Nasty neighbour.

There's always someone on every road. I can remember a man who lived in the next row of houses to ours who was a nasty piece of work when I was a kid and we were all frightened of him as he had a volcanic temper and thought he was a hard man as he played rugby league off and on. I can remember him beating up his wife and trashing his house and having to be taken away in a straightjacket. Also his daughter would tell tales to him so she could laugh at kids being threatened with violence by her lovely daddy. When they moved after 3 years, it was such a blessed relief.
I sometimes see him now and he never speaks. Also he's in his seventies and looks quite pathetic and about as threatening as a fruit fly.

kircubbin2000

I hadn't realised gransnet was an anti cat zone. Sorry I posted.

Not anti-cat. Though not everyone is a cat lover, obviously.

I just want to know if the fence he blocked off was leading into his garden?
If so, can't you make a hole in another part for the cats to go through, or lower part of the fence somewhere so they can safely jump over?

Luckily none bad where I live now, but we used to have a nasty old woman years ago who hated childten and every kid who grew up in the eighties and nineties on my road hated her, and most of the parents. I can remember her throwing a large stone at me for the crime of going past her house on a bike and she was forever shouting at kids and threatening them if they were playing on a field next to her house. ( This did have swings and a slide until the miserable old bag told the council to take it down as it was attracting too many children). She once came to my parents door, shouting her head off about my brother and how she couldn't hear Emmerdale Farm, until I told her they'd gone out for the day as the car wasn't there and slammed the door in her face.

Neighbours can be very territorial about fences.

While I was still renting the fence between the properties was in very poor repair. Nextdoor asked the landlord if she would go halves for a new one. LL agreed on condition that she was first shown costings/styles for agreement and provided with official VAT receipts. Obviously it was a business expence for her. She left NDN to obtain costings.

Nothing happened and over a year went by. In the meantime I bought the property from LL by private sale so no FOR SALE signs. NDN was kept in the dark about the change in ownership. One day a scruffy flatbed truck appeared and a gang of cowboy workers, who did some work around her property. They put up a fine new fence on the other side. However the decrepit fence between my house and hers was replaced by a series of obviously recycled panels all different colours. The workmen were also operating an industrial grinder in my garden until I chased them out.

NDN had the cheek to ask me to "go halves" with her for the scruffy replacement fence. I refused on the grounds that it looked like something out of the third world. I told her that I was not responsible for any agreement she had with LL. It was only then that she learned that I had purchased the property. You should have seen her face. It was like a smacked ass.

Meanwhile I had my gardener cost for a new fence at maximum permitted height between the two properties. It was a few inched in from the boundary. It was quite a nasty surprise when my gardner and his mate arrived to erect it. Now she can no longer pop her ugly snoot over it to see whats going on in my garden.

A hedgehog hole needs be no bigger than 5 inches square, small cats could get through but not big fat ones

What is wrong in not liking pets, whether dogs and cats - or gerbils and hamsters - for that matter?

Owning a pet conveys no special virtue on the owner.

I have twice been attacked by dogs, and, in the past, found I couldn't put my toddler out to play in our own back garden without first scouring it for cat poo, and having lived somewhere where no responsible parent would let their child into the children's playground in the local recreation ground because of the extent of dog poo all over it. I feel quite happy about feeling jaundiced about pet lovers and their pets.

My last comment about being juvenile was meant for the original poster who said we didn’t like cats! She seems to have removed her comments now.

Now you are being petty and juvenile! If I were your neighbour, I don’t think I’d want to be friendly with you either!

He's not necessarily anti social or ill, etc, he may just be an introvert quiet person, the same as there are chatty extrovert people.
As to whether he is anti cat, I can immediately think of 2 people I know who are phobic about cats - one explaining that they are unnerved by the way cats can seem to be staring at them.
So there may be no negative or deliberate rebuff intended by the neighbour, it's just the way he is.
I'd just let it go, wish him good morning/afternoon if you see him and leave it at that.

I do not like cats using my garden as a toilet. I buy those metal silhouettes with marble eyes and put them round the veg plot and borders, moving them occasionally so they appear like new ones. Seems to work.

I am with the neighbour, I too would have blocked the hole.
We actually changed all our fencing to solid metal, job done, the cats can't climb it.

Grundy no one said he altered the fence did they? He could have just reared something against it to stop the procession of cats As for not talking some people do, some don’t it doesn’t make him nasty or a bad person
Just say good morning to him and leave it at that if he grunts back that’s ok if he says nothing that’s ok too

My DS’s cats were originally house cats but now go out but never further than their own back garden.

Cats while being elegant and much loved can also be a darn nuisance kirkcubbin, I can understand your neighbour wanting to deter a cat highway.

Our home had been empty for over a year when we arrived and had become a communal cat toilet Leaving a spare window open at night we found evidence of cat presence in that room in the morning. Windows had to be closed. The first six months were spent removing more cat poo than I ever thought to see in my lifetime. Gradually many of the cats became tired of being chased away, friends visiting with their dog gave us a cat free zone for a few days. Bliss.

We don't dislike cats, we do dislike some of their frankly antisocial behaviour. I truly don’t understand why it is deemed OK for cats to use other peoples gardens as a toilet, dig up plants, dig holes in pots and generally cause a nuisance.

One day we realised there was no more excrement in the garden. A ginger cat was often seen chasing others away as he loved to sleep in the front shrubs and I assume didn’t want to be disturbed by others. We’ve never fed him but do put out clean water as he spends hours patrolling the front and side entrance to our home, never to our knowledge leaving a mess in what has become become ‘his’ territory. He is rarely seen in the back garden but does sit regally on the fence.

We’ve been here for eleven years now, ‘our’ cat is getting elderly, less energy to chase others away although he still tries. We still have no idea where he lives, he’s well fed, and worry that one day he’ll breathe his last in our garden and can only hope he’s chipped so his owners can know. As he gets slower we’ve noticed cat excrement is returning. So far judicious placement of prickly rose pruning is a deterrent in the borders, the garden is quite small, large tubs now have a chicken wire covering.

Your neighbour may not be the chattiest in the world kirkcubbin and you may never be the best of friends, I wouldn't say he’s nasty though. Discouraging a cat highway seems perfectly sensible to me, after all he might find clearing cat mess as unpleasant as we do.

I don't dislike cats (unlike my terrorist) but l am totally anti any irresponsible pet owner. Whilst it may be challenging to restrain a cat it is unacceptable to encourage it into someone else's garden knowing they don't want it there. Get your fence repaired.

"When I came out again I see he has blocked the gap in my fence where all the local cats including mine go through on their route"
How many local cats are there using this route? Sounds horrendous, especially if they are defecating in this chap's garden.

Just an afterthought- do cat owners really think it’s ok for their pets to defecate in other peoples’ gardens?

My neighbour has 4 cats and no garden of his own so they use mine. I often settle down to a peaceful bit of weeding and even though I wear gloves I hate sticking my hands in unexpected cat poo.

Cossy is correct (from 1st pg) - whoever owns the fence… then the other should not touch it.

Cats are clever, they’re hunters and scavengers by nature. They will always find another route to get to where they want.

Since you have an outdoor cat, your kitty should always be checked for all kinds of outdoors ailments - accidents, fight injuries, TICKS very harmful, poisoning (unfortunately yes, people do that to animals, etc)

It would be nice if neighbor would be friendly. If he’s new give him time, otherwise to each his own. Continue to be OPEN. He may start talking some day when least expected.

I’ve never heard of someone making a gap in their fence for a cat route! I’m sick of neighbours cats using my borders as their lavatory, and I would quickly close the gap!

It is very difficult to control a cat’s behaviour when they are out-and they are animals that DO need to get out! I haven’t owned a cat in years, but had the nuisance of cats in my garden which I managed to deal with reasonably well. There are (harmless) substances you can buy to sprinkle around plants etc (even ordinary household pepper is good!) They don’t like eucalyptus oill either and I used to buy little ‘buds’ impregnated with the latter from the garden centre which you could hang on plants/bushes to deter them. If you catch cats in the act, a hose is good! Or if you have a dog, let him/her out as I used to. Cats are clever; they remember unpleasant incidents! No thoughts about the neighbour; ignore him if he’s too miserable to respond to a friendly greeting. His loss and life’s too short!

It's time that we all have to admit that the days when cats were tolerated in gardens are long gone.
The traffic volume has increased, and a larger number of cats are injured or killed by vehicles, or the cats have caused accidents when drivers have had to swerve to avoid hitting the cats.
The trend is towards keeping the cats in their houses/flats and only being allowed out on a leash (much like dogs), or the cat owners should erect a "catio" where their pets can be in a confined space outdoors without being a nuisance to neighbours etc..
The theory that cats will only catch birds and animals that are sickly or weak, does not apply anymore.
Birds are totally stressed out by modern man's increasing noise levels, pollution and radiation. There are more poisons in gardens, less available plants that provide seeds and pests for birds to eat.

I too would be blocking up a cat route. I've had several cats, none were left to wander at will. They stayed in own garden, except when escorting children to school, they would go 4 houses down, sit until they were out of sight then come back to house. At school finishing time they would go to same spot, wait, and then come back with children. Never let any of them out at night. Cats can be trained, they don't have to be allowed to wander day and night. Give your neighbour a chance, everybody is different.

Keep well away. We have an extremely nasty neighbour. If I could go back in time I would never have moved here or acknowledged her. The only way to cope is to ignore their antics as much as possible.
If it's your fence it's your prerogative.

madcatwoman

My 'Too right!' comment was in response to someone saying they hadn't realised this was an anti-cat site. Yup, I do realise cats can poo in awkward places in gardens but, honestly, they don't mean any harm. Live and let live, that's what I say. After all, cats don't bark, they don't produce copious amounts of poo on the pavements and they don't bite or scare anyone (generally speaking). I only have one cat now, she is a house cat and doesn't bother anyone. If I lived in a safer place - less traffic, fewer nutters - I would let her out, too. As it is, even though she goes out into the back yard which is caged over, she comes into the house to use her tray. Cats are, without exception, remarkably clean creatures. P.S. I expect a barrage of negative comments!

No negative comments from me madcatwoman. I absolutely love cats and couldn't live without one. My gorgeous affectionate cat got me through the pandemic and lockdowns.