Most people would rather work things out with a neighbor than go the official route.

That’s exactly what this homeowner tried to do after a neighbor’s outdoor cat started treating brand-new patio furniture like its own personal territory.

At first, the homeowner overlooked the cat wandering through the yard and even using the flowerbeds as a litter box.

But when the cat started spraying the expensive patio furniture they just bought, that’s when they had enough.

The homeowner tried talking to the neighbors, but that conversation didn’t solve anything.

Thankfully, their cameras captured enough evidence to convince animal control to step in.

Let’s see how it all played out.

We tried to solve it the nice way. Enjoy your tickets.

We have neighbors who “adopted” a cat that previous neighbors abandoned. That was a nice gesture.

However, over the last few years, they’ve gradually increased the cat’s ability to roam. I get the feeling that he only goes home to eat now. We have a few outdoor cameras, and we see him frequently in our yard.

We were okay with the roaming. We were not super cool with him harassing the birds and not cool with him using our flowerbed as a litter box, but we initially said nothing.

They’re frustrated because now the cat is destroying their new patio furniture.

Last spring, we spent a lot of money on patio furniture. For winter, the furniture is covered and gathered underneath a gazebo.

Unfortunately, the cat has decided the furniture is his. He’s spraying the furniture covers. We have multiple videos of him doing it. One instance was a full-on pee, with a huge puddle on the cover and the concrete.

The concrete is new, so I had to go out and clean up half-frozen cat pee after work. Not pleased. After inspecting the covers, it was evident that he’s marking a lot. I am (no pun intended) ******.

Fed up, her husband tried to reason with them.

Two weeks ago, my husband went over to their house to inform them of the situation. The wife was (fake) apologetic and said she’d keep the cat inside. Her ******* brother wanted to argue it, stating that there had to be some other solution (I dunno… hand me $3K every time your cat ruins our patio furniture?).

Should have known then that this wasn’t going to actually happen.

We were right. The cat is still roaming and peeing on the furniture.

We were on vacation last week, and I went over our camera footage from our time away. I realized that this isn’t going to stop, and come spring, the furniture will be uncovered, and the cushions will be back. I’ll be ****** if I am going to deal with that.

With no other options left, they called animal control.

So, I called animal control today. An officer came out and spoke with me. I filled out a full complaint statement and provided about a half-dozen videos of the cat peeing on the furniture, plus pictures of the urine marks on the covers. They told me that this is more than enough evidence to start issuing tickets.

Oh, and I don’t think the cat is registered, either. They said that would be another fine. The officer was going to pay them a visit after he left our house as well. I am half-expecting one of them to show up at our door soon. All of this because you can’t keep your **** cat inside.

Before anyone comes at me—I love animals. I have two cats of my own and just lost our dog of 14 years. None of them have ever been allowed to roam. This is actually a high-traffic neighborhood that is frequented by coyotes. I am not sure how this cat has even survived.

Wow! That’s a very unfortunate thing to deal with.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who got creative with his parking after his neighbors started using his extra spot without asking.

Let’s see if the fine folks over at Reddit have ever encountered this sort of thing.

Yikes, good point.

This person sounds like a great neighbor.

That’s great to know.

For this person, it’s just impressive animal control is going to help.

It sounds like this homeowner gave the neighbors every opportunity to fix the problem before getting animal control involved.

At that point, there really wasn’t much else to do. Hopefully the fines finally convince the neighbors to keep the cat from roaming.

The unfortunate part is that the cat is the one caught in the middle. It probably loves being outside, but responsible pet owners have plenty of safer options, including catios or enclosed outdoor spaces that let cats enjoy fresh air without wandering into other people’s yards.

Hopefully this situation ends with a solution that protects both the neighbors’ property and the cat.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a townhome owner who is at his wit’s end with the noise from next door.