The other side of the fence......

[divegirl]

.....so.

I have new neighbours, a lovely couple who have been here for about 7months. Unfortunately their little boy is petrified of cats even more unfortunately for them our previous neighbour took great delight in feeding all of the cats in our road.
I explained this to her when she moved in and offered to buy her a water pistol to make said cats disappear.mine included.

Today is a beautiful end of the summer here in Essex I am sitting in the garden enjoying a dinky poo when I hear her mother(grandma), not her, tell the two year old, who is doing his usual freak out, to go and get some stones and they will get rid of the cat.
Now Ginge, said beast is dozing in the flower bed....

Question..... What would you have said/done.

Lisa x

[daffy654]

I would go round and tell them that it is not really a good idea to tell a toddler to throw stones and any animal.

[islasmum]

Coughed....loudly. What did you do?

[B00]

i'd have said something, there's no way that i couldn't.

[baza]

tell the old trout that telling her grandsprog to throw stones is not the best way of bringing up a child. I would put it stronger myself but I do have a big gob.

[divegirl]

Lol. More than coughed loudly, I pointed out, as Daffy said, that I thought it was wring to encourage animal cruelty and that I had offered a water pistol to her daughter. She denied saying it...okayyyyyyy.

That said mt daughter now has the perfect retaliation when her 3 month old cries at 3am (joke)

Lisa x

[divegirl]

Sorry for spelling. Still in the garden on the iPad guarding the cats and tipsy hehehehe

[divegirl]

I'm going round there with a water pistol tomorrow as well.

The kid is scared, fair enough, but to encourage that!

Lisa x

[ladybirder]

Would it be a bad move to try and introduce the child to your cat, gently of course, show him there is nothing to be frightened of? Or will your cat have his guts for garters?

[queenofmean]

I would have asked the cat to throw stones at her and then see how she liked it

[baza]

Pitty cats don't fly, could crap on your neighbours head!

[queenofmean]

PMSL ^^^^

[divegirl]

I would love to do that ladyB but I don't think they would be up for it and only one of my cats would suffer it and then not for too long :0/

The boy was scared of the dogs when they moved in even though he couldn't see them. I have managed to get him to stroke them and they're Great Danes!

I was more upset at the attitude of the adult involved and that is what I will be dealing with.

Lisa x

[wolf63]

I would have thought that teaching the little monster (not the cat) that if he doesn't go near the cat nothing bad will happen. By telling it to throw stones they are just reinforcing that there is something to fear where cats are concerned.

All they need to do is frighten your little one - water, sound or smell and he will, eventually, take the hint and avoid the garden.

:-)

[Kerosene]

Have similar experience with both dogs and cats. Quite a few years ago we moved into a house, got a couple of kittens which, like all moggies, took to wandering including into neighbours' gardens. A next door neighbour without our knowledge cut up some old tin cans and hammered them into their fence posts with the jagged edges of the cans sticking up which resulted in pretty severe cut paws for one of our kittens.

Needless to say we were livid, however I spoke in a civil manner to the neighbour who, credit where it's due, did apologise profusely, and removed the offending articles. After that we got on like a house on fire.

A more recent example involved our two present dogs about 6 years ago. Both are soft as butter Collies, we were across fields walking when loud shouting/screaming(playful) was heard from up ahead. Dogs were off the lead, dashed off immediately before I could do anything (slapped wrist pour moi ), and when I caught up a couple of fields later, there was this woman with her arms around her two kids (11/12 years old?) in a sort of 'cringing' fashon as if they were about to be ripped to bits by my two mutts who stood there, tails wagging, looking gormless.

What can you do??? I felt like giving the mother a good slap - she'd obviously instilled into her kids that all dogs were vicious - silly c*w.

[boxtops]

Kerosene, that's awful about the tin cans - glad you were able to resolve it.

[divegirl]

That is my 'issue' with it all. If they, the so called adults were to approach either of my cats, one would run for her life and the other would roll over like the attention *** that he is! The adults are indeed just re-enforcing this little ones fears.
Sad really.

Lisa x

[divegirl]

And, yes, kerosene, that is just pure madness.... Damn humans :0(

[Kerosene]

boxtops,

Thanks - yes it is a true story. The neighbour responsible was an old boy whose garden was his pride and joy. However, as I said to him, I would have been only too prepared to pay for anything untoward done by our kitties and/or come and collect any little 'pressies' they'd left.

He and his missus simply were unaware of how to deal with such a situation, but instead of me rushing to the RSPCA (as some would have done), I did my best to try to appeal to his better nature because I didn't want us to alienate one another because of my pets. Thankfully it worked and we reconciled our differences.

[Kerosene]

divegirl,

Know exactly what you mean, both our moggies have very large yellow streaks down their backs - except in the house with our dogs, that is. Moggies rule! (Well, at home anyway?)

[ladybirder]

Well in that case let's hope the mother is more sensible than the grandmother. Why don't people put their brain in gear before opening their mouths. Sigh.