I don't believe any dog should run loose. It's dangerous for the animal and one day it'll get hit by a car.

I would call animal control when you see the dog loose again. They will send an officer out anonymously and talk to the people. If they love their dog they will comply. If not, they will seize the animal or fine the people (or both).

I had to do it with my neighbor because I was worried about the safety of her two Golden Retrievers. She keeps them in the yard now.

Good luck!

you have 8 cats! 4 in the house, 1 with 2 kittens on the porch, and another stray that you feed?

Your neighbors scream at each other, and you don't like the neighbor's dog coming into your yard?

Do you have a city ordinance specifying how many animals you can have?

This is an interesting post.

"Good fences make good neighbors."

In many areas if you feed an animal, you own it. You are showing that you are being responsible for the care and feeding of these creatures, so there is a legal assumption in many states that this action causes ownership.
However it is a mute point. Sounds like these people have double standards and no matter what you wont win...
You may want to put up a fence, isnt that whatMark Twain said makes better neighbors??? Good luck

The mother cat and kittens are going to a cat rescue as soon as the kittens are old enough. I don't know if I should take the other stray there. No city ordinances, we live in the country. There is a law that dogs must be confined to your yard though, interesting. And it is not any of MY cats (outside or inside obviously) that are causing damage to the neighbor's property.

How do they know it was a cat that got into the garbage? More likely a raccoon.

I know it's expensive, but consider a fence. You and your husband can research on the net how to do it yourself to cut down the cost. I just moved from the country where I had over an acre to a small city lot. I'm divorced now and really couldn't handle the project of putting up a fence by myself, so I hired a handyman to help me. I have about a 3 ft high wooden fence with a cat fence above that to keep my cats in, other critters out. I have to say that I love it, love the peace of mind. The cat fence is black and see through, so it's not so unsightly as to block the view. Sometimes it's VERY challenging to get along with neighbors, but it's also very necessary. Hope things work out for you and all your critters.

what is a cat fence? How does it keep other critters out? Will it keep stray cats out of my yard?

Newhomeseeker,
In my most recent comment under the feral cats post, I referenced people who have inside/outside animals. Please know that I don't consider you to have that mentality. I can tell that you are trying to juggle all the animals that you do bc you are a caring person. When you can, pls post an update to this problem. I'm hoping things have improved.

The suggestion to call animal control or the police is a good one however they are likely going to show after the neighbors are long gone. What will eventually happen is they will want you to file a formal written complaint in order for them to issue a citation to the neighbor. The neighbor can take it to court if they so please.
Enter: video evidence.
If you have a cell phone with a video camera, learn how to use it and have it ready to film the neighbor's dog on your property. As an added bonus, you could film what happens when you try to make use of your own yard when the dog is there.

I urge you to do something about this because say there is somebody walking by your yard and the neighbors dog is on your property and gets aggressive and hurts someone, guess who's getting sued.

The legal route isn't going to improve relations with your neighbor any.
Enter: the new fence
Good fences make good neighbors!
If you can't afford one or don't want to put one in, if your are not somewhere that prohibits this, there are cheap temporary fencing materials that you can stake into the ground like silt fences, chicken wire and those wire farm fences. That should do the trick.

If you're feeding those cats, you're responsible for them. I would consider them to be yours. Also, every irresponsible pet owner I know claims that their animals "never" commit x, y, and z that I witness them doing. I think you're both at fault.

Newhomeseeker, if the rescue will take the adult cat, I would take her too. I know you take good care of her, but she deserves her own couch.

...got into their garage (they leave the door open) and tore into their garbage and made a mess. A cat also walked all over their sports car (also in the open garage) and left muddy foot prints all over it.

A cat?! Sounds more like a raccoon - we have one sneaking through the kitty door if I do not lock it, and doing something similar...

You sound quite responsible to me, Newhomeseeker, and I agree with the others that most cats would not make a huge mess out of the garbage. (Dogs and raccoons sure would. Even a skunk or a possum might.)

Jump on the roof of a car with muddy paws?--well, maybe, and the paw prints would be a good hint as to the culprit. Get inside a car whose windows were left open?--maybe. My two cats have done both of those things to our car, but they didn't use it as a toilet. I confess that I, too, smiled at the image of what happened to your neighbors, considering how nasty they were with their dog and accusing you of creating drama when you complained.

To my mind, people who don't want cats to get in somewhere need to close their garage door or the windows of their cars. Cats are very different from dogs, and there is a reason why almost no communities even try to legislate that people keep their cats on leashes, tie them up, or not let them roam outdoors. For their own safety, I don't let my cats run loose where we are now, but when we were in a location where they couldn't get hit by a car, we had a cat door that let go them in and out at will any hour of the day or night. Our dogs were not allowed to do that. In fact, there were a number of things that we let our cats get away with that we would never have permitted the dogs to do.

Trigemini: There is at least one company I have seen advertising cat fences. A cat fence is like an additional section secured near the top of a conventional fence or--as in the case of the company whose URL I will post here-- sometimes at the top of a whole fence specially made for cats. (Disclaimer: My husband and I have no connection whatsoever to the cat fence company.)

After hearing about cat fences, we made our own "cat fence" that sloped upward from our 5' tall wooden fence at an angle, so we wouldn't hit our heads on it. It extended a couple of feet into our yard. A cat fence is made of netting or another material that from a cat's point of view is quite see-through, so a cat will not venture to leap up on it. Our fence was made using chicken wire, and it is true, the cats wouldn't try to leap onto or over it.

As the cat fence hangs over into the protected cat's yard, it prevents the cat from leaping up and over the regular fence. If you buy cat fencing from a company, they have special arrangements so that you can put the "fence" on a door or gate, too, and yet be able to open it. We only put our own fencing up on the side next to a neighbor who has a vicious dog.

This sort of fencing, as it needs to extend into the yard where the cats are, would not work for keeping cats *out*, only *in*, and neighbors probably wouldn't want a couple of feet of your fencing sticking into their yards.

Here is a link that might be useful: cat fence company

Thanks for the info. I actually looked it up too. :-)

Update on the neighbors' dogs running loose. I contacted the local dog warden and spoke with her about the concerns. She said they aren't really concerned with ONE dog running loose or standing the road (the neighbor) but is more concerned about the 8+ dogs across the street that I told her the neighbors let run loose all hours and the dogs are often in the road. When I called in the report I told her I wanted to do it annonmously and I also gave her the address of MY house as another neihgbor with a dog that was running loose. (So my neighbors won't suspect me as the one who turned them in). THe next day I came home and there was a note on my door from the dog warden that my dog was due for a routine license check. I am guessing this is what she stopped at the other's neighbors homes for as well. My next door neighbor that has the dog running loose and in our yard had HER dog on a leash when she took him outside (so I am guessing she was fined or something as I've NEVER seen her do that). THe other dogs were also out of sight for about four days. But over the weekend, same thing all over again. The neighbor's ONE dog was running in anohter neighbor's yard across the street with a pack of about six other dogs. Unfortunately I think it will take some poor kid getting bit or attacked before anything is done with these dogs running loose.