****ing Furious. Neighbours reported us to RSPCA

[warp9]

OK a bit of background. We have 2 cats, Henry and Lizzie, brother and sister that are 4.5 years old. Lizzie is a self imposed house cat, while Henry roams the neighbourhood looking for cat action. We see Henry a couple of times a day around feeding time and when he decides to hang out.

About 3 years ago Henry stopped coming round on a daily basis and started coming every 2 or 3 days. We then had 2 girls (late teens/early 20's) knock on our door suggesting we put bells on Henry's collar as he was bringing in dead birds to their house. (They live in a house at the back of ours) I asked them to stop feeding him and not to encourage him into their house, they flapped saying they couldn't stop him. A few weeks later, Henry then turned up with bells on his collar. I took them off and went round telling them to mind their own business and stay away from him.

Cut to now. Henry gets a sort of blistery scab on his ear. We leave it a couple of days to see if it'll clear up, it then bursts and we decide to take him to the vet. On the evening before we go to the vets one of the girls bangs on the door all huffed up asking if we have seen Henry. I curtly tell her we're taking him to the vets in the morning and shut the door.

We take Henry to the vets, no major bother, gets tidied up, some injections and pills. The scab has dried and looks to be healing nicely.

But today we return home with a note from the RSPCA calling regarding Henry. WTF???!!

I appreciate they are only doing their job, but why can't people mind their own fking business?

So what to do?

[cal216610]

So what exactly have you been reported for?

[Jasandjules]

warp9 said:

So what to do?

Nothing?

[.R2D2]

Don't worry about it. Show the RSPCA the vet bill, clearly this shows you care otherwise you'd have left it.

[warp9]

Dont know yet, have phoned the call centre and they have logged my call. Waiting for the officer to get back to me.

[Olf]

Put bells on your cat you 'tard.

[Papa Hotel]

warp9 said:

So what to do?

I suppose you could stop neglecting your cat. Just a thought.














Only joking. Tell the little busybodies to do one or you'll drown the cat. No-one will ever believe you said it and it'll put the sts up them.

You have a vet's bill, surely that's proof of responsible ownership. And no RSPCA officer will demand that you keep a cat captive, they pretty much do as they please, I'm sure the RSPCA know that.

[JuniorD]

[Flat6time]

I get what you are saying, and your side sounds totally plausible, as cats are their own creatures. But, try and look at it from your neighbors prospective. You are a grumpy git, who in their mind is not looking after a cat. they offered concerns, and you rebuffed their help, and told them to mind their own business. They may indeed be silly little girls, but we all know that the mental sets in early.

As above, What exactly have the RSPCA said?

[Whitester]

Tell the cretins to fk off and mind their own business - he's your cat not theirs.

[Olf]

Whitester said:

Tell the cretins to fk off and mind their own business - he's your cat not theirs.

Hardly - he sees the manky bird killing st bag once every 3 days.

[warp9]

Olf said:

Hardly - he sees the manly bird killing st bag once every 3 days.

This is why I got hacked off in the first place. Why would you feed someone elses cat - is that normal or acceptable? It's not in my book. They know he's not a stray and have encouraged him into their house.

[Olf]

I'd report you for being complicit in unnecessary killing of birds. Just put bells on it - there's no reason not to.

[m444ttb]

This is just the sort of stupid thing that would seriously wind me up and cause me to lose perspective! Someone put a collar on one of our cats a few months back and I ranted about it at my wife for hours! You'll cool off eventually.

When the RSPCA get back to you I'd do as suggested and show them the vets bill. Presumably you can also show them the cat is microchipped, has annual injections etc etc etc if they really want to see you look after it?! Some people will take their cats to the vet at the drop of a hat. We used to be like that every time one of them was bitten on a leg while running away from another cat. Then realised 99% of the time it heals after a day and they are far happier just to be left alone to lick their wounds.

[bexVN]

I see it from both sides. They made a perfectly reasonable suggestion by suggesting a collar as did you to then by telling them not to let the cat in their house, so they are supposed to listen to you but not you to them.

You leave your cats ear until it bursts before getting it seen to, not such a problem in itself but you could see why someone may be concerned at the state it probably was at that time.

Rspca does seen to be overkill but the calls are anonimous so you can't be 100% certain it's them (most likely though)

When the Rspca see your vets bill etc check that you regularly worn deflea and vaccinate your cats they'll be happy so be calm with them and you'll have no worries.

I'd be upset if the Rspca were called on me but I know my pets get the best of care so I also know I'd be cleared of any claims, I'd get a lot of satisfaction in that

To above poster many cat bite wounds do not heal on their own and certainly not by them licking the wounds (cat mouths are mucky places!) so they should be checked out.

Edited by bexVN on Thursday 29th December 13:54

[Redlake27]

I love animals, but my neighbours have a cat that spends more time scavenging in my garden, sleeping on the soft top of my car or under my car, pooing in the garden and chasing birds away from my bird table. I've used Cat-off, polite words with the neighbour, pepper, but nothing works.

If I had a dog that did that in my neighbours' gardens, I'd hardly be the most popular person in the village.

In this case, having an animal you see every couple of days is hardly 'looking after a pet'. If you knew it was out birdhunting, you should've put bells on it, and if you knew it was annoying your neighbour, you should've taken reasonable steps towards stopping it.

Edited by Redlake27 on Thursday 29th December 15:35

[Distant]

OP, has your cat being maliciously activating any security lights in the area?

[warp9]

Redlake27 said:

if you knew it was annoying your neighbour, you should've taken reasonable steps towards stopping it.

And what prey tell are the reasonable steps that I should take to avoid this when the neighbour in question are feeding and encouraging our cat into their house?

[mrmaggit]

Olf said:

I'd report you for being complicit in unnecessary killing of birds. Just put bells on it - there's no reason not to.

Put bells on the collar. We put one extra bell on Guzzis' for every creature he killed. We stopped at four as they were starting not to rattle.

You should have taken the cat to the vets as soon as you saw the injury. As has been said, cats mouths are not the cleanest of places, Guzzi got an infection at the base of his tail that went septic, the vet pulled the top off, and Guzzi just moaned with pain, looked at the blood oozing out of the infection, and went very quiet.

He was back to normal in about a week.

[R300will]

warp9 said:

Redlake27 said:

if you knew it was annoying your neighbour, you should've taken reasonable steps towards stopping it.

And what prey tell are the reasonable steps that I should take to avoid this when the neighbour in question are feeding and encouraging our cat into their house?

buy them a cat of their own