Her Neighbors Let Their Cats Roam Freely Outside. She’s Thinking About Trapping Them
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Imagine moving into an HOA neighborhood that has a rule that pets are not supposed to roam free. What would you do if the HOA didn’t enforce the rule, and there were a bunch of neighborhood cats wandering around your yard? Would you talk to the neighbors, the HOA, or take matters into your own hands?
In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she wants to trap the neighbors’ cats and take them to an animal shelter.
I think that’s an extreme way to handle the situation. Surely, there’s a better way.
Keep reading for all the details.
WIBTA for trapping all the neighborhood cats that come into my yard?
I live in a suburban neighborhood where everyone is on a lot about 1/5 of an acre.
I’m still relatively new (just hit one year) to the neighborhood and only know a couple of my neighbors.
The few I know I’m on good terms with.
I feel so sad for the birds.
When I moved in, I noticed that there are around 5 cats that are constantly going through our yard.
They don’t cause any damage to anything other than eating a lot of the birds (blue birds, cardinals, robins, finches, sparrows, etc.).
I’ve seen the cats fishing babies out of the bird houses I’ve put up:'(. I spend a large amount of time gardening and I really enjoy seeing the birds at my feeders.
She’s not sure if this is a good idea or a bad idea.
I want to trap my neighbors’ cats and drop them off at the shelter because they just let their pets roam free but I feel really bad about it because I also love cats.
I have two cats but I never let them outside.
My HOA also doesn’t allow pets to roam free but they’re pretty lax (for better or worse).
She’s considering talking to a neighbor.
I know who one of the cats belongs to and I feel like talking to this neighbor is the right way to handle it.
However, they’ve been in the neighborhood longer than I have and their cat has probably been touring the neighborhood its whole life.
If also feel like if I talk to them and then everybody else’s cats start disappearing, word will get around that it’s me.
WIBTA?
I think the correct thing to do would be to talk to the HOA so that they hopefully step up and enforce their own rules.
Let’s see if Reddit agrees.
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This person suggests telling the HOA.
Another person points out why this would be a problem for the animal shelter.
This person tells her not to steal.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a tenant who is getting evicted because they refuse to let their landlord in whenever he wants.
Nobody thinks she should trap the cats.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but she’s lucky that she lives in an HOA. If one of the HOA rules is that pets can’t roam free, that’s her solution. The HOA will probably be more likely to enforce the rule if she tells them about the problem with the cats.
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