We're very friendly with our neighbours; my family has lived beside them for close to 50 years, but I don't understand how they view our relationship to Blacky. The people that live there seem to be under the impression that Blacky is a wandering cat. It doesn't matter how often we tell them she's our cat.
On more than one occasion I've heard my neighbours saying Blacky doesn't belong to anyone, every time my father or I have stopped and explained to them that she's our cat, and go on to explain that we feed her, she sleeps on my bed, she spends half her time in our house - way more than half of it in the winter. On top of that, we take her to the vet when needed and give her flea treatments in the summer. They see me frequently carrying her around outside and petting her - only my father and I can approach her outside, likewise she will only walk up to my father and me when she's outside. Yet... they still don't think she's our cat?! We've had her 8 years! We take her with us on vacation, she follows us on walks! Shouldn't it have sunk in with them by now that we exclusively care for this cat?
One time that stands out to me was a year or two ago, our neighbours had a friend over and as the friend was leaving I was sitting in the font yard calling Blacky over to me. Their friend started with the "Oh a cat!" and my neighbor replied along the lines of "Yeah she hangs out around here. No one really owns her..." Of course this was one of the occasions I told the neighbour Blacky is my cat. Blacky wouldn't have been in the process of walking up to me otherwise!
I thought she might have had said this due to her friend being there; I'd overheard them earlier talking about outdoor cats and how in this day and age it isn't safe or responsible to have an outdoor cat. I figured after they'd both expressed how bad this was she might be embarrassed that she lives next door to people that have an indoor/outdoor cat. However, various times before that encounter and after it I have heard the neighbours say things about Blacky such as "How's that stray cat?" (why should we know if it isn't ours?) and "Have you seen that black cat around today?" (duh!) and "I wonder if anyone owns her/feeds her?" (... gee, I wonder...)
This was again expressed in my earshot tonight, I was petting Blacky outside and a relative of theirs was over and spotted the cat, asking our neighbour if it was ours, and they replied "It doesn't really belong to anyone..." Again I chimed in that Blacky was our cat adding that she sleeps on my bed every night. The neighbour replied that she sleeps in their front garden a lot.
I didn't know how to reply to that, their front garden is right beside our house, there isn't even a fence in the front (and in the back it's a very low fence with large spaces between the boards anyway) so to a cat the property boundaries wouldn't mean anything. Our cat is indoor/outdoor - not attached at our hip - she's independent. She likes to sun in their straw there (she's made a nest in it, it's kind of funny), it gives her a little protection from anything trying to look in at her and it's under the overhang of their roof. Sometimes she's even out there in rainy weather... mostly because my aunt is over and she doesn't want to be around my aunt. Anyway, that location in their front garden is one of her daily sleeping spots. Most often if she isn't inside during the day she's sleeping over there, she likes it there. It seems pretty straightforward to me.
I'm kind of at a loss here and a bit upset that these people don't seem to view us as owners. I'm wondering if anyone here may have some insight to their mindset. What do we need to do to qualify as owners? Do any of you think a cat that spends time outside means no one owns it? Do you think a collar will get it through to them? Since Blacky started out as a semi-feral a collar never entered into things at first and by the time she had comfortably become our cat we knew her personality - she doesn't like collars and she doesn't go any farther than our neighbours front garden, which she likes sleeping in.
On more than one occasion I've heard my neighbours saying Blacky doesn't belong to anyone, every time my father or I have stopped and explained to them that she's our cat, and go on to explain that we feed her, she sleeps on my bed, she spends half her time in our house - way more than half of it in the winter. On top of that, we take her to the vet when needed and give her flea treatments in the summer. They see me frequently carrying her around outside and petting her - only my father and I can approach her outside, likewise she will only walk up to my father and me when she's outside. Yet... they still don't think she's our cat?! We've had her 8 years! We take her with us on vacation, she follows us on walks! Shouldn't it have sunk in with them by now that we exclusively care for this cat?
One time that stands out to me was a year or two ago, our neighbours had a friend over and as the friend was leaving I was sitting in the font yard calling Blacky over to me. Their friend started with the "Oh a cat!" and my neighbor replied along the lines of "Yeah she hangs out around here. No one really owns her..." Of course this was one of the occasions I told the neighbour Blacky is my cat. Blacky wouldn't have been in the process of walking up to me otherwise!
I thought she might have had said this due to her friend being there; I'd overheard them earlier talking about outdoor cats and how in this day and age it isn't safe or responsible to have an outdoor cat. I figured after they'd both expressed how bad this was she might be embarrassed that she lives next door to people that have an indoor/outdoor cat. However, various times before that encounter and after it I have heard the neighbours say things about Blacky such as "How's that stray cat?" (why should we know if it isn't ours?) and "Have you seen that black cat around today?" (duh!) and "I wonder if anyone owns her/feeds her?" (... gee, I wonder...)
This was again expressed in my earshot tonight, I was petting Blacky outside and a relative of theirs was over and spotted the cat, asking our neighbour if it was ours, and they replied "It doesn't really belong to anyone..." Again I chimed in that Blacky was our cat adding that she sleeps on my bed every night. The neighbour replied that she sleeps in their front garden a lot.
I didn't know how to reply to that, their front garden is right beside our house, there isn't even a fence in the front (and in the back it's a very low fence with large spaces between the boards anyway) so to a cat the property boundaries wouldn't mean anything. Our cat is indoor/outdoor - not attached at our hip - she's independent. She likes to sun in their straw there (she's made a nest in it, it's kind of funny), it gives her a little protection from anything trying to look in at her and it's under the overhang of their roof. Sometimes she's even out there in rainy weather... mostly because my aunt is over and she doesn't want to be around my aunt. Anyway, that location in their front garden is one of her daily sleeping spots. Most often if she isn't inside during the day she's sleeping over there, she likes it there. It seems pretty straightforward to me.
I'm kind of at a loss here and a bit upset that these people don't seem to view us as owners. I'm wondering if anyone here may have some insight to their mindset. What do we need to do to qualify as owners? Do any of you think a cat that spends time outside means no one owns it? Do you think a collar will get it through to them? Since Blacky started out as a semi-feral a collar never entered into things at first and by the time she had comfortably become our cat we knew her personality - she doesn't like collars and she doesn't go any farther than our neighbours front garden, which she likes sleeping in.