Mainly for Ria, but other thoughts welcome

[miasmum]

This perhaps should be on the pets board, but that hasn't seen the light of day since last July.

I would like your opinion on this and how to handle it.

Myself and my over the road neighbour help each other with pet feeding during holidays.

She fed my guinea pigs and my tortoise and I do her chickens and cats.

I have had concerns for a while, as I have found the guineas with no water, and although I leave her money to buy new fresh food, she never does and the food in the fridge she eeks out for the whole week, which isnt good for fresh stuff. When I got home last time and found Margot pig so poorly and I ended up having her put to sleep the next day I thought never again. Although she was adamant she was fine the day before that didnt happen overnight. So I had already decided I would rather pay and board them, and as I now have long term foster pigs, they go back to sanctuary for free. So she only has to do the tortoise and he only needs his shed unlocking in the morning, and locking at night. He is pretty much self sufficient with the stuff we have in the garden, but I would still like him checking and locking away.

She has chickens, which are fairly easy, but horribly smelly in the summer, and two cats. The cats are ok, just put wet food down once a day, dry food top up and thats that. They are completely unfriendly so I never see them, I just feed them.

BUT.....this is my problem. The cats bring in dead or dying birds, mice, rats. I hate it. I fed them last night and this morning there is a featherless disemboweled bird at the top of the stairs. I only know it is there as there were feathers around, so I investigated, but I left it. She is home tonight she can sort it. I cant do that when she is away for 2 weeks though.

I have told her I hate it and she just laughs and says thats what cats do and yes it is. I text her this morning and said there are feathers around but I havent looked and she said dont worry. Did I ever send you the video of Rosie with the baby crow? Complete blood bath, I said no and I would rather you didnt and she said thought you would say that, so she finds it all amusing.

Tim said lock the cat flap so they cant go out, but that doesn't work, they can open it from inside. I am tempted to lock them out but I know that is wrong and I would hate someone to do that to my cats. So what do I do?

I would like her to put them in a cattery but she is totally against that idea.

[cruiser2]

You will have to be very firm. Just say the sight of seeing dead birds and other animals is upsetting you. You are not going to clean the mess. S you will have to
stop looking after her cats and other animals while she is away.
Tell her the next time willbe th3e last time and she will have to make other arrangements. It may mean youwill losea friend but you will have peace of mind.

Good luck and let us know what you do

[JanB]

Have to agree with Cruiser on this one MM.

Some people have no sensitivity.

I can't clear up the dead animals that Molly brings back, Grumpy does that. He can't clear up any sick, which I can do, no problem.

Time to end the arrangement.

[victor]

Have to agree with Jan @ Cruiser on this,she obviously doesn't care about your feelings

[Workingman]

Shell, I agree with the others re the cats and chickens.

As for the tortoise....

When I was in my teens we had Mr Thomson (maybe later) and we would leave him for two weeks when we were away in August. We had blackberries and goosegogs and mum's small herb garden, and dad was a chemical-free gardener. There was an outdoor tap with a short length of hose set to drip, drip, drip on to an old serving platter so that he always had fresh water and a bath. He never came to any harm. He also had a hide to keep out of the sun and rain.

[miasmum]

Problem with Humphrey tortoise is, he is a menace. He climbs, he falls, he cost us thousands a couple of years ago, as he fell out of his hibernation box and damaged his knee. We didnt realise until he wasnt using it and by then he had developed osteomyelitis. So I would never leave him without someone checking on him. Plus he has to be locked away at night because we still get visited by foxes. So I need someone to do that and also hopefully water my pots. I think it would cause too much bad feeling and I would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

Yes I hate it, but I think I am going to have to just suck it up

I would still like Ria's thoughts as a cat owner

[meriad]

Shell, so sorry I only just saw this....

Personally if I was your neighbour I'd appreciate your honesty and I'd happily look for someone else to look after the cats, knowing that you'll still be there to keep an eye on things and can still help with the chickens. I wouldn't risk a good relationship with a neighbour because of something like this; dealing with the 'offerings' really isn't nice and and she should respect how you feel about it. Personally I'm quite saddened that she thinks her cat killing a baby crow is something to laugh about and I can't believe she videoed it - I hate it when my cats bring anything in and will chase them and yell so they release their victim so I can hopefully catch and rescue. Yes it is what cats do but that doesn't mean I (or any of us) have to like it - it breaks my heart every time.

If she is away only a night or two then a compromise could be (as you've said) to keep them in the house and you lock and block the cat flap so they can't get out to catch anything - provided the cats get on OK that is. But if she's away for a longer time period that wouldn't be fair on the cats so for that she needs to get someone else in.

I'm sure if she asked on other sites like NextDoor or local FB groups there would be enough people that would come in and sort her cats and she can reciprocate if needed.

Hope that does help you a bit? xxx

[miasmum]

Thank you Ria, I have decided that it's just not worth the hassle. I need her to look after Humphrey, so I am just going to have to put on my big girl pants and suck it up.

Also I wouldn't want someone I didnt know having a key to my house, so I wouldn't expect her to find someone on next door or Facebook, she doesnt use social media much anwyay.

Thank you for all your comments

PS just to clarify the crow flew away when she managed to get it off the cat and out the back door, whether it survived is another thing entirely