At wits' end with neighbour's cats

[idrinkandiknowthings]

I have two cats. Neighbour has two cats. Mine very rarely venture out of the back garden and they certainly don't go into anyone else's house.

My next door neighbour is only young with two small children. She has two -extremely adorable cats - but they always seem to be outside and I can't open my back door without them darting in to find my cats' food bowls. I've seen them eat and they're ravenous. although they appear healthy. They seem to prefer sitting and sleeping in my garden than their own. They're literally always there.

I like having my French door open but it's getting to the stage where it's a major operation: make sure kitchen door is closed, make sure living room door is closed, alternate the two. My DD and I actually use water pistols on them to deter them, which works, but we can't stand guard with them all day and evening.

My cats swing between getting agitated and ignoring them.

I don't know why I'm posting to be honest. I thought about a cat screen but I believe they're not that effective. Thought about one of those electronic cat deterrents but that's going to affect our cats. Thought about going to speak to the neighbour but she's otherwise a good neighbour and I don't want any issues.

sigh

You have to talk to her about it! If you can do it in a non confrontational way and say you’re just worried there’ll be a fight or something that says you’re concerned

As you can't force her to keep her cats on her property, I would look at cat-proofing your garden to keep your cats in, and her cats out.

Spray them with water.

I would suspect they prefer your house and garden because they’re free of small children.

Take lots of photos of them and post about their antics on MN. Worked for me 🤣

She literally says she does that in the op.

they are cats! if you think your cats don't sneak into other peoples houses, then wrong... they do!

we had an issue with neighbours cats coming into ours, and we fixed it with a cat flap that reads the miro-chip.. so it only lets only my cats in.

because our neighbours cats now can't get in, they have lost interest in our garden and we see them very rarely now.

sadly i had similar neighbours and her 3 cats ended up becoming strays which was sad, the kids just ragged the cats about too much. i think we finally managed to catch a couple and they were re-homed in the end, but theres still one knocking about which has been adopted by all the cat lovers of the street bless him.

I had this with my neighbours cat. I put my csts food on the upstairs landing where next doors cat could not find it and she stopped coming in.

My cats go into either side neighbours.

I dread hearing them opening their back doors.

One has a baby. The other an indoor rabbit.

I just don't know what I can do to stop it.

To what end though?

I have 4 cats. 2 of them go into others houses because people encourage them. 1 of them rarely comes home now as one neighbour got him a kennel for their garden!!

I know op isn't encouraging them, but cats can roam. Speaking to the owner is basically asking them to keep their cats indoors

We have an outdoor turned practically indoor cat, she could not let them out at certain times or something- I wouldn’t want to know my neighbour was miserable because of my cats!

It's a fairly expensive solution but you can get microchip pet bowls. We had to do that when one of our cats was on a specific diet for his health to prevent him eating the other food/ the other cats eating his hideously expensive medicated food.

They only open for the programmed cat's microchip or you can get collar tags. At least that'll stop them eating your cat's food even if it won't keep them out of the house.

I don't have cats yet I have my neighbour's 2 practically living in my garden. I can't leave my door or window open otherwise they come in.
I nearly tread on them as they get under my feet.
She's out all day and I'm in (wfh in my garden office) so I guess they like the company and my garden gets more sun.

Flat cats screens, cannot recommend them enough.

My chonk can climb up them and they stay on secure.

www.flatcats.co.uk

I'm no help but I opened my front door the other day and a random cat attempted to saunter in.......I don't have cats or cat food🤷‍♀️

Thanks for all your suggestions. I did speak to my neighbour and her partner. They were very calm but could only say that their cats get out of an open window. Obviously, I can't expect them to keep their windows closed all the time. The only thing I would take issue with is allowing cats out at night. Mine are kept indoors overnight, always. I got up this morning and when I went downstairs and opened the curtains next door's cats were curled up together on a chair in my garden. It's heart breaking and infuriating in equal measure.

I'm going to keep the living room door shut and employ the water pistols in the hope that they lose interest because they can't get to the food.

What is the issue with cats being out at night? Mine would literally destroy my house if I forced them to stay in!!

Stop your cat food being accessible and move on.

As previous posters have said you are wrong if you think your cats have never ventured into someone else's house!

My neighbour moans constantly about my boy.

However she leaves bowls of cat food next to an open window all day and isn't prepared to change this.

My boy thinks she wants him to come to an all you can eat buffet.

Microchip feeder would solve it overnight, the boy isn't stupid.

What's wrong with cats being outside overnight?

There really isn't an issue with cats being outside overnight. We do call ours in when we go to bed, but if they decide to ignore us and be dirty stop outs they are welcome to it.

I guess danger of foxes/traffic etc. We always were happy for ours to be in at night (and they were happy for a warm bed!). The only time we had problems getting them in was when the weather was warm and it still looked warm out.

More cat RTA happen overnight.

Interestingly, there was actually a study done in Cambridge that shows it makes little to no difference.

https://lostpetresearch.com/2011/04/factors-that-may-predispose-cats-to-road-traffic-accidents/

Young, male cats are most at risk, especially un-neutered ones.

My son has done this, to keep his cats in and to keep others out. It works a treat. He bought the stuff and did it himself, with the help of his dad and brother