Neighbor's Cat in my Yard Question

[Midtowner]

You have to deem something to be a problem for it to be a problem.

If you're going to live in almost any established neighborhood, there will be neighborhood cats.

If you don't like it, go buy 20 acres on the outskirts of town.

--or you could just wear gloves when you garden.

[mkjeeves]

Trap neuter return program outlined.

https://www.okhumane.org/programs/tr...eturn-program/

[Roger S]

This entire thread has turned into a pretty good example of why talking to your neighbor doesn't always work.

[StuckInTheCapitol825]

You have to deem something to be a problem for it to be a problem.

If you're going to live in almost any established neighborhood, there will be neighborhood cats.

If you don't like it, go buy 20 acres on the outskirts of town.

--or you could just wear gloves when you garden.

you must be hoot at HOA meetings.

[stile99]

you must be hoot at HOA meetings.

Most people who think their rights supersede yours are. They're the kind of people who pass bylaws saying you have to leave your garage door open so they can spy on you and everyone else can steal your stuff.

https://jalopnik.com/dumbest-hoa-eve...eep-1821886917

Of course, sometimes the response to a crying baby is to just let it cry itself out.

https://jalopnik.com/dumbest-hoa-eve...icy-1821967915

[Midtowner]

you must be hoot at HOA meetings.

Our HOA is pretty old and doesn't have any sort of rules about animals. Everyone watches out for one another's animals. Most everyone knows at least who their immediate neighbors are. The one time I had a problem with how a neighbor was keeping up his back yard, I just erected a 10 foot privacy fence. Problem solved. If I went though life worried about things like neighborhood cats pooping in my planters, I'd be worrying about the wrong things.

[Richard at Remax]

I had a neighbors who let his cat roam around in our garden. We decided to sprinkle cayenne peppers everywhere. Cat doesn't come around anymore.

[Midtowner]

I had a neighbors who let his cat roam around in our garden. We decided to sprinkle cayenne peppers everywhere. Cat doesn't come around anymore.

Having neighborhood cats >>> having neighborhood rabbits if you have a garden.

[u50254082]

This entire thread has turned into a pretty good example of why talking to your neighbor doesn't always work.

Ditto.

As many others have mentioned, the topic of pets always becomes extremely personal and some just can't see past the cuteness.

[Roger S]

Having neighborhood cats >>> having neighborhood rabbits if you have a garden.

Can't disagree with you on this one.... Would have welcomed a herd, or gaggle, or murder, or whatever you call a group of cats, to keep the squirrels out of mine this year.

[Midtowner]

[BBatesokc]

Personally, I don't have to worry much about roaming cats in my Edmond neighborhood. We all have wooded lots that are at least 2 acres. Because of the naturally occurring wildlife, a roaming cat doesn't live long here. In fact, I just shake my head when someone posts a "missing cat" poster or NextDoor app alert - if that cat's been out more than 24 hours then it's guaranteed that a fox, coyote, owl, hawk or neighbor's dog has already eaten it. I place traps out on a regular basis, but mostly just catch skunks and raccoons.

The bigger problem we have are irresponsible dog owners (which is just the next step up from an irresponsible cat owner). Some dogs are occasionally allowed to roam free and some are just with walkers/joggers who refuse to leash their dog. The problem comes from the fact that most of the yards in my neighborhood are not fenced. The property owner's dog's are on an underground fence. That's all great - until a loose dog invades the contained dog's space. Then all heck breaks out. Additionally, many of us have chickens and these roaming dogs are immediately attracted to them and try to destroy the coops/runs to get at them.

Not exactly sure how a homeowner not wanting someone else's cat crapping in their flower bed or garden or killing the birds they attract to their bird feeders makes them a "snowflake" - or why that necessitates they move out on 20 acres. How about the person who wants to let their pets roam free move to an acreage? I'm more of a "your rights end where mine begin" type of person.

[mugofbeer]

Maybe neighborhood coyotes would be in order?

[Scott5114]

Amazing..... disregard the pet owner's actions completely and instead make it all about the individual who simply doesn't want someone else's cat crapping all over their flower bed, causing their dog to go crazy or using their bird feeder as some sort of bird death trap buffet.

It's about looking at things pragmatically before choosing to get stressed out or upset or taking a "well, I'll show you!" response to a situation. In my life, I have enough things to spend time on (job, household repairs, my side business, paying the bills, friends, exercise) without adding policing the neighbor's cat when it gets on my property to the list. If it's enough of a problem that something absolutely has to be done about it, getting animal control involved is probably not the best solution. Antagonizing the neighbor by getting their cat killed is only going to add to my problems. If my dog got out by accident and the neighbors had her put down instead of saying "hey, your dog got out", my wife would go over and torch their house and I'd probably stand there and let her do it.

I actually had a similar situation happen when the neighbor's dog got into our back yard through the wind slats in the fence. We obviously couldn't let the other dog chill in there, since our dog doesn't really play nice with others. So my wife grabbed the other dog, took it back next door, and let the owners know what had happened. They thanked us for returning the dog. We put netting over the wind slats so it couldn't happen again. Problem solved, and nobody got upset.

[BBatesokc]

It's about looking at things pragmatically before choosing to get stressed out or upset or taking a "well, I'll show you!" response to a situation. ...

Like I first said.... "While talking with the neighbor and trying to work it out is obviously the best first step."

Everyone's situation is different. For some reason, I seem to get that and others don't. Some people greatly value "their space" and others greatly don't give a crap what their pet does. That's going to cause a problem and I have no idea how some of you can put that problem on the home owner who simply doesn't want the intrusion. I've had neighbors that freak out if you walk on their grass or a guest parks in the public street in front of their house. I don't agree with either, but I try to respect their right to feel that way (though they can't enforce the parking thing in most cases).

For me personally, the only time I've had an issue with someone else's pet is when they allow their dog to bark outside all day or all night. I'm guessing some of you would say "well, dogs bark, get over it." Which is great unless it's you that can't go to sleep or enjoy your back patio because of all the noise. Luckily, the both times I encountered this, the neighbors stopped. But, each time they only stopped after repeated contacts and even calling police (animal control wouldn't get involved over barking).

Had another situation where a neighbor had a wolf hybrid. It was a huge animal and I did not agree with how they kept it - often on a chain and rarely exercised. The wolf would on occasion break the chain it was on and terrorize the neighbors - mostly because he looked really mean and would try to eat small dogs. For whatever reason he loved my wife and myself and would come to us. I called animal control and asked what would happen if I took it to them because it wasn't being treated well. They said unfortunately they would put it down because it's a wolf hybrid. So, I felt I had no choice but to return it to the owner.

[Roger S]

If my dog got out by accident and the neighbors had her put down instead of saying "hey, your dog got out", my wife would go over and torch their house and I'd probably stand there and let her do it.

I hope your joking and even then stating you would burn down someones home if something happened to an animal you were responsible for taking care of really isn't even that funny.

[Ross MacLochness]

I think all of you should have a rap battle to sort out this nonsense

[Scott5114]

I hope your joking and even then stating you would burn down someones home if something happened to an animal you were responsible for taking care of really isn't even that funny.

Yes, that was a joke, mostly. But it was made to underscore the fact that pets are extremely important to some people—when we lost our last dog from cancer it sent my wife into a bout of professionally-diagnosed clinical depression (i.e. mental illness) that lasted for a few years. If there had been a person trying to prove a point about their property rights rather than a disease that was responsible for his death, I imagine things would have been so much worse, and I have no idea how we would have made it through that.

To state the point in a less flippant manner: you don't know that if you escalate the situation that the other party isn't going to escalate back in a dangerous way, either due to mental illness or something else. It's just inviting trouble to go down that road. Like flipping someone off that cuts you off on I-35; you don't know if the other person is some crazy person with a gun that they're going to try to confront you with. The entire situation can be avoided by just letting it slide and focusing on getting to the destination safely.

I feel fortunate that my neighbors seem to be pretty forgiving people. Sometimes stuff happens; you think a gate is latched securely and it's not, or there's a hole in the fence you didn't know about. I wouldn't want my neighbors to freak out at me about something like that, so I don't freak out at them when it goes the other way.

[rte66man]

Wow, I cannot believe this discussion. We live in a declining neighborhood where more than 60% of the houses have become rentals. The house next door has been a rental for the 25 years we've lived here. Some of the renters were very careful about their pets, some would let their dogs out the front door to "do their business". Between them and the large number of feral cats, it has become an adventure in my front yard. You can walk on my grass all you want (with the exception of the postal carrier who has worn a trench in the dirt because he/she can't be bothered). However, it's MY yard and I should be able to walk in it or work in the flower beds without constantly having to watch out for poop. I can't control the trash people throw into it as they walk down the adjacent main arterial or always catch the dog walkers who let their pets use my lawn as a toilet then don't clean it up, but I will take measures to control the prevalence of poop (the SMELL bothers me greatly because of other medical issues). Most animals aren't tagged so I do not know who they belong to. I just trap them and take them to the shelter. I've spent way too much $$$ in other methods (spreading cayenne pepper, etc). Onetime investment in a humane trap and I'm done. IMO, people just don't give a crap (pun intended) what their pets do once they let them out.

[Richard at Remax]

Just to clarify, by my garden I don't mean ACTUAL food garden. Should have said flower beds with minimal plants. Still, cayenne worked.

[u50254082]

Yes, that was a joke, mostly. But it was made to underscore the fact that pets are extremely important to some people—when we lost our last dog from cancer it sent my wife into a bout of professionally-diagnosed clinical depression (i.e. mental illness) that lasted for a few years. If there had been a person trying to prove a point about their property rights rather than a disease that was responsible for his death, I imagine things would have been so much worse, and I have no idea how we would have made it through that.

To state the point in a less flippant manner: you don't know that if you escalate the situation that the other party isn't going to escalate back in a dangerous way, either due to mental illness or something else. It's just inviting trouble to go down that road. Like flipping someone off that cuts you off on I-35; you don't know if the other person is some crazy person with a gun that they're going to try to confront you with. The entire situation can be avoided by just letting it slide and focusing on getting to the destination safely.

I feel fortunate that my neighbors seem to be pretty forgiving people. Sometimes stuff happens; you think a gate is latched securely and it's not, or there's a hole in the fence you didn't know about. I wouldn't want my neighbors to freak out at me about something like that, so I don't freak out at them when it goes the other way.

Is this not just the argument that we should let standards of behavior continue to slide because we might hurt someone's feelings?

So rather than recognize some fairly basic principles like property and space, everyone should tip toe around in case we agitate someone and cause them to go off the rails?

Wouldn't the person going off the rails be the one to blame for not being in control of their emotions and actions?

[Richard at Remax]

First things first, no one will ever love your pets as much as you do.

Second, my wife and I are pretty allergic to most breeds of cats, and some dogs. I also have two young children and I don't know how your pet will act around them. Therefore I have no shame running an animal off my property or calling animal control. The whole neighborhood is not your yard. It's amazing to me how inconsiderate some owners are and the lack of common courtesy is fascinating.

[bombermwc]

First things first, no one will ever love your pets as much as you do.

Second, my wife and I are pretty allergic to most breeds of cats, and some dogs. I also have two young children and I don't know how your pet will act around them. Therefore I have no shame running an animal off my property or calling animal control. The whole neighborhood is not your yard. It's amazing to me how inconsiderate some owners are and the lack of common courtesy is fascinating.

Agreed here for sure. Your animal should be kept in your yard. Just because its a cat, dont give me a bunch of crap about how they need to roam. That's something you allow your pet to do. ANY pet should be on a leash when they leave your home. If your pet doesn't respond to a leash, then you need to train them properly.

[jerrywall]

There is no leash law for cats in most cities, including OKC. Hell, watching the channel 25 morning news just now, a guy from OKC animal welfare was showing a cat available for adoption and encouraging whoever adopted it to let it roam. One of my cats will only do his business on the back yard (although he doesn't leave the yard). Cats aren't inside animals, as a whole. Neither are they leash animals. I've tried it a few times. The best way to make a cat drop to the ground and not move is to put a harness and leash on it, in my experience.