My next door neighbors hate cats. There are several cats in our neighborhood. We have one, a pampered, feisty little girl we adopted after our cat of 11 years passed last summer from diabetes. We moved here 6 years ago, and at first ours was the only cat, everyone else had dogs, but people started getting cats, and the new people moving in had cats. Cats are free roaming animals and unfortunately tend to poop in any dirt they find. There are no ordinances in our town or subdivision for cats, only dogs. Then my darling neighbor built a big sandbox in his backyard. He never put a cover on it. Not much of a problem, as the dog was back there. Then the dog who is old and sick had to be put down. The neighborhood cats eventually discover the sandbox and use it. Our cat generally stayed in our yard but as the yards are so small we found out she would hop the fence and wander. The people across the street have 3 cats and they are the biggest culprits of the doo doo in the sandbox. So the neighbor (who is a jerk and a bully, a whole other long story) decides to do something about the cats. He gets a live animal trap, baits it with tuna fish (which cats are crazy for) and sets it next to the sandbox this past monday morning. His wife warned 2 of the neighbors who they like who own cats, but we didn't know. So our cat was the first. She can't resist it, it's 3 feet from our fence. This happened in the morning. I'm a SAHM but I was in and out most of the day and assumed the cat was sleeping in the basement. Then we started looking for her, and by evening we are frantically calling and looking for her, our kids are crying. We look in the neighbor's back yard and see the trap. My husband asked him if he's seen our cat. He smirks and asks why. My husband asked him directly if he trapped a cat today. He showed him a picture of the cat in the cage and gave him the phone number of the Humane Society in a town 30 miles away where he took her. Of course they are closed so we spent a sleepless night worrying. Our kids are sure they will never see their cat again. The next day I drove the 30 miles and shelled out $75 to bail her out. My husband tried to talk to the DH neighbor but it's like arguing with a fencepost--nothing there but a block of wood. We talked to the Code Enforcement and the police, and there is nothing we can do--no ordinances, no rules regarding traps. So we found a harness and leash at the pet store for our cat so at least she can go outside in the backyard. I apologized to the wife of DH when she told me she saw my cat pooping in her yard, but I will never speak to her DH husband ever again. He's been strutting around, thinking he's all hot shit for getting me back for something that happened last fall.
I think we deserve a Good Neighbor award for putting up with this DH for so long. Everyone, pray we win the lottery so we can move.