My neighbors are a-holes...how do I handle this??

[Timshel]

Cats/dogs/sheep/cattle. Long story short Florida, you don't seem to be a kind person. Make of that what you will. Whatever you do, know that being a jerk will be fun for the moment but happiness over the long haul requires a lot of patience, compassion and tolerance.

 

It's your thing, do what you are going to do.

[Tobin]

So what do I do when this guy starts taunting my dog?

 

Do you really think you dog cares if someone makes a barking sound?

 

Answer: No.

 

Learn some tolerance.

[CrystalCastles]

I'm not a coward or passive aggressive, I'm aggressive-aggressive. They would have fair warning that their cat is going to be trapped (on my property) and turned into the SPCA. And I'd make I'd also make it a point to return their processed food that the cat left in my yard too. Don't have an animal if you're not prepared to take care of and monitor. Same goes for kids..

 

Flordagirl. You don't live in a vacuum. There are living things all around you. Skunks regularly walk across my lawn, taking a dump as they go and leaving skunk stench around them. Raccoons periodically go through my recycling and throw the empty bottles and cans all over my backyard. Birds take sh*ts on my flowers and grass. Sometimes some dog owner walks their dog in my neighborhood, and the dog takes a dump on someone's lawn and the owner leaves the pile of dog sh*t on the grass without picking it up. Do you seriously think that the person who owns that lawn should have some kind of fit and proclaim death to all dog owners?

 

Why do people act like cats are beings you can control? Like you can tell a cat where to go, what to do, whose lawn and flower beds to stay off of and he will listen. I don't get how I can stop my cat from going wherever he wants to. I can't. I am not a negligent cat owner simply because I don't monitor every muscle twitch my cat ever does.

 

Yes, he does on occasion poop in the neighbor's flower beds. Can I stop him from doing that? No. I am not going to let my cat suffer by shutting him up inside all day, every day. He is an indoor-outdoor cat, and he was like this when I adopted him. Am I supposed to make him miserable now because he took a dump somewhere he shouldn't have? He is an animal for God's sake.

 

And flordagirl, saying that you didn't hurt the neighbor's cat like its some kind of virtue you should get praise for was really cruel, inhumane and heartless. This might be just a cat to you, but to your neighbor he's a family member. You sound really immature. If I was your neighbor, I would be wary of talking to you.

 

I am frankly amazed at some of the comments on this thread. There are clearly people here who have absolutely zero clue what owning a cat even entails. Its similar to reading threads where some nutter is going off on a rant about children and parenting without ever having had kids.

 

You sounds like a cat person, you already have a strike.

 

And with that, sir, you just invalidated your whole argument.

Edited August 22, 2015 by a LoveShack.org Moderator

[autumnnight]

OP, your problem is not the cat or your dog or your neighbors.

 

My advice would be to talk like a polite adult to the neighbors and then give them a reminder if they need one.

 

Unfortunately you have made that solution impossible by behaving like an adolescent.

 

And your response to posters who have made rational observations just reinforce the fact that you cannot look objectively at your own attitudes or behavior and rather expect that everyone conform to you.

 

My suggestion would be to mature. But I do not expect you to take it.

Edited August 22, 2015 by a LoveShack.org Moderator

[truncated]

Ok so I am supposed to let everyone to do whatever the hell they want with and on my property just because they did so while it was vacant? What planet are you from??

 

 

 

Example;

we moved into a neighborhood where the guy next door ( nice guy, by the way) has a dog that barks, and barks, and barks. It did long before we moved in. It's against the bylaws in our area, but no one else in the neighborhood sees to mind it.

 

Should I go and kick up a stink and whine and whine like a petulant child, or should I go and speak to him politely, explain the problem, and work together to come up with a solution?

 

I did the second, and he tries his best to keep his dog quiet. If he's going away for a few days, someone in my family lets his dog out for some exercise, and in turn, if we get a lot of snow, he snow-blows our driveway.

 

he's happy, we're happy, and we have a nice neighbor who we now call a friend.

 

Had I handled the situation like you did, things might be very different.

 

(and no, I don't like dogs at all, but I like him as a neighbor so going a bit out of my way to help him out is well worth it)

Edited August 22, 2015 by a LoveShack.org Moderator

[flordagirl]

 

Example;

we moved into a neighborhood where the guy next door ( nice guy, by the way) has a dog that barks, and barks, and barks. It did long before we moved in. It's against the bylaws in our area, but no one else in the neighborhood sees to mind it.

 

Should I go and kick up a stink and whine and whine like a petulant child, or should I go and speak to him politely, explain the problem, and work together to come up with a solution?

 

I did the second, and he tries his best to keep his dog quiet. If he's going away for a few days, someone in my family lets his dog out for some exercise, and in turn, if we get a lot of snow, he snow-blows our driveway.

 

he's happy, we're happy, and we have a nice neighbor who we now call a friend.

 

Had I handled the situation like you did, things might be very different.

 

(and no, I don't like dogs at all, but I like him as a neighbor so going a bit out of my way to help him out is well worth it)

 

 

Second (and I mentioned this in the very beginning), I have already tried being nice to my neighbors since the day I moved in. I'm not the type to keep being nice to people who have shown they have no interest in returning the favor.

Edited August 22, 2015 by a LoveShack.org Moderator

[Timshel]

Second (and I mentioned this in the very beginning), I have already tried being nice to my neighbors since the day I moved in. I'm not the type to keep being nice to people who have shown they have no interest in returning the favor.

 

Yep, that sucks, the only other choice though is to be nasty back. They win and you end up being as much of an a**hole as they are.

Edited August 22, 2015 by a LoveShack.org Moderator

[Gloria25]

Next suggestion?

 

Scoop up the kitty poop and fling it into their yard.

 

My wonderful "neighbors" - whom from day one have given me heck? At one point, when their kids would come over and stuff, beer bottle caps ended up in my yard. Well, I collected them and flung them over back into their yard. Problem solved.

[autumnnight]

Next suggestion?

 

Scoop up the kitty poop and fling it into their yard.

 

My wonderful "neighbors" - whom from day one have given me heck? At one point, when their kids would come over and stuff, beer bottle caps ended up in my yard. Well, I collected them and flung them over back into their yard. Problem solved.

 

Only do this if this is actually an elementary school playground and you are 8

[Timshel]

Only do this if this is actually an elementary school playground and you are 8

 

This is so worth repeating. O

[flordagirl]

Yep, that sucks, the only other choice though is to be nasty back. They win and you end up being as much of an a**hole as they are.

 

Um, no; there are plenty of other choices; in particular the one where I have the right to trap any cat that comes on my property and release it to a place where it will NEVER find its way back to my property again. Bet that sucks too!

[flordagirl]

Next suggestion?

 

Scoop up the kitty poop and fling it into their yard.

 

My wonderful "neighbors" - whom from day one have given me heck? At one point, when their kids would come over and stuff, beer bottle caps ended up in my yard. Well, I collected them and flung them over back into their yard. Problem solved.

 

Gloria 25, I think you and I must have been separated at birth or something!! LOL!! My dad actually suggested that same exact thing. Wish I'd done that at first!

[CrystalCastles]

Um, no; there are plenty of other choices; in particular the one where I have the right to trap any cat that comes on my property and release it to a place where it will NEVER find its way back to my property again. Bet that sucks too!

 

Good luck doing that, and then explaining to the neighbors what you've done.

 

If you did that to my cat, I'd rip your head off.

[flordagirl]

.

 

If you did that to my cat, I'd rip your head off.

 

that is so funny coming from someone who posts Ghandi quotes in their signatures.

[CrystalCastles]

that is so funny coming from someone who posts Ghandi quotes in their signatures.

 

Its a political quote. Not a peace quote. I have issues with people who think animal abuse is ok.

[lollipopspot]

Just put "motion activated sprinkler amazon" into Google, order one, and adjust it right. That is a sure way to clear your yard of animals - it seriously does work.

 

I'm sure you'll be absolutely delighted to know that you can blind cats and wild animals by using cayenne pepper, so, yay for you - you probably already hurt some poor animal who dared to go into your yard. Besides being cruel, it's a stupid idea - you must not realize that animals need the immediate feedback of something like a sprinkler, pepper won't do it.

 

Honestly, some of you are sociopaths, or completely lacking in empathy for others. You are unable to live near others, and I hope your neighbors get you good and hard if you harm any domestic or wild animals.

 

You in fact are the problem neighbor, OP. But I did just give you fantastic advice about the motion detecting sprinkler (I know, you feel terribly victimized that you'd actually have to pay money to buy one rather than just maim, kill, or starve - by dumping them in some unfamiliar area - the neighborhood animals). You could even ask your neighbors to pay for one, and they might actually do it, to get you to leave their cat alone. If you tell them your nasty plans, they'd do it gladly I'm sure.

Edited August 22, 2015 by lollipopspot

[flordagirl]

 

I'm sure you'll be absolutely delighted to know that you can blind cats and wild animals by using cayenne pepper, so, yay for you - you probably already hurt some poor animal who dared to go into your yard. Besides being cruel, it's a stupid idea - you must not realize that animals need the immediate feedback of something like a sprinkler, pepper won't do it.

 

Honestly, some of you are sociopaths, or completely lacking in empathy for others. You are unable to live near others, and I hope your neighbors get you good and hard if you harm any domestic or wild animals.

 

You in fact are the problem neighbor, OP. But I did just give you fantastic advice about the motion detecting sprinkler (I know, you feel terribly victimized that you'd actually have to pay money to buy one rather than just maim, kill, or starve - by dumping them in some unfamiliar area - the neighborhood animals). You could even ask your neighbors to pay for one, and they might actually do it, to get you to leave their cat alone. If you tell them your nasty plans, they'd do it gladly I'm sure.

 

LOL fantastic advice? You must be delusional. That was just another biased rant full of assumptions. Thanks for the giggles though!

[truncated]

I live next door to a family that has a cat they allow to roam freely into other people's yards. I hate cats. When I first saw some cats roaming around in my yard I tried to figure out who these cats belonged to. I was new in the neighborhood and didn't feel comfortable going door to door or asking people when I saw them outside, since they weren't very friendly when I first moved in and tried to introduce myself. So I tried a little experiment. I posted my wifi ID as a phrase that implied there was someone who lived in the neighborhood (myself) that did not appreciate people letting their cats roam free and eliminate on my property. A little while later I noticed the couple who lives on one side starting to act very standoffish and pretend they didn't see me whenever we happened to be outside at the same time. I heard one of them making cat noises one time when both of us happened to be in our backyards at the same time. There have been other times when one of them will make barking noises at my dog whenever she barks which is VERY RARE since I trained her to know when it's ok to bark and when it is not. She is not a nuisance barker. To make a long story short, it pisses me off when the guy does this and I have been tempted to shout back at him "Wow that's real mature!" But I don't want to stoop to his level. So what do I do when this guy starts taunting my dog? I was nice enough to not hurt his cat, and I keep my dog quiet and off his property. It pisses me off he and his wife refuse to show the same respect.

 

Another observation that made me determine one of the cats belongs to this family is that I see their cat litter container every week on the side of their curb along with their trash on trash day. Also because I witnessed them petting the cat while it was perched on the fence.

 

 

So this is how you say you asked them politely for help in solving the problem?

If your attitude when you first went over to talk tot he is anything like the attitude you have on here, you likely put them off within 30 seconds of meeting them.

 

I also suspect that you are one of those people who say " my dog never ( or hardly ever) barks , when, in fact, it does, and any clap trap about how you trained it so it hardly ever does is just that, nonsense. Unless you are around 24/7, you don't know what the dog is doing, and since many animals pick up on the emotions of their owners, I suspect your dog is just like you.

 

My point is that if you continue to have the attitude you do, don't be surprised if animal control shows up at your home after receiving a noise complaint about your dog.

 

Most neighbors would try and work this out and not stoop to your level, and the cat that none of your other neighbors seem to be upset about the cat , and your expressed hatred of said animals, would indicate that the one with the problem is you, and you may well be exaggerating the scope of the problem...but of course, everyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong. ( and you seriously give off the vibe of being someone who would hurt the cat, as you say that you would trap it and take it far away so that it can't find it's way home, which, in effect, would likely mean it starved to death..what a nice person you are...should someone be able to do this to your dig when you let it p@ss or sh@t on their property? Oh, I forgot, you always scoop it up to bad you can't scoop of the urine that kills grass, shrubs and trees and stinks)

[Robert]

Since playing nice isn't in the realm of possibility for this thread we will close it, I trust the thread starter got what she needed out of the responses. Please don't open another thread on this subject, thanks