My neighbour and my cats!

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I moved into my house in 2023. My neighbour told me immediately that she disliked cats. I had one cat at the time.
he had to be pts in dec 24. In Jan 25 I took in two kittens and then their littermate who had a failed adoption. The cats are now just over a year old.
My neighbour hates them being in her garden . They like sitting under her bird feeders. She says it stresses her out and that I should be responsible for my three cats and should not have got three cats.
what am I supposed to do? I can’t stop the cats from roaming.
the cats have to go through her garden to get to the cat flap in my garden- she is end of culdesac and I have no front door cat flap.
i have suggested she puts legal deterents on her fence and have agreed to quick release collars with bells- even though I know it will make little difference.
anyone else have to deal with this?

You can cat proof your fences. Cats should not be allowed to roam into neighbours gardens

Why don't you cat proof your garden?

Why do the cats have to go through her garden? How do you get into your home?

domestic cats have a right to roam, she could put bird feeders higher up. I wouldn't have a cat flap in the front door as even if its small, its still a slight risk of burglers. Other than the collars with bells, there's not much you can do.

Cat proof your shared fence?

You can stop your cats from roaming but it's difficult so most people take the easy option and don't bother.

She car put netting up round her garden. Several of my neighbours and I did that as fed up with cat pop and also preying on birds. It generally works if done robustly. You should have a way in for them thar doesn’t involve her garden

Your neighbour needs to put up and shut up. Cats are everywhere, it’s just a part of living somewhere like that. If she doesn’t like it then go and live somewhere with no neighbours. That would be my advice to her, and I say this as someone who has cat proofed their own garden (live next to busy road). I wouldn’t have bothered if I lived in a quiet estate.

But they are.... So. ...

I’m a cat lover but if you are living in (say) a terraced house with a tiny garden, then 3 cats is excessive and I can sort of see her point. I don’t really understand your description of the layout, but I very much doubt there is absolutely nothing you can do to address her concerns. Cat proofing fences is very common. It just sounds like you won’t bother. 🤷‍♀️

Cats do kill a LOT of garden birds, she is quite right to be worried, and I say that as a cat owner with a garden full of birds!

Cats have a right to roam. It is her fence . The neighbour on the other side of me also has three cats and they go through her garden to get to the front of the house where their cat flap is.
i have being looking into a front door cat flap, tricky as i have beaded upvc panels rather than one flat panel- I don’t think it would make much difference as when I have the front door open all summer they still sit in her garden.🤷🏻‍♀️

This is so difficult. I had a cat who insisted on pooping on my neighbours front lawn and would swipe at their dog when he was in his own garden. I made a bed with no flowers and had lovely soft soil that I would rake over weekly and clean out daily. My cat decided this was a much more comfier place to poop which solved one problem. In the end I gave my neighbour a water bottle that when you squeezed it water shot out. I asked her to spray it at my cat when he hissed and tried to scratch her dog. I even did the same over the fence on occasion. It took a while but he realised he’d get wet when in that garden and it reduced massively. Took absolute ages. Perhaps you should buy your neighbour a few cat deterent devices . The only way to solve this is to give the cat a reason to choose an alternate. 3 cats is a lot of poo and bird killing. I have to admit I feel sorry for your neighbour. She can’t feed the wild life as it’s bate for your animals.

Do you have your own garden. It's hard to imagine the set up, can you make a diagram. Can you put a fence in front of hers in your garden

People are allowed to be upset and express their opinion about something that adversely affects them - even if they aren't actually able to do anything to stop it.

Yes, cats have the right to roam. Cat owners also have the right to be assholes by allowing their cats to roam.

You sound like a pretty crap neighbour. You have cat-proofed because it suits you but you wouldn't have done it to prevent your cats being a nuisance to your neighbours.

You can't do much without impacting on your cat's wellbeing. You don't say if your cats have actually caught any birds? My cat is an avid hunter yet rarely catches birds, and if he does it's usually fledglings, sadly. You could pay particular attention during those times if there are nests in nearby hedges. Most healthy birds are quite hard to catch, but the collars with bells will help as it warns the birds. Mine had one once but it was forever missing. You could try to agree to avoid letting the cats out at the time when the birds are most likely to be feeding, but I don't know what else.

Cats actually don’t have a right to roam but cat owners have no legal duty to restrain them from roaming. It’s often quoted as a right to roam. I’ve attached the summary from the CPL for reference. It’s clearly upsetting your neighbour so why not try to accommodate her in some way. You could put up cat proof fencing on your side to discourage your cats from going through her garden. Why not work with your neighbour on possible solutions rather than abdicating responsibility for the actions of animals you own? Help the woman out. It may work, it may not but at least you’ll have tried.

Next door’s cat killed three songbirds in ten days in October. I found two of the little bodies and it was very upsetting.

My husband delights in birds and has had to relocated bird feeders and spend a lot of time keeping the cat out. Sadly our terrier is now too old to chase them out.

So she has 6 cats roaming through her property daily, and dislikes cats. Can you not see how this would affect her enjoyment of her home? I’m a cat lover and I get how this would be distressing.

Honestly, I’d ignore her. If you live in suburbs cats are absolutely everywhere. My road seems to have more cats than people living here! I’ve also never met anyone who cat proofed their garden so I find that suggestion really strange when it comes up on MN.

Complaining about cats is like moaning about foxes and pigeons. They might be annoying if you don’t want them in your garden but there’s little you can do about it. At least they aren’t coming in to her house 😂

My neighbour has the end of culdesac house so her garden is completely different to everyone else’s .
Any cat can access her garden from a bank that starts at the end of the culdesac and continues into the bottom of her garden. So instead of a fence on that side she has this bank with a retaining wall.This bank is above all fence lines . The other fence in her garden is hers and is next to my garden. All cats go through her garden- not just mine.

You still haven't actually explained why you can't cat proof your garden and keep them on your property?

I am actually working with her on solutions. Even if I could afford to cat proof my garden all the other neighbour hood cats would go through her garden to get to the front of the houses as it like a natural path way. Her back and front and side garden are all linked as she is the end house with much more outdoor space to the side of her house.

Because they also go out if the front- the front is actually safer. Most cats on the street prefer to be at the front where they have access to woodland.