We have a neighbour who has three cats and an open cat door - not like ours, which is keyed to their tags. One of our moggies disappears to this neighbour, sometimes for days. We've tried talking to the woman, but she is hostile to us, says she doesn't want our cat in her apartment, that she isn't feeding her, and we should train our cat not to use her cat door.

I'm fairly sure the woman is lying, as our cat smells of cigarettes and the woman's cheap perfume, and isn't that interested in food when she comes home though is obviously well fed, though I suppose she (our cat) could be getting food, tobacco and perfume from another neighbour.

Apart from our cat running the risk of lung cancer from secondary smoking, it's a pain; if we need to take her to the vet,we can't be sure she'll be home for morning feeding. When she is home, she's perfectly relaxed and friendly.

Maybe she's developed a cigarette addiction and we should get her nicotine patches.

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Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

Your problem is that however much you think it's your cat it will see things the other way round.

Get the cat a "Go-Pro" camera......

It's been considered. She already has a tracking device (not GPS) on her collar, so we can usually find her once were within 50m or so.

Forget about it, there is no possible solution for your problem, sorry!

Is it possible to keep this particular cat in? I know it seems mean but it maybe the only way to prevent her going there.

One of mine visits the old lady two doors down. I have seen him go into her house and I have made her aware that he is my cat.At the end of the day though cats make their own homes and unless you stop them going out they may eventually chose their second home as a permanent choice.

Is your cat called Roy Hobbs by any chance?

Tried it. It certainly made her more relaxed around us, but she's really and outdoor kitty.

We've given up now. If she visits, it's nice to see her.

Having had dogs all my life, which is like having a child, now that we have a cat, it reminds me of when my brother used to come home from Uni, dump all his washing in the kitchen, grab dinner and then bugger off out with his mates.

i've been on both sides of a story like this. it's hard to keep another cat out if your house is open. no one wants to be mean to a cat and that's about the only way to keep it away. you might buy the lady a spray bottle filled with water to squirt at your cat. that's about the least mean thing she can do to keep the cat away. but she probably doesn't have the heart to do this anyways.

my wife and i recently moved to a new apartment and were a bit concerned about the cat and how she would react. she had lived her entire life in our back garden after adopting it and even then preferred our balcony and the garden. for the new apartment, we were recommended by a vet to use a plug-in atomizer that sprays a pheromone in the air which calms the cat. after the move, our cat has been very happy inside and has not scratched to get out once.

i think this is it: http://www.feliway.com/us/Feliway/Feliway-Diffuser

Tell your neighbour that if she doesn't want your cat in her house, then to get a bloody magnetic or electronic catflap. Chances are, yours is not the only moggy in the neighbourhood to benefit from her cigarette and food parties.

Sorry for going a little off topic, but my mom has been looking for a similar device for her cats, and was told by the local vet she's been watching too much spy movies...

Where can I find it, and how do you operate it?

Lets face it. Some cats stray.

They find it difficult being faithful to one human and sometimes are enticed by the greener cat grass next door.

Love and accept your cat for who she is...

Who knows she may get fed up of the stinky cigarette smoke eventually.

Our next door neighbour had the most beautiful little kitten a few years back. She was very young but visited our garden all the time and was always trying to get in the house. We don't have a cat flap as we rent so it was just a case of keeping doors and windows shut. She would scratch at the doors to come in but I had to resist. Sadly she got run over after being with them just a few months.

I think I cried for a week when she died. Their other cat visits and sits on the garden table but I refuse to get attached to him. My gang love him to bits.

Darcy

Keep telling mine that I'm going to swap him for a dog...then he farts on me. But then he flips his food dish over when it's empty (=broken) and it reminds me of my last dog doing the same.

That's what I try tell the missus.

She's not buying it.

Weird. Our vet actually recommend a GPS device - the problem with them is battery life and the size. We use one of these. http://mytabcat.com/shop/

I've been following the progress of this device that's in development and being crowd funded to a large degree.

http://gpscatcollar.com/

Have you tried grounding your cat?
We had a boy cat (neutered) who was well known where we lived (in all three places) for eating at all the neighbours houses, we had a guy tell us off and ask us to train our cat not to go into his house and eat his dog's food (little dog with flap). Not much you can do to stop that. But one time he decided that WE were one of his wander in and eat houses and started sleeping elsewhere. We locked the flap and kept him in for two weeks (with treats and love and a quiet hidey hole) and then he reverted back to our cat, but we never got him to shake the habit of eating elsewhere. Even when he was suffering from kidney failure he had two or three houses he visited..... cats are cats, not dogs, they can't be trained, but they can be reminded.

Tried it. Two weeks inside. She hung around for a few weeks and seemed to be getting on with her sister and enjoying being with us, but then on Monday, she came in briefly, argued with her sister, went out and we've not seen here since. We contact the neighbour and she confirms the cat has been in her apartment during the day, but that she leaves in the evening. Since she's not coming back to us, we can only assume she has another home somewhere else.

So, we'll pick her up this evening and tomorrow she's going back to the shelter. Hopefully, if she's rehoused in a home were her sister isn't, she'll settle down. She gets on fine with the cat in her day house - it's just her sister she doesn't want to be with.

I am sad, but it is in the best interests of the cat.

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Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!