I live in a rural area that has no cat bylaws. I wrote my neighbor a very respectful letter outlining the damage her cats are doing in my yard . This is the second time I have asked her nicely . Her cats have sprayed all over my porch, defecated in my garden and dug up new lawn to use as a litterbox. I have had to reach my garden soil with gravel and pull out plants. The cats are now digging and defecating along the side of my house. I have tried to use humane deterrents to no avail . I agree on the trespassing but where I live you would have no chance of prosecution. I would have to go civilly and that costs a fortune. On top of all this, the person has dogs that are holding the neighborhood hostage . We contemplated selling our dream retirement home. My wife is in tears and she's my sweetie. We have been together 62 years.No one messes with my sweetie. I thought about the 1 plus 1 rule. Where the person violates one rule ...there must be other violations. I used to be in law enforcement ...its been a long time. I felt like that Clint Eastwood in Grand Torino....good movie . I am game for Fluffy's owner doing 15 to 20 in the slammer for 3 strikes, but I think civil liberties might have something to say about that. So am utilizing every bylaw and law to take this neighbor to task . So far , they will have to rip out fence they erected in greenbelt, rip down at least 4 encroaching buildings and redo the fencing.This neighbor is facing penalties for other issues that are going to cost them thousands of dollars. Bylaws is all over the dog situation and other neighbors are now fed up and on board with the whole operation . Oh yes, I should mention there is about to be a stop work order on a bunch of expensive renos this neighbor has done which should amount to thousands too. Do you feel lucky.....damn, I think that was Dirty Harry. I digress. There should be laws that require cat owners to keep them indoors or confined to their yard ( I don't really give a hoot how they accomplish this ...check out Pintrest or something) . I also think they should have mandatory licensing and rabies vaccines for cats...just like dogs. Maybe people also....too far? This neighbor also gets multiple cats of both genders and fails to spay or neuter them. This is reprehensible. Outdoor cats have a short lifepan here because of the wildlife , but this neighbor just gets new cats ( or they are being manufactured....who the heck knows) . It seems they are disposable. Disgusting because its just plain wrong . Did I mention that animal welfare is involved?I have no idea who called them ...my Motorola brick phone was on the fritz last week. I should really get one of those new fangled flip phones . Then I could post on Space Page...or is that Face Page ..or Face book....I am too old for this.. None of this is the animals' fault. This is about a totally irresponsible pet owner. Such people claim to be animal lovers . If they cared a whit about Fluffy, they would not let him out to get eaten by coyotes, pick up parasites or get run over by a car. Nope , these people are animal collectors ....big difference . They own the animal much like they own a Ford pickup or an instant pot or maybe a Grand Torino . So there you have it. For these neighbors, life is about to become very expensive . Fluffy and Fido are going to be very expensive . I can now clean up Fluffy's crap, pee and other bodily fluids with a sense of satisfaction.My sweetie feels a bit better now and she's back to making me those morning glory muffins with my coffee. Recipe is on Pintrest folks ...just reduce the cinnamon a tad. It gives me gas. This whole Fluffy and Fido thing ...this too shall pass. Just like the muffins . My grandson says I should just chill. I told him I just put on a sweater because my circulation bad.

Why not kill the vine with kindness? Fill jars with dilute Roundup solution (3 parts water, I part Roundup), place ends of vines in the jars through holes in the lids and seal the jars by twisting the jar, not the lid. The jars can be hidden by shrubs or other vegetation. The vines will gladly take up the Roundup/water solution and be grateful for the additional water. Top off the solution in the jars as needed with additional solution as the vines take in the water and transport the roundup into their roots. Next year, the vines will be very unhealthy if they even survive the winter. Repeat the second year if necessary. All the roots are probably interconnected, so all parts of the vine in your yard and the neighborâÂÂs yard will eventually die. Commiserate with the neighbors when they express sadness over the unexplained death of their beloved vine.

Everyone on our street gets along which is really fortunate. We watch each others houses, take trash when someone is on vacation. Heck, whenever there is a holiday we all figure who is home and who is not and join forces to help out. It is really nice. Each year we have a block party and it is next weekend. The only problem there has ever been is this one neighbor who is actually really, really nice. He for some reason just thinks he is the czar and in charge of everthing. He is always there to help but sometimes he is in the way. Like when we sold our boat at our yard sale (oh, when we have a sale he likes to stop by and say "what, another sale?", we only have one a year if at all). He came down and proceeded to speak with the buyer about how to use the boat, where to go, what to do, etc. You would think he was selling the boat. Our other neighbor came over too but he was helping us hook it up and assisted my dh with testing the motor. This guy just has an opinion about everything and instead of telling the homeowner he nags and nags the other neighbors about what he wishes the other owner would do. Or he will tell other to do the things he wants done. Today he was looking for pipe tape because one yard has a funky sprinkler head. And no, he did not ask the owner if he could fix it. So here is the update. Last night dh went to the czar, whos own truck was blocking the sidewalk because it is so long. Dh told him he might want to pull his truck in because it is violating parking laws and probably ADA laws. He told him that we got a ticket for our trailer and that someone in our court turned us in. Our neighbor asked why dh was telling him this. Dh told him it was because everyone thinks he did it. Guy says that is BS. Dh comes home. It was a nice evening and other neighbors started coming out to chat like we all do. This guy comes all the way to my neighbors house to pull her aside and tell her that we are mad at him. She had to answer the phone so she could not chat more. Then he goes back to chat with his direct neighbor, then another. Eventually he heads back to us. He says that he did not do it and since we "acused" him of doing this he is going to find out who did. I told him we did not acuse him at all. I told him that because of his past behavior, his current complaints made over the course of several days, his being in front of my house on phone an hour before ticket... it is simply guilt by association. I told him that maybe he did not do it, but we all have no other choice because of his constant medeling. He shouted something about how when he comes around the corner he is going to hit the trailer (it is no wider than his own truck). My dh blasted back telling him that if he would not fly around the corner he would not have a problem. That was when his wife walked by with her dogs on leash. She kept going. I told him he just needs to stop his behavior and knock it off. He left. We spoke with several others some more. What is really sad it that if he really did not do it, everyone thinks he did. Everyone said they just want him to knock it off. So.... this morning my dh is out front. The wife drives up to chat. She said she was sorry for the way her dh acted. She said she asked if he did it and he said no. (Isn't it interesting that his own wife had to ask if he did it?!) My dh explained why everyone thinks he did it and she said she knows he medels but that he does not like to get into fights with anyone. My dh told her that he may not like to fight but he is a #$@ stirer instead. If he has a problem he needs to tell the person, not tell everyone else. She totally understood where we are coming from. We told our immediate neighbor that we would feel bad if we found out he did not actually do it, and then have to apologize. But our apology would come with a note that he needs to change his behavior because that is why he is in this trouble to begin with. Know what she said? She said, "But we all know he did it!" I just laughed. As for this guy looking for pipe tape. He asked my son, who was playing outside, if we had any. Dh told me to take some over because that is what we would normally do. We are not going to start some war. We have to live here and are not going to let a medeling neighbor ruin it. We are going to live like always. And next time he does something I think we will all be more active about telling him to knock it off. As for the dog thing. His dog is a well trained, very sweet dog. She is old but the kids love her. But it does annoy everyone when she pees on our flowers and goes in our garages. So last night when my dh mentioned that this guy violates laws all the time, especially with his dog running around, hopefully he listened. It is so easy for a street to get into a fight and everyone not get along. I think we are all determined to be friends and I think with all of us staying on top of him he will stay in check. Sometimes it takes one family to stand up to get all the others to stand together. On a funny note, our direct neighbor's dog poops on our side of our shared grass area. We just flick it back to her side and laugh. She is a super neighgor and this is how we have decided to deal with it. We don't think she sees him do it, probably thinks it is amazing how he somehow only poops on her side. lol

I agree ... simple proximity. You'll create more maintenance by dividing the properties with planting and mulch. Plain old mowing will be easier. It's a common problem -- being unhappy with the neighbor's yard upkeep -- but if you can't divide with a solid fence, then the best thing is to take care of your own property and hope the neighbor sells sooner rather than later. Just mow up to the line and ignore beyond. Weed seeds, insects and disease are blowing and walking around everywhere and there's nothing you can do about it. Treat your own space and make it look as good as you can. Sometimes, the neighbor will be motivated by guilt (but this is usually slow and late) when their property looks so bad compared to that next door.