Cat dispute with neighbor

[JustADay]

Hi guys,

I've got a bit of an issue with one of our neighbors regarding our cats going into their garden. We live in a new build townhouse which of course means pretty small gardens. We have two cats, one of which is not at all interested in leaving the house/garden, but our 9 month old kitten is a bit of an explorer. Although they generally both tend to go to the toilet in our garden, the kitten will quite happily go over the fence for an explore.

The neighbor that this has recently become an issue with first installed trellis onto the lower fence panels at the end of the shared fence, and has now put cat repellent spikes on top as well. Unfortunately the kitten is not really deterred by this, and will still quite happily climb over them into next door's garden.

I've today received a pretty stern message from the neighbor telling us to keep our cat off of their balcony. I think I know the answer to this but do we actually have a requirement to do this? I absolutely don't want to cause an argument, and I understand that a lot of people don't like cats in their garden, but I can't see what we can really do about it? They have a dog which will bark at the cats, but I can't see that this would be causing it any distress. I'm happy for them to shoo the cats off as long as they don't hurt them, but short of keeping them inside (which I really don't want) I'm not sure what else to suggest.

Just looking for advice really. We're not on the best terms with the neighbor as it stands anyway, and I don't really want to make things worse! Cheers.

[JustADay]

R8VXF said:

Le Mans Visitor said:

Purchase a supersoaker / water pistol, lend it to your neighbour for them to use on your cat if it goes in their garden. I am sure that once the 'pussy is soggy' it will avoid going anywhere near them again.

If nothing else it shows you are activley doing something about the situation.

+1 was going to suggest this. Cat should learn pretty quickly. We use one to keep other cats out of our garden as they tend to attack our cats.

I wish this was an option, but I should add that for reasons not worth going into we're not actually on speaking terms with this neighbor. Believe me, if I thought I could try to fix things amicably I would!

I will obviously do what I can to try to minimise the amount our cat goes onto their property, but as I'm sure most owners will know this isn't always possible. As I say if they want to scare the cats off that's not a problem- a bucket of water would soon teach them- but I just wanted to be 100% sure that legally at least there's nothing more we have to do.

Thanks for the replies.

[JustADay]

silverous said:

JustADay said:

I wish this was an option, but I should add that for reasons not worth going into we're not actually on speaking terms with this neighbor.

Is it possible that *this* is the real issue ?

I'm in no doubt that this is 99% of the problem, the cat situation just happens to fuel it. Ours are certainly not the only cats in the area, at least 40% of the surounding houses have them. In fact the neighbor that this is an issue with has a neighbor on the other side of them that has 2 cats but they've not put trellis or spikes on that side!

I can certainly see the root cause, and I will do everything I can to keep our cats in our garden, but there's only so much you can do.