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From the OP it sounds like his motivation is that he thinks the cat isn’t being looked after properly and he’s doing it a favour.
Thats probably more the cat than the neighbour. They are excellent at pretending to be destitute even when they are obviously well kept and well fed. At one time our cats were leaning on at least five other households for food every day - on a warm day with the windows open you could hear them whining for food and being fed by people in every direction who thought they were in someway hungry and neglected (despite being really quite portly) and who were unaware that the cats were just happy to eat until they puked and then go and bother someone else for a bit.
But if the cat is doing more than just getting a few tidbits and being treated as a regular visitors just talk to the neighbour about other costs - if there are insurances or other costs then if they are treating the cat like its theirs then explain that they have to take the responsibility too. Tell them insurances are due for renewal or that check ups or precriptions are due and ask them what percentage of the bills they want to pay if the cat is spending large amounts of time at their house.
Edit: ignore me, wrong thread to be a joyless Victor Meldrew in!
Are the Sierra's all VED'd and insured if they're scattered on the close?
Fyi for the grumpy amongst you, Our cats are pretty good pooing and hunting wise.
Even though they're both outdoor cats they got used to using a litter tray at a previous house, so both do most (though I admit probably not all!) Of their poos in the tray.
The rest seems to be done in our herb garden based on what I find in there.
Boy cat has never in 14 years brought in a kill. He either kills em away from the house and eats the catch, or (I think this is more likely) is a terrible hunter.
His sister seems to exclusively hunt rats!
There is a small holding over the road, and she trots over there regularly and brings back rats nearly as big as her. Then eats the heads. Yuck.
Keep it indoors?
Yep, I’ve just been looking this up, and it is an offence under the 1968 Theft Act to purposefully try and steal or deprive someone if their pet.
I think a legal sounding letter through his letter box might help matters along.
no neighbourhood dispute in the history of time has ever been helpfully resolved with a letter highlighting an Act of parliament. Especially when the law has been determined from the internet...
We’ve tried being friendly to him, but he never comes to any of the close events or BBQs and mostly stays in his house, apart from when I see him out driving one of his cars.
Yes, I suspect he is lonely, but he seems to like it like that and doesn’t really interact much with anyone else on the close…
You seem to have decided that your version of normal is the convention he should conform to.
Keep it indoors
We will now for a week or two.
He's an old boy, enjoys chilling out on the windowsills in the sun.
You seem to have decided that your version of normal is the convention he should conform to.
I really don't give a hoot. He can conform or not conform to any social conventions he likes.
I was only pointing out we'd tried being friendly.
The only thing I want him to stop doing is feeding my bloody cat!
Oh and not feeding seagulls. But I imagine even you would agree with that one.
The only thing I want him to stop doing is feeding my bloody cat!
Perhaps the only thing he wanted was for the neighbourhood cats to stop crapping on his lawn and to enjoy some seagull spotting in the privacy of his own garden?
At least this way he's enjoying some feline companionship, even if his lawn is still littered with turds and he has to dispose of the occasional seagull head from his doormat.
/devil's advocate
I doubt the cat feeding is going to stop because you say please.
Legal route beckons.
Plus, that proximity activated cat flap doodah.
Are all them Sierras MOT'd / taxed / insured? Isn't that a DVLA public service these days?
And post any notes back through his door
…or a bigger cat.
/Crocodile Dundee
Call that a big cat?
/Crocodile Dundee end
We have a 25 foot high wall at the bottom of our garden and our neighbour's house backs onto this wall. They have a small patio that overlooks us.
Last night they hammered on our door in a panic as their cat had fallen from this wall into our garden in an "odd manner". We searched for him and found him scared in a bush, left to his own devices he made it home. They came round this morning to thank us and give us an update. The cat had been rushed to the vet that morning as it was clearly not right. It died a few hours ago. Anti-freeze poisoning.
I'm sat here in shock as it was a lovely cat that regularly turned up at our BBQs to fight our cat and scrounge sausages. Ours is now shut in for a few days whilst we ascertain how the anti-freeze got into this cat.
Not really sure why I am typing this apart from to say that at least your neighbour sort of cares for your cat. Round here we may have the opposite problem
Feed your cat better? (ie, stuff it likes more?)
One of our neighbours has been complaining that we're feeding her cat. Actually, your cat is stealing the hedgehogs' food, maybe I should send her a bill
One of these, it comes with a chip you put on the collar so no vet visit required.
We have a 25 foot high wall at the bottom of our garden and our neighbour’s house backs onto this wall. They have a small patio that overlooks us.
You have incredibly tall neighbours! I'm sorry that something so horrible happened to the cat though.
Feed the cat a generous dose of laxative one evening and send it over. I bet he won’t shut it in overnight a second time.
@DavidB - that's terrible! I can't imagine the cat would have ingested it accidentally. I mean cats are gannets, but they won't generally eat poison on purpose 🙁
@Northwind - he gets very nice food I thank you 😛
On a happier note, here he is at home obviously hating my company, after having been given some sub-standard food.
ajantom
Subscriber@Northwind – he gets very nice food I thank you
That might not necessarily do the trick though. Maybe he just prefers whatever the neighbour's giving him, like me ignoring a beautiful salad in order to eat a dirty burger
That might not necessarily do the trick though. Maybe he just prefers whatever the neighbour’s giving him, like me ignoring a beautiful salad in order to eat a dirty burger
Maybe, but he's a picky bugger, always has been, especially with wet food.
Has to be the pate style stuff. He won't touch the stuff in jelly, and the lumps in gravy he just licks off the gravy and leaves the bits of meat!
So unless he's playing me for a fool, and then going next door and eating whatever is put down :-/ which, knowing cats, isn't impossible.
Anyway, he's home now. Seems very happy. Getting lots of fusses.
I'll give him some cat crack (dreamies) in a bit.
Oldish gentleman in our road has "appropriated" two cats.
They come and go as they please, he's very protective/caring towards them and even has the mobile number of the "owner" of one of them who has no problem with the cat having a second home. He doesn't know who owns the other one.
One eats/drinks at his house, the other never touched the food but just goes there for "company".
Cats have zero loyalty in my experience and will go where they get fed (even if already fed very well) and feel comfortable/warm... Even if their main owner provides the same.
It's why I've always owned dogs.👍
Shave the cat (leave a Mohican)
Sharpie some obscene language/picture of a knob on it.
Oldish gentleman in our road has “appropriated” two cats.
They come and go as they please, he’s very protective/caring towards them and even has the mobile number of the “owner” of one of them who has no problem with the cat having a second home. He doesn’t know who owns
I think if he were a younger cat I'd have less of a problem with it....but probably not.
But he's a very gentle, trusting, loving old boy, and our neighbour isn't what I'd call a great owner.
His other cats are all overweight (in one case obscenely), and even though we do flea treatment on ours on a regular basis, whenever he's been in the neighbour's house he's got loads of fleas in his fur.
Unfortunately he has a flea allergy. He gets bitten and then can't stop scratching, to the point he breaks the skin and then gets all scabby. We have to keep the flea treatment very regular, and use an antibacterial powder to stop it getting infected. Also the occasional steroid injection.
I've tried explaining this to the knobber next door, but time and time again we have to retrieve our cat from his dirty, smelly, shit filled (oh, btw he's a horder too!) house.
Yeah. There's a mental health issue there, isn't there.
Anti-freeze poisoning.
Jesus christ what is wrong with people. I hope the police are involved.
I haven’t the heart to ask whether they think he accidentally ingested it or was properly poisoned. RSPCA site suggests it can happen accidentally if they lap up spillage. Going to gently broach it with them over next few days.Also have to ask how they know it was antifreeze. But he was a lovely cat and I shall miss him
I mean cats are gannets, but they won’t generally eat poison on purpose
sadly, glycol's apparently quite tasty 🙁
I haven’t the heart to ask
I would be astonished if it wasn't deliberate. It's not like puddles of antifreeze occur naturally or are a particularly common accidental spillage when it's 30'C out.
With regards to the chip activated cat flap, they also work with a collar tag. Both our cats are chipped, but only one can get through the cat flap without the collar tag, as it appears the other's chip has migrated down to her backside. So the only way she can get in would be to reverse.
It won't stop your cat going for a free feed, nothing will, but it will mean you can stop other cats getting into your house without restricting access to your cat. I think our chip reading flap cost around £70 and has been a very good investment.
He’s an old boy, enjoys chilling out on the windowsills in the sun.
Is this still the neighbour we're talking about?...
While the neighbour is a knob, it's your choice to let your cat roam free, knowing that it will go where it chooses.
Our cat likes to wander and everybody in the neighbourhood has fed the little bugger. Seems to be well liked and has been known to run down the street after me when I get home from work then do a 180 and follow somebody else who must smell more foodish.
I don't fuss about ours, as long as the neighbours are ok with him - but can see the problem faced in this thread.
This one sounds like an episode from a TV documentary. All very odd and whilst the guy likely means no harm to the cat, he clearly isn't all there. Think I'd be talking to social services as well, or at the very least make them aware of his living situation. He might just need help and some human contact.
keeps 5 (!) 1980s Sierras on his drive
Might be a Rekord. Viva la difference, but don't be Capricious. To the Victor, the spoils. The Corollary, of Corsa, is that you need to keep a Sunny disposition without being Cavalier.
I would be astonished if it wasn’t deliberate.
Old punctured container, chucked in bin?
Just saying. Might easily be accidental.
Update on this - just had a very passive-aggressive note through the door...
Demanding I apologise for my behaviour, and saying that he thinks we are not treating our cats properly, so he sees it as his 'duty' to feed them if they want it.
Of course he waited until I'd gone out of the house to take the daughter to nursery, god forbid he had to talk to me face to face.
I did try and go round last night and apologise for losing my temper, but also to reinforce the points about not feeding him or shutting him in. I don't mind if the old coot gives him a stroke in the garden, but luring him inside is not on.
Anyway, I'm buggered if I'm going to apologise to the ****er now!
Next stop police if he shuts the cat in his house again. Screw him 😠
I don’t mind if the old coot gives him a stroke in the garden
Send a note back and say the cat is well fed and he is over feeding it and must stop. I'd be worried about the cats getting fleas off his animals TBH or other 'illnesses'.
Sounds like a nutter. We've got 5 cats. Only one goes outside, but she's old and partially sighted now, so she just wanders in the back garden (can't jump). The others are indoor - 3 pedigree and a rescue with cat flu.
Our neighbours cat hardly ever goes home - she's dead easy to look after if they go away, we just leave water and dried food out. She spends quite a bit of time round another neighbour's house, but the cat just comes and goes - never shut it - she just hangs about their garden.
He should not be keeping the cat in, nor inviting it in if it's not his. Another neighbour's cat used to sneak into our house through open windows, but we never let him stay.
Don't let it drop, and let him know you will call the police if he takes the cat in again. Don't get angry, but he is in the wrong.
Don't faff around with being nice about it, he's being ass on purpose then do the same back, just get it dealt with properly and if it's legitimate to then get the police involved and be done with it.
OP
You need to up your game on the cat food front.
‘British Banquet’ contains Arenkha caviar, line-caught Scottish salmon, hand-caught Norfolk lobster, and locally-sourced Devon crab.
Each gourmet pack also includes organic asparagus, quinoa, and saffron for that “extra touch of luxury and refinement”.
The “super-premium” fodder, which contains no preservatives, additives or artificial colours, is also GM-free.
It is not only fit for human consumption but tastes “absolutely wonderful” should owners feel tempted to try it, manufacturer Green Pantry claims.
A month’s supply costs nearly £750,
Old punctured container, chucked in bin?
Do people often throw away non-empty containers of antifreeze?
Possible, sure, but vanishingly unlikely IMHO.
Send a note back
Knock on his door and tell him to stop sending you notes, you're not schoolchildren. If he's got something to say then he can say it to your face.
he thinks we are not treating our cats properly
That's what I suggested earlier, and that "thought" is what needs addressing and correcting. In his head he's doing the right thing.
You need to be escorted off this thread for that.
I think we're losing focus here.
I don’t mind if the old coot gives him a stroke in the garden, but luring him inside is not on.
Best keep your cat out of his garden, then.
I'd look for a legal solution, given that makes a record of his behaviour.
By keeping the cat in he's conditioning it to him and his house. As you would do after bringing home a new pet.
Clearly a mental case and some info to social work or such a body to again get his behaviour on record.
Failing that start stealing his cats, I reckon they'd be happy to be the ones fussed over and given a comfy home as if he's old cars on the drive, the inside isn't going to be a palace.
OP's cat looks like the right size and weight to me - old duffer may think cats need to be porky. Our big Male Ragdoll is 4.5-5kg, looks huge because he's massively fluffy, but is actually quite skinny - we do watch him eating as we worry, but he's got open access to wet and dry food, so only eats what he wants - some cats are greedy gits though.
I am sympathetic to the OP's plight, but wasting police time with this isn't right. They aren't funded sufficiently to deal with actual crimes never mind a neighbourly disagreement. If you want to get legal, you need to consult, (and probably pay for) a solicitor.
They aren’t funded sufficiently to deal with actual crimes
Odd, according to another thread they're routinely patrolling rural villages at 3am looking for out-of-towners...