Taking The High Road

A couple of weeks ago we had an "issue" with out neighbor when we learned he called animal control and had traps set on his porch to catch cats. Within 24 hours of their call to animal control we found our cat, Mr. Biscuit (aka Honey Badger), in a trap on the neighbor's porch. Of course we were furious. We were mad that our cat had been an outside cat for six years and he just now became a problem. We were mad that they lacked communication skills and didn't come talk to us about our cat before taking such drastic measures. We were mad that they lacked any sort of neighborly social skills. We were mad that our cat had been traumatized and was nearly taken to the animal shelter. Nick of course cut the cat out of the cage and politely threw the cage back in the neighbor's yard. Ok, so maybe it wasn't so polite. At that point, we lacked neighborly social skills as well. We were mad.

We've stewed about this for weeks now. We've suffered through Mr. Biscuit essentially yelling at us because he wants to go outside so badly. We've tried to decide how we were going to retaliate. Real adult, I know. Nick had written them a nasty note which we never gave them. We talked about sending Isaac over and having him ask why they wanted his cat to die, which didn't seem like a good idea either. We tried to come up with reasons why we could call the city on them. Nick threatened to get his drums back out in the garage and make lots of noise. Until today, we had not done anything.


Today, I saw them carrying a cage with what I assumed was another cat, but it turned out to be an opossum. I decided I was going to take the high road and go talk to them in an adult manner and kill them with kindness. I started the conversation by apologizing if our cat had been a nuisance to them. Through the conversation I learned that until they saw Nick get Mr. Biscuit off their porch, they didn't realize we even had a cat. He said they were not trying to target our cat since they didn't even know we had one. I'm around liars all the time and he seemed genuine in his lack of knowledge about our cat. Come to think of it, they're rarely outside or even home so it's probably true.


Isaac was with me when I was talking to the neighbors and he witnessed adults communicating in a civil matter to solve problems. I'm pretty sure I prefer teaching him that lesson instead of the passive aggressive lesson he had seen Nick and I modeling the past two weeks. It just goes to show that you shouldn't make assumptions about people or situations because that can just create more problems and miscommunication. I'm glad I decided to take the high road, but more importantly, I'm glad I can stop being mad at my neighbors. And I'm glad Mr. Biscuit never had to go to the shelter although I still don't like him.