Neighbours Comment

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I have two 7 month old female cats who the whole family adore. They are neutered, microchipped and vaccinated. We have decided to keep them indoors until they are at least one.

There are a coupe of reasons for this. We want to make sure that if they come across another cat that they are big enough to be able to defend themselves, a previous stray young cat that we were taken care of got knocked down and killed on our road and one of the cats is quite small for her age and not a great at jumping.

We bring them out in the garden on their leads three times a day and they have lots of indoor toys.

So last night when it cooled down my son took the smaller cat into the garden of her lead (We have done this before) and she usually just stays in the same spot. We have a very large garden with a 12 ft back wall and a 7ft fence between our neighbours garden. There is however a small gap under the fence due to ivy. So our little cat managed to get into neighbours garden. We tried calling her but she wouldn't come back and we know she couldn't jump the wall. Next door have a labradoodle and he is quite big and aggressive. He barks/growlswhen we hang out the washing or open the bathroom window.

My DH called our neighbour over the fence as their back door was open but they ignored him. He knocked in and they let him into their garden to get our cat. She was terrified and hissed and arched her back at DH as he tried to get close.

The neighbour then commented that "you better get her soon before Jack eats her". I was disgusted by this comment as our children were in our back garden and could have heard her,they didn't. My DH said,she was only stating the obvious..

Sorry for the long post ,just wanted to give all the information. I've told DH that we can't let them out until the fence is fixed and he agreed. Still so worried though that they could find a way into the neighbours garden and be savaged by her dog. We love them to bits and have considered keeping them as indoor cats but is that cruel to them. On the other hand I couldn't bare anything horrible happening to them.

Once your cats realise there's a big dog next door they're unlikely to be regular visitors though! They'll probably give that side a wide berth.

I'm just afraid that they will realise that too late. They are extremely docile and gentle, not like any cats I've had when I was younger.

Ime dcats jump when necessary and avoid /manage ddogs also.
Keeping dcats indoors isn't an ideal life imo.
They aren't dc op. Let them out.

They're gorgeous. Thing is, your neighbour hasn't done anything wrong - HE doesn't want them in his garden, YOU don't want them in his garden - someone needs to have a word with the cats!

You can block up the gap before letting the cats out again but you can't protect them against all eventualities in life. You do what you can, then they have to take their chances.

Beautiful little cats. Your mostly white one is the image of a lovely girl we had for many years. If you do let her out don’t forget the suncream for those white ears.

I would make sure any gaps are thoroughly blocked and let them out under supervision initially. I would think the dog barking a lot would be likely to deter them from going anywhere near him.

Agree the comment was a bit insensitive, but try not to worry too much. Unless they are awful heartless people, I would hope they wouldn't actually let their dog savage one of your cats. It sounds like you keep a close eye on the cats in the garden, and if they are always on a lead they are going to be pretty safe 🙂

Would it be a possibility to completely catproof your garden?

@,Thank you, Yes,we have suncream for her little pink ears 😻
The ivy is embedded in the fence and has it warped so will have to get DH to do a job on it.

@Fe345fleur, thank you, they are nice people but she made a comment that she didn't like cats and was scared of them.

@BoxOfCats, Its not possible to cat proof in the near future as we are starting building work in September. That's another reason we want to keep them in for a bit longer. We have a very large garden and for my own selfish reasons would prefer to cat proof it but I don't think it's possible.

Oh FFS keeping cats indoors is NOT cruel....it is safer for them and safer for Birds....

Also it sounds like it was your neighbour was being light hearted, people have different sense of humours. No need to get so easily offended...

@Blackmoggy, No need to curse and be so aggressive,calm down.

If you call "FFS" cursing and being aggressive then you really are a delicate little petal.

I can see you're very easily offended....😂

@Blackmoggy 😚😂😂

keeping cats indoors is not cruel.

your neighbor’s statement was a simple statement of fact. If your cat is allowed to roam, it may be attacked or eaten.

I kept my 2 kittens in until they were about 14 months old. I always put them away and fed them at 4 pm. Now they don't wander far and always appear around 4 pm. We have dogs around us but they don't venture into the gardens after seeing them for the first time. The only way they are completely safe I suppose is to keep them in. But establishing a routine does help.

I remember overnight two awful male neighbours comment about how ‘she had got a bloody cat’ and then laughing about how one of their dogs tried to attack it. Then went into a story about how his childhood dog used to kill cats.

hated them from that moment on. Although my cat never went into that garden again!