanently outside but had good shelter in barns etc.

I used to live next door to someone who did this. Two cats, no litter tray and a one way flap that let them out only, not back in. Poor cats were faced with the impossible choice of staying in the warm but also needing a wee or poo. They were out at all hours of the day and night and used to sit outside miaowing in vain to come back in (owners at work all day).
One of them used to spend a lot of time sheltering from the elements in my open porch and in poor weather I would occasionally get cat lovers assuming she was mine and knocking to tell me that she wanted to come in. Poor cats, it broke my heart.