Imagine discovering that your neighbor’s cat has fleas. Would you mind your own business, or would you let her know out of pity for the poor cat?

In this story, one renter chooses the second option, but the neighbor is not at all grateful for the heads up. Not wanting the cat to suffer, the woman decides she has to do something about it. She knows just what to say and just what to do.

Everything works out really well in the end for everyone but the awful neighbor.

Let’s read all about it.

Animal abusing hag gets drop kicked from the neighborhood.

One year ago, I was renting a house next to the most unpleasant neighbor I hope to ever experience.

The only thing I liked about her was her cat, this freakishly adorable tabby who could grab even the most hardened criminal’s heart by the balls.

Every time I came home from work he would sidle up next to me for some TLC, which he never got from my neighbor.

As far as I could tell, she just used the poor thing to keep away mice and “play” (i.e., be terrorized by) her toddler grandkids on the weekends. The poor furbaby looked severely underfed and always appreciated the meals I’d leave out for him on our back porch.

OP also has a cat.

I have an indoor fur baby of my own (a tail-less ball of energy, aptly named Goblin), and one day he managed to escape outside.

Luckily I found him within a few hours, but by the next morning, what jumps on my lap? Not Goblin, alas, but a flea. And if my social butterfly cat had fleas, I was positive the next-door fur baby had fleas too.

Now, I already had a bitter history with this neighbor.

OP shares another annoying experience she had with the neighbor.

In addition to being a twat rocket to her cat, she’d harrassed my older parents when they were helping me move in. Why? Because our U-haul rental was blocking a dead-end sidewalk in front of MY house.

My parents are very kind people — my mom has literally been thanked on customer service hotlines for being so sweet. And this lady was berating them needlessly for “ruining the community,” ranting even longer than they’d been parked, until they eventually moved to an inconvenient and wholly unnecessary distance.

Regardless of her twat rocket personality, I figured I’d warn her anyway in the best interests of her fur baby.

When I knew she was at home the next day, I knocked on her front door.

She just wanted to help the cat.

When she answered (no “hello,” just a scowl), I started to explain that my escaped indoor cat has fleas and so there was a good possibility that her outdoor cat also had fleas.

Immediately she berates me for “letting” my cat get fleas and snaps that she keeps her house very clean, unlike me, so there is no way her cat has fleas.

I just loudly sighed at her and went back home as she continued to yell. You’ve never even been IN my house, lady! And that’s not how fleas work!

All week I noticed her cat scratching himself raw and felt so bad for the lil guy. I wanted to give him flea medication and a flea bath, but with my neighbor now watching me like a hawk and screeching like a banshee if I even pet him anymore, I had to leave him alone.

BUT, I realized, there was something I COULD do.

She alerted the landlord.

You see, we shared the same landlord, who was very concerned about household pests and instructed us to call him at the first sight of a bed bug, tick, etc.

I also knew that my neighbor was keeping her cat a secret from the landlord to avoid paying the pet rent, as I’d overheard her bragging about this to a friend outside one day.

So what do I do? I call up the landlord to explain the flea situation, and I make sure to add that my neighbor’s cat has also been scratching like crazy.

There’s a pause. “Did you say she has a cat?”

Yes, I assure him, she definitely has an indoor-outdoor cat.

For the neighbor, the landlord’s visit would be a surprise.

Turns out that my neighbor had harrassed our landlord into replacing most of her carpet due to her alleged cat allergy. I don’t know why the landlord caved in to this, but it wasn’t cheap. And now our landlord learned that not only had Madwoman lied about an allergy to score a free renovation, but she hadn’t paid pet rent in more than a year.

Well, an exterminator gets called, and our landlord himself shows up to oversee the whole thing.

We had both received a flyer taped to our front doors giving notice that he would be coming to our houses on that date, but I may or may not have removed my neighbor’s so she wouldn’t be able to just hide evidence of her cat for a few hours.

Here’s how the story ends.

So our landlord arrives, and I listen gleefully with my window open as my neighbor tries to prevent him and the exterminator from entering.

Eventually she allows them to come inside, where there is obvious evidence of a pet living there.

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I don’t know exactly what transpired between her and the landlord (there must be other stains on her record, being such a nutcase), but a few months later I had a new next-door neighbor.

And guess who Madwoman purposely abandoned during the move? Her poor fur baby, who became a much-loved (and flea-free) member of our house.

I don’t think it was a good idea to remove the flyer notifying the neighbor of the landlord’s visit. I assume there are laws about giving notice before entering an apartment.

Regardless, the neighbor sounds awful, so I’m glad she moved out and her cat got a better home.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This was the best part of the story!

The cat definitely deserved a better owner.

I completely agree!

Everyone loved the story.

I feel bad for the life the cat had with the awful neighbor, but I’m happy for the cat that OP gave him a wonderful home. He sounds like an amazing and sweet pet.

The pet rent couldn’t have cost all that much. I’m surprised she’d lie about the cat to avoid paying it.

Regardless, it all worked out well, especially for the cat.