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...

If the cat will let you, check underneath for dry bits.

A cat that's had a hosepipe turned on her or a bucket of water thrown, should still have dryish fur eg where her legs meet her body, I'd've thought.

If she's absolutely completely wringing wet, I reckon she must've fallen into a pond.

When one of my cats was young she literally ran into a pond. We saw her. It was covered in green algae and I think she assumed it was solid. Bless her

@Bookgrrrl

So we aren't showed to throw a bucket of water over a cat to permanently scare it away away from our garden but that cat is allowed to go roaming and killing wildlife? Yeah ok.

And I've owned cats myself. I was reasonable and kept them on my property. Ask the Peter with free roaming cats expect everybody to love them and then cry when they get his over by a car and pancake phased. It's the owners fault for not being a reasonable responsible owner.

My cat has had some near misses with my pond and also once ended up in wheelie bin of my neighbours that they had left open and he didn't realise.

I think it's perfectly OK to post on Facebook that you are concerned and curious and did anyone see anything.

At least he came straight home to you so obviously feels safe and secure with his new home.

If you don't want anything happen to your cat, I'd suggest keeping it on your property.

Oh bore off there’s as many feral as owned cats in the UK. The mink and crayfish are just as much of a threat as pet cats.

If my cat or my neighbours cat has gotten hold of a creature (rabbits, pigeons, mice, you name it!).

They do not respond to a mug of water or a spray with a pistol.

The only way they will drop the animal is if I go full hosepipe or bucket.

Much preferably to picking up random body parts strewn across the garden…

School holidays 😄,it'll be fine.

I have a cat shitting in my garden, really nasty awful runny shits on my artificial turf.
This turf happens to be the area my 4 year old son plays on, as it's soft so if he falls he can't hurt himself and now I am out there every day bagging up it's shit and bleaching my grass, so my son doesn't catch some awful illness off someone's cat (thumb sucker).
There have been days where it's been so bad he couldn't play outside in the sun.

I fucking hate outdoor cats and will quite happily soak them, keep them off other people's property. 😡
We have put reed fencing up now, a supersonic cat scarer and some metal cat scarers.. All out of our own pocket..hopefully it doesn't come back.

Keep your cat indoors where it can stay safe and dry.

Any cat that loiters in my garden harassing the birds is fair game. 💦🔫

Can you not make a catio or cat proof garden so she can only go on your garden?

No, of course it's not acceptable to harm an animal.
I'm not an avid cat lover and there is absolutely nothing I can do about my neighbour's cat coming in and periodically checking the whole house....

Twice 😂

Bless her
I always say to my cats I am glad they’re neutered as I wouldn’t want their genes to be passed on. Not that I’m suggesting they are thick or anything. Just swimming in the shallow end of the Gene Pool of Life

Nasty awful runny shits are much more likely to be foxes.
it’s a greyish green colour , runny and stinks

Highly unlikely anyone was fast enough to catch a cat and soak it that much - because no amount of spraying with a hosepipe would do that given how fast cats move.

more likely your cat fell into a pond

Water won't do your cat any harm. I've had cats fall in the bath, the sink, paddling pools, ponds... I have, to be fair, had more than my share of idiot felines. So if your cat has been squirted it may well learn a lesson, and if it's fallen in water it ought to avoid that place in future (although, if mine were anything to go by, maybe not).

Could well be an open water butt . Ours has a lid but I’m sure a lot of people are leaving theirs open to maximise any rain.

Cat poo has a very distinctive smell and I own an indoor cat so know what it looks like. It's brown.. Also outdoor cats tend to pick up some nasty parasites from drinking dirty water etc.
I have seen a couple cats jumping into and out of our garden.. Fortunately they don't seem to like the new fencing so hopefully they stay away from now on.

Water as a deterrent isnt cruel

Why are people talking about harning cats. The OPs cat got wet! It could have fallen into a paddling pool or a pond. At worst it's been sprayed with a hose, but she doesn't know what's happened and has decided to blame her neighbour! Some of you are crazy, keep your pets indoors if you are that precious about them.

I had a cat once who jumped out of an upstairs roof onto the sail shade. That collapsed dunking the cat in the middle of the paddling pool 😂

It may have been a house, but who knows.

I think a cat falling in a pond is more likely than a cat not dodging a bucket of water. 🤷🏻‍♀️. Might be wrong. Guess if water was dumped out a window they might not see it coming and get soaked.

I do think the open water butt is the most likely explanation considering the state of the cat.

I just realised that one of the neighbours has a water butt that does not seem to have a lid own on the other side of my shade at the end of my garden.

Could be that the cat jumped on the compost bin they have next to their water butt and somehow ended up in the water butt...

She seems to be doing OK now. Thank you to those who asked about her welfare!

I’d definitely ask the neighbour to put a lid on it. Major drowning risk.

Sometimes they see a water butt from ground level, assume it is solid, and leap up to lie on top of it. It is actually dangerous if it is half full and they can neither stand nor jump out.

I would say "she won't do it twice" but if someone's cat will jump into a paddling pool twice...