Really beyond petty neighborly dispute

BadKeyMachine said that the neighbor was worried about the dog hurting the cat. If I asked you to keep you cat off my porch and you come back with a squirt gun or tell me to just let my dog chase it off, the next time the cat was on my porch it would be off to the pound because you clearly don't want the responsibility of having a pet and that cat deserves better.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

BadKeyMachine said that the neighbor was worried about the dog hurting the cat. If I asked you to keep you cat off my porch and you come back with a squirt gun or tell me to just let my dog chase it off, the next time the cat was on my porch it would be off to the pound because you clearly don't want the responsibility of having a pet and that cat deserves better.

It really depends on the conversation. If you go over and tell your neighbor to just use the squirt gun, that doesn't fly. But it might be worth having the conversation with the woman to see if she might be willing to try that route.

ThinJ has the right of it. If your pet is in someone else's yard, and they don't like it, it is up to you to prevent that from happening. And if part of the problem is the your neighbor is just opposed to the idea that you let your cat run the neighborhood, you probably aren't going to get their help.

But a little communication can go a long ways.

kyrieee wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

This is one of the many reasons I have always advocated the position that the only responsible way to own a cat is for it to be 100% indoors. This defines their territory and the boundaries of it without the need for constant conflict resolution. Considering that others may not be as bound to your rules of conflict as you may be, keeping the cat indoors is probably the wisest policy.

I disagree completely with this, I think the only responsible way to own a cat is to let it be outdoors! Of course, my perspective is that of someone who's never owned an indoor cat and I never will. My cat, like any other cat, has been in fights, been gone for days on end, gotten really beat up many times, had surgery more times than anyone else in my family and even amputated a toe, but that doesn't make me want to keep her indoors because I think that life would be worse. To me an indoor cat is just like a caged bird and I wouldn't own a caged bird either. I'm not saying that indoor cats are miserable, but that's because they don't know what they're missing.

Personally I wouldn't hold the owner of another cat responsible for that that cat did to my cat even if I knew who that person was. Cats do what cats do. Rain falls, birds sh*t on your car and a cat may sit on your porch. It's part of nature, just deal with it. I think the water gun idea is great though, it will probably work.

Now I understand that you might be willing to accept the consequences to your own cat for the decision to let him/her roam the neighborhood, but it seems to me a bit irresponsible to expect others to accept the consequences of the damage your cat would cause for the same decision. As others and I have pointed out, the destruction and harm a wandering, territorial animal can and will cause isn't limited to the damage it can cause itself.

If, for instance, I had a champion Portuguese Water Dog whose stud fees carried will into the thousands and your cat scratched its eye or nose prior to an important show AND I had spoken to you before about keeping your cat out of my yard, I might be very tempted to visit an act of extreme violence upon you.

You may think it is the "natural" thing to do to let your cat out, but it is clearly not the ethical thing when you factor in your imposition on the rights of others.

Nevin73 wrote:
ThatGuy42 wrote:

*snip*... We yelled at the cat, he didn't take off, I opened the front door and whistled. My dog bolted for the cat so fast I thought he was going to break the sound barrier. The cat made it safely back home, our dog trotted back wagging his tail happily, and we have not seen the cat on our car or front porch since.*snip*

I think everyone did the right thing here, but I wonder how it would've ended if your dog had caught and killed the cat.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

BadKeyMachine said that the neighbor was worried about the dog hurting the cat. If I asked you to keep you cat off my porch and you come back with a squirt gun or tell me to just let my dog chase it off, the next time the cat was on my porch it would be off to the pound because you clearly don't want the responsibility of having a pet and that cat deserves better.

I did worry about what would happen if there was a fight or altercation ending in hurt pets. As a decent person, you have to worry about that. But, if you're told explicitly to let the pets figure it out for themselves, you weigh the risks and make a choice. I chose to let them figure it out. However, if I didn't make that choice, more conversation would have been necessary. I certainly wouldn't jump to the extreme of taking another person's pet to the pound because they "don't want the responsibility of having a pet and that cat deserves better." To me, that's an extreme stance and a significant reduction of another person's rights and property. When that cat owner (my own neighbor in my case) states that they trust the situation, trust me as the other individual, and trusts my dog as the wild card and that they just want to let this situation play out, you can't take matters into your own hands there. You can agree to their idea (as I did), you can come up with an alternative and discuss it, or you can chicken out and take no action. But, you certainly can't go off the deep end and haul their pet to the pound, poison it, trap it, beat it, shoot it, or otherwise act like a psychopath. We're past the extreme cases in this thread. Let's focus on real life answers and advice.

Let's just take Paleo's example of a prized show dog. The dog owner has spoken explicitly to the cat owner. The cat owner has done nothing, and offered no amicable solutions. The cat injures the dog. You have to recognize that the cat owner is liable for the loss and damages that the dog owner has suffered here. Similarly, should that dog injure the cat, I wouldn't expect the dog owner to be in any way liable, especially if it happened on the dog owner's property. A conversation was had and no actions were taken. Boom; that's the bottom line. As Thin_J stated, as the cat owner you're the responsible party for your pet's transgression.

Which again brings me back to the simple advice for BadKeyMachine to talk to his neighbor. More information means more options. If the only tenable solution is to keep the cat indoors, so be it. But, by talking about it, we avoid extreme activities and focus on amicable solutions. Heck, as others have mentioned, his neighbor may love the squirt gun idea. If my neighbor had provided a squirt gun and said "try this first" I'd have had a ball trying. I wouldn't have even brought up the idea of having my dog chase the cat away. That was the cat owner's idea, and they accepted all responsibility by suggesting it.

Openly calling for other community members to get banned is a great way to get yourself thrown off the site. If you have an issue, you PM me or you ignore the thread. I've been very clear about my feelings toward junior moderators and that extends to forum lynch mobs as well.