What if??

This, so far, is a hypothetical question but I am concerned that it may become reality one day.

We have a neighbour with a cat..........for the past three years we were without a dog, and this cat regularly came into our garden and killed birds, not to mention pooping all over the place. On several occasions we mentioned it to the neighbour (who hates dogs incidentally, and makes no bones about it) and he just said that he had no control over where his cat went or what it did.

We have had Jimmi, (Jack Russell x) for three months now and he is very clearly a cat hater. Sometimes we see one when out for a walk, and everything about him screams "wanna kill that cat". The aforementioned neighbour's cat still comes into the garden, at around dawn I think and also during the evening........and Jimmi goes absolutely bonkers when he is let out; hurtling around with his hackles up on the scent and whingeing to himself for about half an hour until he is absolutely sure that it has gone.

He may be getting on in years, but he is still incredible fast, and I have no doubt at all that if one day he is let out at a time when that cat is in the garden, he will catch it and possibly kill it.

My question is this..........If this DOES happen, how do we stand; and in the meantime would you approach the neighbour and warn him of the possibilities, or just keep quiet because it might be admitting liability for any injury that the cat may sustain elsewhere?

hopefully the commotion that Jimmi makes when he sees the cat will deter the cat from coming in the garden anyway.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but how do you expect your neighbour to control his cat?

That's okay Loki, I don't take it the wrong way and do realise that cats cannot be controlled, but I was just giving all the background to the situation.

So far the cat still insists on coming in.....and it must know that Jimmi is here

Make sure you don't let him out when the cat is in your garden. I would not let either of my dogs into my garden if there was a strange cat out there and they live happily with 4 of their own. It's not just the risk to the cat here, Jimmi could get seriously hurt too.

well we have had an incident with a cat in our garden, Bruno hates cats, its fully fenced and said cat decided to venture in, I luckily was standing there, it didnt run Bruno grabbed it, and it scratched out at him and just missed his eyeball, a millimetre over she probably would have blinded him! He needless to say got a huge fright and let go, Cat scarpered, I knew whose cat it was and went to make sure it survived its injuries of being shaken in brunos mouth, which it did.

This was about 5 years ago, cat is still around but I have never again seen it in garden. I have seen a few cats in and around and there is cat poop in the garden aswell as fox, but Bruno to my knowledge has never done any damage to one, but I think they like to taunt him from the fence top.

Cats will be cats and dogs will be dogs, there is no way to prevent a confrontation if the cat is an outdoor cat, unless it stays out your garden whilst dog is around. If anything did happen think its just one of those things, if your dog is in its own garden and cat ventures in, then there is nothing that could be done.

I would make sure your fence is fully secure with no holes thus if any incident did happen you can prove you did everything possible to ensure that your dog was fully secure in his own patch so to speak.

I have to admit I dont check garden before letting bruno out, its too big to do that, but the speed of Bruno, any cat worth its salt would beat bruno over the fence as he is loud and runs like a slow rhino !! LOL

I live in the middle of a housing estate and everyone along here and behind me have at least 2 or more cats.
Both Shady and Kyiro hate cats and I have no doubt they would kill one if they got hold of it. So I spoke to my neighbours and the people behind me and explained the situation and we agreed that to deter the cats from coming in my garden if I saw them as much as on my fence I would throw water at them to scare them away.
I would rather they got a bit wet than ripped up by my dogs.
I have also said to them although I will do everything in my power to make sure my dogs don't get thier cats if they venture in my garden I cannot take responsibility should I not see them before letting the dogs out (when it is dark etc).
They were all happy to know I would do what I could to protect thier cats but understood I can do no more than my best.

I would be a bit pro-active, and maybe find a way to deter the cat from coming anywhere near your garden in the first place.

Invest in a large Super-Soaker water pistol and keep it beside an upstairs window overlooking the garden. If you see the cat out there, be very sly & quiet and give it a squirt. The trick is to do it anonymously so the cat thinks it's a thunderbolt from heaven, and will superstitiously avoid your garden in future.

Just make sure the cat never sees you or it will only avoid the garden when it know you're around.

Brundog, Our garden is also too big to check for cats each time, but it is securely fenced and walled dogwise. the wall is 6 feet high but the cat scales it. Unfortunately, unlike your Bruno, Jimmi is very fast indeed and as his face is covered in scars he is clearly not a stranger to confrontation!

Lilypup, as said above, I cannot possibly know whether a cat is out there or not as the garden is too big and there is loads of cover in the form of shrubs etc. I don't want either Jimmi or the cat to be hurt, but wonder how I will stand if he does injure this one. From what Brundog says, we are possibly not liable as our garden is secure dogwise

To answer your question, firstly as you rightly point out your neighbour can not stop/train a cat where to go so if it was me I'd probably let mine out when I knew the cat was not down on the ground if they were cats haters.

However being a cat owner of several, again I have no control of them going into a neighbours garden but if a neighbour came round warning me that they now had a dog that hated cats I'd suggest they threw water at them as Id sooner they got wet than harmed.
Our cats are bombproof when it comes to dogs and don't run so this would be a better solution.

Having said that we feed a stray cat and I always check where he is as I knew he fears dogs, although ours don't chase cats

That is a difficult situation. Good advice though to try and deter the cat from coming in if you can with a water gun maybe. I think Brundog is right, and if something awful does happen, you wouldn't be liable. You'd really think that cats would avoid gardens with dogs in but they do seem to think they are invincible at times. Lets hope this cat holds on to his 9 lives!