Hi all,

I wonder if any of you have any advice for us?

Yesterday we were in the garden, Londoncat ran a couple of doors down (the gardens are very narrow with low fences) and caught a baby bird from a nest If that wasn't bad enough, the neighbour was in their garden and have threatened to kill the Londoncat

We're upset about the dead baby bird and also worried about Londoncat's safety. We keep her in at night already. We haven't had much success with her keeping a collar on, but are going to try that again to see if that helps.

Not sure if anyone has any more advice?

Make her an indoor cat?

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Check out my English Shepherds
http://www.edenvillage.co.uk

Breed for a useful dog and you often get a beautiful, useful dog... breed only for a beautiful dog and you are on your own in the useful department.

Can you cat proof your garden (i.e. put up higher fences with appropriate top brackets) or keep your cat on a harness?

My kittens were in the garden with us yesterday but I had them on a harness that was tethered to a tent hook so they wandered about freely without being able to leave our garden, and I could keep an eye on them in case they got tangled up. It was a good compromise until such a time when we are sure our garden is cat proof.

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We can't really cat proof it, as it's shared with the flat upstairs. Also she's almost three and has always been inside/outside, so it would be quite an adjustment for her to go inside only.

Better for her to deal with an adjustment than to deal with people threatening to kill her.

__________________
Check out my English Shepherds
http://www.edenvillage.co.uk

Breed for a useful dog and you often get a beautiful, useful dog... breed only for a beautiful dog and you are on your own in the useful department.

If you still want to give her outside access then the only compromise is to teach her to be in a harness and only outside when you are around.

Unfortunately although most threats are harmless, some people are nasty to animals and don't think anything of putting down poisons for animals to injest. If you want to protect your cat against threats/nutters then you might have to restrict access for now.

I had every intention of letting my kittens be free outside, but then changed my mind upon the behaviour of some nutter neighbours of mine. Until I can be sure of their safety I don't see the point of being stubborn and risking injury and heartache.

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The neighbour was threatening and has intimidated you by saying the cat will be hurt therfore i would be calling the police.

Cats will be cats and they are natural hunters. Its sad but its a fact of life.

no collar will stop her doing this, they will just learn to strike when it doesnt move, makes them better hunters!

sadly it life, cats are hunters born and bred, inside they are loveable babies, outside natural born killers.

Id report the threat to the police and keep here wawy from them or even inside, stupid people who says that? they are cats it happens, yes it isnt nice but thats life.

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You can cat proof your garden in a way that makes it quite unobtrusive. I recently visited a lady who had poles around the top of her fence which would roll if the cat jumps up at them and attempts to climb over the fence. This means that the cat just slides off. Depending on the size of your garden, this doesn't appear to be terribly expensive either.

I'm off from work today so have kept her in today.

I'm rather hoping that it will blow over if I keep her in for a few days and it was just a heat of the moment comment.

LouiseH - do you know any more about those poles? I suppose we could potentially put them up just on that side of the garden (that we technically own luckily enough) ...