Cats are also quite good at loosing them!
Have ordered it…
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I’m glad. You will surely enjoy.
If you fancy more afterwards, I can recommend all these
One is a bit sad but the classic I Am a Cat by the great Soseki Natsume is sheer genius.
Happy reading!
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Cats do that sort of thing,let him lead the life he wants.It may seem harsh but you will never force the animal to live within your boundaries.One thing is sure and that is that you will fall out with your neighbours which can make life very unpleasant;
A friend in the UK has been on the receiving end of a cat’s affection. Never been encouraged, never fed, but it turns up first thing in the morning and happily comes in and out and sometimes stays for hours. When we are talking on the phone I quite often hear a “chirrup” of greeting in the background.
We had a tabby that made friends with a black kitten that used to visit us. I think about four different households believed they were the “owners”.
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I think you should be entitled to take something belonging to the neighbour in exchange… Perhaps a plant from their garden, their pet dog, their youngest child, etc…
Obviously just make sure to return whatever you take if the cat ever comes back to live with you.
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And if it’s a child, I believe you get the inheritance as well.
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It is interesting reading this today, because for some two years now I have been dealing with a similar issue at my residence, but from a slightly different angle. I live in a duplex in a mid-sized city in central France and I have a neighbor downstairs who keeps feeding neighborhood cats, who now are utterly confused as to their proper home and their proper owners. As a result, some of them have taken permanent residence at our property. For me, there are many problems with this situation, it is like taking someone else’s child and feeding them without knowing anything about them in terms of their health, their diet, if their owners are OK with this at all, plus confusing the cats of their loyalty. But my personal issue with this is that I am actually allergic to cat hair. So, when the cats began to climb up the external stairs and invade my balcony that was my breaking point. Each morning I would find cat urine and their fur on the seats I had left out. I kept bringing all this to the attention of the neighbor, and she would say “no, that is not possible” and kept dismissing it. I urged her repeatedly to stop leaving food outside so it wouldn’t attract neighborhood cats. Her response was to start leaving the food inside but leave her door a crack open so they could go in and feed as they pleased. Finally, it dawned on me that I was not dealing with a reasonable person, in fact the situation was downright disingenuous. By then the problem was also no longer limited to the cats presence, but it has evolved into a problem of unpleasant odor rising from her balcony where they practically spend their day, and which she never cleanes. Long story short, upon reaching my limit, I had no choice but to take pictures of this whole activity, research the laws in France about feeding neighborhood cats, and contact the city hall’s ‘Service Hygiene’ department. For your information, it is forbidden to feed neighborhood cats in France, the article from ‘Règlement Sanitaire Départemental (RDS)’ that deals with this is as follows:
Annex ARTICLE 120 - (Version in force since November 23, 1979)
“It is forbidden to throw or deposit seeds or food, in any places or public establishments, likely to attract stray animals, wild or reverted to such, in particular cats or pigeons; the same prohibition is applicable to private roads, courtyards or other parts of a building or establishment when this practice is likely to constitute an annoyance for the neighborhood or to attract rodents.
All measures must be taken to prevent the proliferation of these animals from being a cause of nuisance and a risk of contamination of humans by a transmissible disease as well as the propagation of epidemics among animals.”
Note however, each department prefect in France has its own version of RSD. But most of them use as a model Article 26 of ‘Circulaire du 9 août 1978’, which states among other things:
“… It is also prohibited to systematically or habitually attract animals, in particular pigeons and cats, when this practice is a cause of insalubrity or inconvenience for the neighborhood. …”
In addition, if one lives in a co-ownership like I do, there is also always some mention in the Reglement de Copropriete that forbids this activity.
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What did they do, if anything?
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I did this just Monday of this week, and already they have been here on two separate occasions to assess the situation for themselves. They had asked me for the name and address of both the owner of the property and her renter. Based on the information I had provided them, picture and such, they had assured me that what is going on is not permitted and that they would notify the owner and her renter. If the activity does not stop in a month I am to notify them.
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It’s good that they have reacted quickly. The situation must be intolerable for you given your allergies. It would be interesting to know the outcome.
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Thanks Mike. It has been a challenge, but I am taking care of myself. I will keep you posted as to the outcome.
How inconsiderate of your neighbour. Hope it gets resolved quickly.
Welcome to the site.
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And in that case, what will they do? I’d be very slightly disgruntled if it led to eg my cat being put down. Speaking entirely personally, I’d be most slightly disgruntled with the person enticing the cat but I’d still be slightly disgruntled with you, however unfair that might seem.
Edited to remove an offensive term (“angry”).
I’m sure Bee can speak for herself (i.e. I am not trying to speak in her place) but she did refer to the cats as ‘neighbourhood cats’ which to me means strays. So when you say ‘my cat’ these cats are without true owners. With her allergies, Bee should not be expected to tolerate the situation. The authorities deal with strays all the time. I don’t see why Bee should attract anyone’s anger in this situation. She has tried to resolve the problem by addressing the neighbour (without success) and has alerted the authorities as a last resort . . .
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I can appreciate your concern, but let me clarify … no one is talking about any cat being put down. That is not what the department at the city hall does. Their role is to educate/remind residents of the law on such matters, and do so in a formal and documented way. If after this step, the neighbor does not stop, then she is liable to appear before a judge and pay fines to the city and damages to me. Also, we are not talking about one or two cats here, there are 11 cats that I have photographed and the rest I was not able to catch. Most of them appear to be well cared for, so I assume they have owners. Some however, are stray. This is a delicate topic, I understand, and we may not all see things the same way. It is for this reason I tolerated it for two years. But the bottom-line is it is a violation of the rules and a total disregard to me, not to mention the damage it is doing to the property. So enough is enough.
Ah then we aren’t reading from the same hymn sheet - I understood her to mean cats belonging to people in the neighbourhood, which she confirms
I’d be slightly disgruntledwere anything nasty to happen to my cat, or to be obliged to reduce its quality of life by not allowing it outside, because of two neighbours.
Luckily for my cat I live in the the country and my nearest neighbour is several hundred metres away. And nobody is irresponsibly feeding cats.
Edited to remove an offensive term (“angry”).
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I would also be a bit concerned about what a stranger is feeding your cat. Not all food is good. 
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Ok, so I feel I must address this now. I am new on this site and I joined thinking it is a place where the expat community here in France has meaningful conversations and shares experiences and ideas so we can all learn from and support one another.
So far, in your two brief replies to my post, you have used the word “anger” four times. Anger is a strong emotion, and it often makes a reasonable dialogue impossible, because it limits one’s ability to see and hear clearly and objectively what is being said or done, hence clouding one’s judgement. While you have the right to your opinion, you cannot mischaracterize what I said in my post. Again, I said nothing about “cats being put down” nor did I suggest that in any way. I said nothing about “anything nasty” happening to cats nor “obliging others to reduce their cats quality of life by not allowing them outside”.
The main topic of this thread, as I understood it, was the issue of ‘people feeding cats that do not belong to them’. I shared my initial post, using the clearest language possible, to express a similar experience I have been having and what I have done so far to try and address it. I took the time to share this in detail in the event that it may help someone else in a similar situation.
I am open to agreeing to disagree. But if you are going to take the time and energy to reply to me again, please make it worthwhile for all involved and make sure that you have first understood clearly what I stated, and without taking things personally engage with a constructive dialogue. For example, offer suggestions as to how you may have addressed the situation if you were in my position. Because this would add value to the conversation.
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I have resisted in posting thus far but there are two sides of the coin here. I have had cats since we came to France so getting on for 30+ years now and at one time had five in the house. Two were found abandoned, one needed a home after we lost our first siamese and the vet wanted to rehome one, one was the result of first cat getting jiggy with next door’s cat so felt obliged to take a kitten and then my other neighbour found a kitten on the roadside and took it in but she kept coming to me and wanting love as the boxer dogs were making her nervous next door. I had a word with the neighbour about her coming round and she asked if I would like her so I took her in, got her tattooed and neutered and she stayed 14 years with so much love on both sides and with the other cats plus the dog. The welfare of the cat was far more important to all than who belonged to whom. Now on the other side of the coin, if I had a pedigree cat and it went elsewhere that would be a different matter and I would not personally like it so would tend to keep it indoors full time seeing if it settled. You can’t own a cat, they own you! I’d love a Norwegian forest cat but unfortunately having moved with a main road nearby and seeing lovely ginge from next door dead on the road two weekends ago, I won’t put any animals through that danger.
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Most of us on here consider ourselves immigrants, not expats. Good luck getting your cat situation sorted though.
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