07-3-2013 at 9:33 AM

I'm sorry that happened. ;_;<br /> I used to have a neighbor when I lived at home with my parents (well, he is still their neighbor), and this man HATED animals. He threatened to shoot the cat that belonged to the people next door to him simply because it walked on his grass, and he poisoned three of my dogs; one of which died and the other two had to be taken to the emergency vet in the middle of the night.<br /> <br /> This all happened in a forested, 'country' area. He told us that if our dogs were on his land he would shoot or poison them without a second thought, and sadly he was perfectly within his rights to do so. Well, shoot them at least, poisoning an animal is illegal. (no one has any fences put up, not him or my family, but our dogs would generally stay on our property.) The problem though, was that he could put poisoned hotdogs on the edge of his property line, and our dogs could stand on our property and eat the poison.<br /> <br /> Some people just can't be changed; but my advice to you would be that "You attract more bees with honey." This guy I am talking about above who threatened to kill our animals; we added him on facebook, brought him cage-free organic eggs from our chickens, and baked a cake for him and his family. We made a genuine effort to become friendly with him, even after he poisoned our animals, and the guy made a total 360-degree turnaround. He started being nice and friendly with us, brought us deer jerky and sausage from his hunting trips as gifts, and has recently adopted a pregnant stray. You never know whats going on in someone else's life to make them act a certain way, but its ALWAYS better to try and be positive and friendly with people.<br /> <br /> I agree that, while it is legally his right to shoot your cat, he was totally rude and out of line to threaten to do so. However, you would have been better off to apologize, and sweetly and politely try to explain to him the situation with your other cat and why your outside kitty needs to be outside.<br /> <br /> I have 3 cats and they are all indoor cats; but that's because I now live in the city right next to a busy intersection. I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping your cat outdoors if the cat is fixed, has their claws intact, and isn't over there taking a dump on his front porch. However Like Clayton said, there is no law preventing him from shooting your cat if its on his property. If you don't have the resources to fence your cat in with chicken wire the way Thylacine described, and you don't see it as an option to bring the cat indoors, I recommend you just go next door with a plate of cookies. Apologize to the guy, even if you feel you weren't wrong, and try to explain to him in a nice and respectful way why your cat needs to be outside.

07-2-2013 at 2:13 PM

But keeping her indoors isn't an option because we have a male cat that really doesn't like her. They are both neutared, so their is no chance of pregnancy, but he simplay does not like her. He is also de clawed, while she isn't. Is she wanted to, she could really hurt my male. <br /> I asked him if he saw my cat step onto his property and kill that bird, to which he replied no, so, the cat might not have even killed the bird on his property. So, he basically assumed that my cat went on to his property and killed the bird. He also has never complains of it being on his property. My cat rarely every leaves our yard, when she does, she doesn't even like to go onto his property given the fact that he owns large dogs and lots of loud work equitment. Could he shoot my cat is it wasn't on his property? Like the property of another neighbor or near his property.

07-2-2013 at 2:01 PM

<i>"and how it was my responsibility as his owner to keep her in my yard. I quickly countered to Andy that I was I minor, I legally do not own any property, my cat included"</i><br /> That's not actually how the law sees it. You have a cat, your family owns a cat, whoever owns it, it's their responsibility to contain it and keep it from running lose on the property of others.<br /> <br /> <i>"shoot an animal that wasn't causing him any real problem."</i><br /> There are many sources to explain that this statement is 100% false, but they're a quick Google search away so I'm no going to bother linking them.<br /> <br /> Keeping a cat indoors is not hard. I own three cats who all want to get outside.<br /> Stray cats/roaming cats cause more harm than good. When they're not killing native wildlife, they're peeing and pooping all over my outside furniture and in the grass.

07-2-2013 at 2:00 PM

See, and I wasn't even going to bring this up, but his dog digs up our gardens all the time. That being said, I think that him taking up such a matter with me was very inappropriate, given that I am a minor and such, I'll think about the chicken wire idea, but on a less expensive route, can you give me any advice on how to bond two adult cats of the opposite sex?

07-2-2013 at 1:34 PM

It may depend on where you live, but I do believe your neighbors threat is grounds for legal action. :/ to intentionally harm, let alone kill, another persons pet is animal abuse, and probably a few other things, though I dont know about threats to do so.<br /> <br /> <br /> As for keeping the cat in YOUR yard, it may be expensive, but Perhaps invest in a large quantity of chicken fencing, and enclose your entire yard. Depending on how well your cat can climb said chicken fence, you will also need to make a sturdy overhang of it into your yard at a steep angle, or even make a ceiling of sorts from the chicken fence.