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...

Accidentally fallen into a pond was my guess too. My old cat did it a couple of times when she was startled/greebled into jumping a fence forgetting there was a water feature on the other side.

Whatever the cat did, I suspect it won't happen again.

Having a litter tray doesn't mean a cat will use it

Awww OP this breaks my heart, my cat is my world and I’d be so sad if this happened to her.

I have nothing useful to say other than sorry to hear this, hope your poor little baby is okay!

We had a cat - very independent- who came home one day soaking wet apart from his head, which was bone dry. My DM assumed he had fallen into a water but. 😂

Another time he came home with one side of his whiskers cut off. It was a clean cut. He was very unfriendly to everyone so how anyone got close to him was a mystery. A man about 4 houses up from us had an outdoor avery and the cat would bother the birds.

Another time he came home and someone had spat on his side. He was most displeased.

Another time he came home and a bird/s had pooed all down his back. He was mortified.

He was very eventful. He slept in an old dolls pram with a synthetic sheep fleece he would suck and knead. He hated being stroked but LOVED to be brushed. Funny man he was.

I've drenched cats before now, including my own. How was I supposed to know that they were busy being a mighty and invisible hunter and destroyer of mice sleeping in and behind the plants?

Iv chucked a cup of water over a cat before. The thing is always coming into my flat, and nothing else works- it's scared of nothing that cat! I don't want it near my sons cot (in the room nearest the front door) with its dirty paws and arsehole all over where my son sleeps. I can longer keep my door open in summer cos of the invasion of tons of cats around here. I'm not sorry. My son comes first and I already concede to keeping the front door closed when I'd rather not 🤷‍♀️ cats and thier owners can't have it all ways!

What's with all the hosepipe soaking 🤨

All you need to do is run to them, clapping and shouting.

I do it myself to a big bully that likes to grab my own cat by the neck.

My dogs are also outraged it does this, so this is the safest tactic 😁

Grab a loud whistle, not a hose pipe.

I tried EVERYTHING with that cat. Everything! It is scared of nothing. If I can choose between paying for some device or a whistle or whatever, or free water, then the water it is. That cat already stops me having my door open during summer. And the others. God knows if they have fleas, or would scratch my son. Or whatever else. So buying stuff versus a bit of water? No brainer. It's water. Not acid. Ffs

In my view that's excessive if someone did it. The cat will bugger off with a small spray from a hose or water pistol. I guess there could have been a fight and the owner felt that's the only way to break it up, or didn't have a hose etc to hand.
My cat did once jump onto a bucket full of water and it knocked over, fully dispersed on him. He was soaked and shocked, but it was entirely his own fault.
I think for now just make sure he's ok. You may never know what happened.

We have a cat proofed garden. It doesn't stop birds coming in so they could still be a target. I've never done anything to encourage birds in though as a) it doesn't seem fair knowing there's a cat there and b) I don't really like birds. Harry was hardly a mighty hunter though!

If a cats come in soaked, I'd assume it had pissed someone off. Hopefully it's learned it's lesson. It's just water.

I have a 'super soaker' water pistol that I use on cats who sunbathe (and crap) on my flat roof. I drench them. And if they're in my garden.

I have acute allergy/asthma around cats so I need them away. I've been hospitalised in the past from them.

One cat has wandered in the back door recently (now shut) and hopped in an open fanlight (now have now windows open on trickle vents) and made a few curled up spots on beds. Changing all the beds and washing them meant I slept on the settee trying to breathe for two nights, plus a nebuliser.

I will happily soak any cat on my property because my life is more important than them coming home soggy.

If you don't want your cat potentially hospitalising people (when the NHS is stretched enough) or them getting home soaked with water, maybe just keep them indoors or make a garden that is impossible for them to wander from.

People go on about dogs killing people. Well, cats can kill me. And am I not allowed to open bedroom windows or a back door without some random feline wandering in and out?? Apparently, not. So, I have to keep everything closed.

Keep your cats indoors or have a catio thing so they don't roam. You wouldn't accept a dog roaming around your garden.

If you won't, then expect them to come back soaking wet.

Well he is a nasty piece of work and I’m assuming he can scan a cat from 50:paces as a lot of cats are non collared for safety but now the law demands they are microchipped.
What happens is the “feral” he shoots is chipped
He cannot repair the damage

The thing with hosepipe soaking compared to your happy clapping is one gives the cat an incentive not to come back and the other, well it just doesnt.

Can you not see the difference? Neither hurts the cat in any way.

He's obviously thick as well as well as an arsehole if he thinks all cats without collars are feral. Hopefully the idiot will do himself an injury one day

It sounds more like she has fallen in to a pond or something. We have three cats and a new one has moved in locally and is terrorising them, so much so that one lost control of her bladder trying to get in the flap. It will sit and taunt them through the window. We resorted to a water pistol but I doubt our aim would be good enough to completely soak. It’s more a deterrent.

I am a cat-lover, if my cat came in wet I'd be so shocked as she doesn't leave our garden (lazy and has 2 favourite bushes to sleep under).

Had it been any of my previous cats - natural romers - I'd think good, you know to avoid that place/person. They can dry off and it's a deterrent, after all, a kick would be worse.

I am a cat owner and doubt that anyone is more dotty about cats than I am. That said, I gave my neighbour a super soaker water pistol to deter one of them from climbing up their bird table and sitting inside it (it worked). Most recently our older cats have been spooked by a neighbour's intact Tom spraying around the place (he didn't used to do this before, I think it's a dominance thing). Anyway, the trusty super soaker has done its job and he has stopped spraying - or is keeping his distance. Water is an excellent cat deterrent and, if that is how OP's cat got wet, poor puss will likely never go to that garden again.

I would say this is cruelty to an animal that is generally known to hate even a small amount of water. Would you do it to your dog? No? Why do it to a cat then? Do you think the cat has any idea that you would be angry? It's just going to the toilet - it doesn't understand! Would you hose down your toddler with cold water for pooing? No!

Cats are clever. Your cat won’t go back to wherever it happened again.

Maybe kitty fell into a pond, one of my cats was always doing this, she'd try to catch a bug and fall in every time.

I have cats and I have an awful cat in the neighbourhood who just walks round starting fights - even in my most sustained attempts to spray water on it with a hosepipe it’s too fast to get anything other than a bit of a spray - the fact your cat is drenched doesn’t sound at all like it’s from a person and much more likely it’s fallen in a pond trying to catch a fish - I had a cat that was constantly trying to get my neighbours Koi Carp and he fell in their pond and came home drenched. Do any of your neighbours have a pond? Regardless, if you are going to let your cat out then you can’t get all bent out of shape if someone has thrown water on him, not everyone appreciates cats in their garden unfortunately and the truth is that a bit of water won’t hurt your cat.

Local cat often obsesses at the edge of our pond, fantasising about fish murder. Wouldn't strike me as surprising if a cat fell into a pond whilst aiming at a fish.

Equally, though, a bucket of water or a LOW pressure hose seems like a not unreasonable solution to constant cat crap in the garden (I haven't ever done it myself as there hasn't been much cat crap in mine, probs bcs of the resident terrier

I have been sat in my garden and seen my cat fall into the pond whilst after a fish…
He was completely drenched and most put out so it’s possible she fell into something similar