Just imagine: you've been living in a house for many years, you have a great relationship with your neighbor - at least you regularly say hello, having small talk and whatnot - and suddenly it all stops. She stops greeting you, turns away when she sees you, and shows in every possible way that you actually irritate her.
What could have gone wrong? Well, the answer is actually very simple and consists of only three letters: C. A. T. Yes, it's all about the cat - at least that's what happened to the user SunnyLuny, the author of the story we're going to tell you today.
More info: Mumsnet
The author of the post has been living in their house for 5 years, with a single elderly lady as a neighbor
Image credits: Anderson Martins / Pexels (not the actual photo)
For the first 2 years, the lady was very nice and polite towards the neighbors - but then the author got a cat...
Image credits: SunnyLuny
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
It's an outdoor cat, so it made a habit of going to the neighbor's garden on a regular basis
Image credits: SunnyLuny
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Since then, the neighbor stopped greeting the author and their fam, and went absolutely no-contact with them
Image credits: SunnyLuny
Recently the author even saw her hammering spikes into the fence, and found it 'bizarre'
So, the Original Poster (OP) and their family have been living in this house for 5 years already, and for the first two years they had a great relationship with their elderly neighbor. According to the author, this woman is almost 70, and she lives on her own. The neighbor had always been more than polite to everyone, was lovely to the OP's kids - but in the last three years it was as if she'd been replaced.
The changes in the neighbor's behavior towards the author coincided with the moment when they got a cat. In fact, an outdoor cat, which likely took to visiting the neighbor's garden. The neighbor didn't say anything and didn't complain loudly, but simply started looking away when they met, stopped saying hello and generally behaved as if she didn't notice either the OP or their family members.
This went on for quite a long time - and recently the author saw how the neighbor has been putting spikes into the fence. No warnings, no conversations - just calmly and methodically hammering in the spikes. The original poster, of course, assumes that the cat was the cause of everything, or rather, its regular visits to the neighbor's garden, but they do believe that the neighbor was behaving 'bizarrely.'
And now the author is faced with a dilemma - to just keep quiet and act as if nothing had happened, or to go to the neighbor and ask for an explanation. The OP's parents think that they should keep quiet, but according to the author's partner, they should talk to the neighbor. And the original poster decided to take it online, just to find out the opinion of netizens on this matter.
Image credits: Mikhail Nilov / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Over the thousands of years that cats have lived alongside us people, many studies have been carried out - and the result is clearly unchanged. Cats, especially outdoor cats, love to go into neighbors' gardens. The thing is that, as some studies claim (for example, this one), cats divide their territory into their "main" zone - where they sleep, play and eat, and a "hunting" zone, which is actually much larger.
Cats go there regularly, and mark the territory with their own droppings, with the goal of driving away other cats. Even if there is not a single feline in the whole surrounding area. So, you must admit, such reaction is rather understandable for an elderly lady whose garden has probably been subject to regular cat raids in recent years.
What can be done to stop a cat from visiting a neighbor? This dedicated article on the Irish Independent notes that spikes on a fence, although not very civilized, are nevertheless quite an effective solution. The author of the article also recommends using automatic water sprayers that are sensitive to movement, or "big cat" manure - so that the "trespasser" thinks there is a lion or tiger nearby.
There are special products - for example, "Silent Roar" - so the OP could probably offer to buy buy something similar for the neighbor and place it in her garden. At least, most commenters are sure that the author is to blame for the current situation, and they should at least apologize to the elderly neighbor for the cat's antics. So do you, our dear readers, also agree with this point of view?
People in the comments, however, claimed that the author was wrong here and urged them to go and apologize for the cat's behavior
