Need advice re. neighbour suing us to rehome my cat

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I know this sounds daft but just a thought..............you can get free legal advice over the phone if you have a barclaycard or barclaycard visa, and think you may find the same with your home and contents policy.

Having a nastry neirbour here and know how scary they can be, I would definately try for legal advice but agree with most that she is nuts and noway would I get rid of my cat for her............why shoudnt she get rid of hers if she is not protecting it!

As has been said she is the one who she maeke sure that her catflap is safe for her cat and cats are free raoming under the law.

Also agree what proof has she that it was your cat, dont think she has a leg to stand on.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Your neighbour sounds bonkers!  I would definitely contact CAB or similar, or even have a consultation with a lawyer yourself if you can afford it.  Just so that you know how things stand legally.  I can't see that your neighbour has a leg to stand on as cats fight all the time but as they're free roaming animals, you aren't legally responsible.  As to going inside their house, if they have an open cat flap, that will happen.  They need to lock it or get a flap that other cats can't use.  And if she's saying your cat fought with her cat inside her home yesterday (what exactly is her claim?  that her cat got hurt?  that her house was damaged?)  she has to have evidence - if she has an open cat flap it could be any cat.

I think she's just trying to scare you but it might put your mind at rest to get some legal advice.

Is it possible to catproof your garden?

[c130]

I know the cats fight, the question is how often they've actually fought inside her house and whether it was my cat every time.

Something rather odd is that her cat occasionally comes into our garden and sits on one of the windowledges so he can see inside. Soon as my cats spot him they get riled up and hiss at the glass, but the other cat starts purring and rolling about.

Re. microchip cat flaps - my cat can break through the lock on regular & magnetic catflaps. What we'd need is some sort of catflap with a proper lock rather than a tiny plastic tab & flexible door.

[Ellen2010]

Sounds a bit suspicious to me that no one else has ever brought up that your cat has attacked theirs.  If is does go to court it maybe worth getting other neighbours who have cats to go on your side for example character reference for your cat but in no way would I get rid of my cat.  I know where I would tell her to go but is not printable in the way I would say it on here 

Would have a few other suggestions of things to do to her but won't even go there and no it is not harming an animal in any way, I would not suggest that at all.

[Fire Fox]

Have you actually heard from the legal team? If so have they specified which piece of legislation they believe you are breaching at present? Whilst I am confident the advice you have been given so far is correct, in your shoes I'd be a little worried in case your neighbour tries to harm your cat in any way.  Are both cats neutered? Would you be willing to go halves on a microchip cat flap? Or would it be easy to catproof your or your neighbours gardens?

[fluffybunny]

What Mark says!  If you have a hole in your house, you shouldn't be surprised when roaming creatures enter it.  No-one is forcing her to have a cat flap and there are perfectly good products on the market that she can use to prevent access by other cats - like the microchip catflap that Mark suggested.  It all sounds pretty ridiculous to me but there's absolutely no way I would consider rehoming my cats for something like that! Good luck x

[Gillian Harvey]

No way anyone would get me to part with my cats for any reason, let alone one as flimsy as this 

[Mark]

Cats are considered free-roaming in law. She does not have a leg to stand on. If I were you, I would phone Cats Protection helpline or CAB for advice. If her lawyer is telling you otherwise, they are in the wrong. If she doesn't want other people's cat in her house, it is up to her to keep her cat flap (as well as her big trap) closed. She could always buy a microchip cat flap. They only allow cats in if their chip number is programmed in.

[Feline Costumier]

I'd let her try and take me to court and would most certainly not be trying to rehome my cat! Furthermore, she would have to produce hard evidence for anyone to even consider her complaint and even then I think she'd have a very tough time getting any sort of court injunction or whatever for a cat. I've certainly never heard of it before.

[Angiew]

sounds like a total load of bloomin heck.

[c130]

Right, the gist of it is, this woman moved into our neighbourhood this year and brought a cat along with her. My cat and her cat do not get along, they scrap with each other whenever they run into each other. A few times, apparently, my cat entered her house through the catflaps (which she stubbornly keeps unlocked) and fought with her cat inside her home. My cat's well known and loved throughout the neighbourhood, lots of other people have cats here but this woman is the only one we've had a complaint from.

So, eventually she decided to call in the lawyers, and we've been looking for a new home for our cat for a few weeks now. He's been kept strictly indoors since mid November, but he's a sneaky wee butter and has managed to escape once or twice, but we haven't heard about any fights for a while.

Tonight he slipped out right in front of us, so we ran round to the neighbour's house to make sure he didn't get in through the catflaps - she was still at work & didn't know anything was happening. Her cat watched us quite happily through the windows while we waited to see if ours would turn up, but he never came near the house and turned up on our doorstep ten minutes later.

Somehow, the neighbour is now claiming he got into her house and fought with her cat at some point today. This is absolutely not true, he's been at home all day with me - the only time he got out was tonight and he didn't even cross the street let alone break into her house. There are two possibilities here - she is lying about my cat fighting with her cat tonight (and by extension, any/all of the previous incidents), or some other animal - cat, fox? - entered her house through the unlocked catflaps and she's blindly assumed it's my cat.

I don't want to lose my cat to a lying, conniving, scheming witch. I was ready to find him a new home until this incident today. What can I do? Surely she doesn't have a leg to stand on in court if her evidence consists of "your cat fought with my cat, but nobody saw it happen."