Here's something you might be interested in.
I spent Thanksgiving with some writer friends. It was nice to take a break from the family thing. And I'll be seeing them for a Christmas dinner (nothing beats a Jewish mom, fixing a turkey and giving you Christmas gifts).
The hosts had two cats and I worried about my girlfriend, who's allergic to them.
When the cats were let outside, I remembered a story I told them. I had this bizarre neighbor where I grew up. If we were playing baseball or football in the street, he'd keep balls that rolled onto his finely manicured lawn. He would leave notes if you parked your car in front of his house, or he'd knock on your door and ask you to move (even though he wasn't parking a car there, and it was a public street). He looked just like Randy Jones, just to give you a visual of the curly haired pyscho.
When he shot a cat that came into his yard, a lot of neighbors really rallied against him. And the woman who lost her cat, spray painted curse words on his garage. He claimed he was allergic to cats, and that he'd previously told neighbors to keep their animals off his yard.
Of course, the Thanksgiving crowd freaked out about this (even though they had a bird the size of a cat, that nobody cared died for our enjoyment).
To play devils advocate, and also because I think a neighbor has this right...I asked what you do if a neighbor asks you to keep your cats off their yard. They all had cats. And they all said similar things.
"You can't keep cats from going in other peoples yards."
I would respond, "So...if my garden is torn up by your cat, you'd replace the flowers? Or if it crapped on my yard, you'd come scoop it up? Or would you say 'How do you know it was my cat?'"
They then paused, and didn't really have an answer. Or they gave me the answers they thought I wanted to hear.
I thought about all this when I went to a friends apartment, and I saw a "missing" sign on the fence.
I never thought cats went "missing". Don't they always come back? Or did another neighbor like the old pyscho, take out another?
My stepdad said "There is no law for roaming cats, the way there is with dogs." And, being a letter carrier, he knows all the dog laws. I laughed when he said, "It's because they are wild animals, and nobody really owns them."
But seriously...I think a neighbor has the right to have you keep your cat off their yard. Even if your cat does nothing on the yard. Even if your cat isn't doing what they seem to do outside my window. They have some crazy mating that sounds like banshies from Hell.
And only drives home the point that they're having a lot more fun than I (although, the way they sound, maybe they're not having fun).
If you get cats, people...it's like I said in that blog a few days ago regarding children. They are a responsibility. You have to keep your house from smelling gross when guests arrive. You should find out if people have allergies when they come over.
And if neighbors want your cat to stop roaming the neighborhood, don't ask them why. Just get it done.
Or get rid of the cat.
I spent Thanksgiving with some writer friends. It was nice to take a break from the family thing. And I'll be seeing them for a Christmas dinner (nothing beats a Jewish mom, fixing a turkey and giving you Christmas gifts).
The hosts had two cats and I worried about my girlfriend, who's allergic to them.
When the cats were let outside, I remembered a story I told them. I had this bizarre neighbor where I grew up. If we were playing baseball or football in the street, he'd keep balls that rolled onto his finely manicured lawn. He would leave notes if you parked your car in front of his house, or he'd knock on your door and ask you to move (even though he wasn't parking a car there, and it was a public street). He looked just like Randy Jones, just to give you a visual of the curly haired pyscho.
When he shot a cat that came into his yard, a lot of neighbors really rallied against him. And the woman who lost her cat, spray painted curse words on his garage. He claimed he was allergic to cats, and that he'd previously told neighbors to keep their animals off his yard.
Of course, the Thanksgiving crowd freaked out about this (even though they had a bird the size of a cat, that nobody cared died for our enjoyment).
To play devils advocate, and also because I think a neighbor has this right...I asked what you do if a neighbor asks you to keep your cats off their yard. They all had cats. And they all said similar things.
"You can't keep cats from going in other peoples yards."
I would respond, "So...if my garden is torn up by your cat, you'd replace the flowers? Or if it crapped on my yard, you'd come scoop it up? Or would you say 'How do you know it was my cat?'"
They then paused, and didn't really have an answer. Or they gave me the answers they thought I wanted to hear.
I thought about all this when I went to a friends apartment, and I saw a "missing" sign on the fence.
I never thought cats went "missing". Don't they always come back? Or did another neighbor like the old pyscho, take out another?
My stepdad said "There is no law for roaming cats, the way there is with dogs." And, being a letter carrier, he knows all the dog laws. I laughed when he said, "It's because they are wild animals, and nobody really owns them."
But seriously...I think a neighbor has the right to have you keep your cat off their yard. Even if your cat does nothing on the yard. Even if your cat isn't doing what they seem to do outside my window. They have some crazy mating that sounds like banshies from Hell.
And only drives home the point that they're having a lot more fun than I (although, the way they sound, maybe they're not having fun).
If you get cats, people...it's like I said in that blog a few days ago regarding children. They are a responsibility. You have to keep your house from smelling gross when guests arrive. You should find out if people have allergies when they come over.
And if neighbors want your cat to stop roaming the neighborhood, don't ask them why. Just get it done.
Or get rid of the cat.