Cat came home completely soaked - upset that neighbour might have done this

[Startingagainandagain]

My rescue cat walked completely drenched and dripping with water. As if she had been swimming in a pool!

We are having a really sunny day so nothing to do with the weather.

I have dried her as much as I could and made sure she was not hurt.

She is now hiding behind a curtain and trying to dry herself.

I am really upset because there is a strong possibility that a neighbour (not my neighbours on each side who have cats and are animal lovers, but someone else) did that to her.

I would understand someone using a water pistol to warn the cat away, but this is not acceptable.

She is a lovely rescue cat who had a really bad start in life and she only spends a couple of hours outside during the day and mostly stick to my garden.

The house is also full of muddy prints now....

There is always the possibility that she feel into a pond or child inflatable swimming pool but how likely would that be?

I am sorely tempted to post something on the local Facebook group warning other cat owners in the area...

We have a paddling pool up and our cats keep sitting on the edge of it peering/leaning in and very interested in the water. Maybe your cat did this and fell into a neighbor's paddling pool?

My neighbours cats shit on my garden. I do throw pots of water at them. It’s stinky and gross. It’s only water. It will not harm your cat and perhaps will teach it a lesson not to go in that garden and instead to shit on your garden.

Maybe it fell into a paddling pool. Maybe a neighbour chucked a bucket of water on it because it was crapping in her garden. You don't know and have no way of knowing. Cat is uninjured is the main thing. If you don't want it to get wet in future keep it in the house.

This is fine. Whereas posting a ‘warning’ when you don’t know what happened is not.

She could have fallen in somewhere, or someone could have drenched her. It's hard to say.

My neighbour chucked a bucket of water over a stray cat on our boundary fence once. It was an icy day and the poor thing was soaked through. Her dog was forever getting into my garden, I never made any attempt to keep her in there or take her back after that.

I have cats. I'd have no problem with someone throwing water at them if they're being a nuisance.

Hope your kitty is ok though!

Yeah I have had to do this to my own cat and another one fighting on my pathway .
Didn't like doing it but its better than either of them being injured in their cat fight.

Yabu

My neighbours’ cats (5 regular visitors) are the bane if my existence. They shit in my veg bed, catch birds in my garden (went from to approx 6 nests a season to none now) and all the newts have disappeared.

Keep your cat to your own garden.

Cat fencing for pet owners

There are multiple companies who offer this kind of product, Makes for happy neighbours. Or build them a catio attached to a window so they can go outside as they please. I love my cats, but don't assume that my neighbours feel the same. Plus, it keeps the cats safe.

You could keep her safe by putting a catio or fence attachments on to stop her risking abuse, killed in traffic, poisoning, being stolen, injured, etc.

My cats come home like this twice.. she's jumped off a fence into next doors paddling pool... Twice!

I know it shouldn't really be up to you to solve this issue, but we have found used coffee grounds sprinkled on our veg beds to be a good deterrent. Added bonus is that it's a good fertiliser.

Disclosure: we have a cat, she was the one crapping in our flower beds and our direct neighbour has been told she is welcome to soak the cat if she's a nuisance.

I’d be tempted to cat proof for her safety if you think a neighbours done it on purpose.

My rescue has had a bad time too and I dread anymore harm coming to her at human hands.

If it was a human on purpose you might find her sticking to your garden from now on.

Could a moving sprinkler have caught her by surprise?

I doubt a hose or bucket would completely soak a cat, its underside would be unlikely to be much wetted. And it's not likely anyone else could have caught a shy rescue cat and chuck it into water.

By far most likely it fell into a pool of some sort.

One of our cats when I was growing up jumped through a window straight into the twin tub washing machine. My parents had fun trying to rinse him, properly immersing a cat isn't easy!

It could be due to anything.

It's still just water and won't hurt her. In this weather she may even feel nice and cool

She came home to you so she loves you and feels safe with you.

If a bad experience happened then she won't repeat it. Cats are not stupid. Don't worry.

If one of your neighbours did this to warn your cat off, then she will learn to avoid their territory.

If she accidentally fell into someone's water butt or something, it will be a one off.

Unless someone picked up your cat and plunged it into a sink or bucket it's far more likely the cat fell into something.
One of my cats comes in soaking because rain doesn't bother her and she loves being outside! It could be pouring out and she just sits there!

The cat I had growing up once fell into our ornamental fishpond chasing a dragonfly, he got covered in weed and very wet! Very embarrassing for cat! Given that it’s been hot and a lot of people may have paddling pools etc out, it could be your cat did something similar? Or mis-jumped down from a fence and landed in one?

I understand your concern about neighbours, one of our cats once came in very wet from a supersoaker and I was furious, because it was winter and -2 outside! (I know who it was, and I know they used a soaker on cats) If he’d been a stray or lost, rather than having a warm home to come back to, he could have died.

Free roaming cats have devastated our wildlife and lots of the species are endangered. Cats do not discriminate. They also poo in flower beds, come in through open windows and steal food from countertops etc and poo /wee in other people's houses.

You need (and all cat owners) to cat proof your garden to protect your rescue cat and and to protect the native wildlife. Cats do not NEED to roam beyond your own garden and house any more than humans need to live in cages and hunt for boar with a spear and forage berries.

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8100023/Cats-catastrophic-impact-local-wildlife-allowed-roam-free.html

Or shitting all over their garden.
It's nobody's duty that comes automatically to like your cat.

For everyone saying they use water to deter cats/break up fights, it’s very rare you actually need to get the cats wet to do this. On the few occasions I have needed to break up a cat fight I have sprayed the hose very close to the cats and they’ve always shifted pronto!

I was also wondering about her falling into a water butt... as it would explain the state she was in.

At least she managed to get herself out if that was the case. Bless.

Nobody has to like someone else’s cat. That doesn’t make cruelty to a cat ok. Chasing it out of the garden or spraying a little bit of water in its direction is one thing, but anything more is traumatising and possibly harming an animal that doesn’t understand what fences mean. It’s never acceptable to actively harm an animal.