My neighbour and my cats!

[BigButtons]

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?

Ok so it seems like all the cats in the area use her garden, which probably means they also all use it as a giant litter tray so I can appreciate why she's frustrated.

Your cats may like the woodland area but to get to it, it seems like they have to pass through her garden and back again to get home so despite telling her to put up deterrents she can't actually do anything to keep them out as they otherwise wouldn't be able to leave your garden which you don't want as otherwise you would have cat proofed it to keep them in and safe.

I feel for the poor women she probably cleans up an exceedingly large amounts of cat poo each day and none of her neighbours seem to care.

@BigButtons , you aren’t responsible for all the other neighbourhood cats though but you are responsible for yours so find some savings in your life and put some cat proof fences up to stop your cats being a nuisance. If you really can’t afford that then you should get rid of them because you shouldn’t have pets you can’t afford the accompanying expense of.
I wonder if you came here expecting to get a great many people saying cats have a right to roam, your neighbour is being unreasonable etc? And yes I hate cats and they get a very unfriendly reception if they wander in to my garden.

I can continue to investigate getting a cat flap in the front door which I will do.

I don’t have cats. But I know cats are free to roam, in her shoes if cat proof my property and ‘shoot’ them with the hose pipe if it bothered me that much, I’m sure that would put them off going there eventually.
In your shoes I’d get a front flap if that helped and try to cat proof as much as I could.

Those suggesting cat proofing gardens obviously live on estates. It is not a given that one can cat proof a garden. We have hedges which also allow foxes and hedgehogs access to our garden, as well as cats. Nature thrives here. Our biggest decimator of birds is the Sparrowhawk, followed by the Magpies in the Spring raiding eggs and baby birds. Now that is upsetting.

I can see this from both points of view. I have cats who've always roamed but while that's legally allowed I don't think we get to shrug our shoulders when it pisses our neighbours off.

One of ours decided to use next door as a litter tray so we recreated the stoney bit from his garden in ours so they'd used that instead. We also offered to buy cat deterrents and told him we'd go over every day to pick up poo

How about you buy cat deterrents for your neighbour? It's a real shame for her that she doesn't get to enjoy her garden the way she wants to because of pets that don't even belong to her. I'd be making a big effort to resolve this for her.

Hardly relevant to the op who obviously lives in a built up area.

They don’t use her garden as a litter tray and she has never complained that they have. She has pretty much all shingle and container plants and very little bare earth. They use my litter tray at home most of the time.

Actually is not that built up- yes I live at the end of a very small terrace but the houses are surrounded by woodland at the back .

Nah. If she doesn't want cats in her garden then its up to her to stop them. Cats are allowed to roam. People might not like it but tough.

I was just giving an example of cats bothering neighbours. She wants to watch the birds in her garden which isn't unreasonable. Your cats (and others) are spoiling that for her.

Offer to buy her the deterrent. Keep them in at dawn and dusk when birds are more active. Or find out when she puts bird feed out and keep them in for a couple of hours around that time

A row of terraces is built up even if plonked in the middle of nowhere. It's about density of housing.

I have offered to pay for a deterent. She said that it is her issue with the wildlife and she is happy to do so. I have also reiterated over and over to her that I wish to remain on good terms with her.

Just stop your ‘investigating’ a front door cat flap and bloody well buy one and get it fitted. I say this as someone who has 2 cats myself.

The upvc panels on my front door make this very tricky. It is not flat. I haven’t found someone who feels confident that they won’t bugger my door up.

Can you fit a cat flap in a window instead

Get a new front door that’s suitable for a cat flap.

We have fitted cat flaps in all types of doors. If you find out the depth of the door and go to one of the big pet chains they will help you buy one of suitable depth. Any professional joiner or upvc fitter will be able to fit it - if you pay for a capable fitter the type of panels will be irrelevant to them.
My husband is actually an engineer but he has fitted them in wood, upvc and glass.

Yeah right

You don’t need to worry about other people’s cats. You should take responsibility for your own. Cat proof your garden or keep them indoors. It is part of being a responsible cat owner.

I had a upvc specialist come round and he said because he had no idea what was behind the panels - eg metal he would risk destroying the door. Maybe he didn’t want the job. I dunno . I think it must be possible?

The issue is the 2 raised panels not the fact that it is upvc. My back door is upvc and has a flat panel with a cat flap.

dazzlingdeborahrose Cats are protected by law and do have the right to roam.
Advice on deterring cats
Cats are protected by law and are free to roam meaning
they might go into other people's gardens or
allotments. It is understood that some may wish to
deter other people's cats from those areas

this is from the RSPCA

I hate cats and with that in mind, right to roam or not it’s extreme CFery to get cats knowing they have to use your neighbour’s space.

i think you need to maybe try to meet her half-way?
So you try to ensure your cats can't go from your garden into hers. Meanwhile, since several of the local cats go in her garden, she cat-proofs her garden as much as possible.