Labrador neighbours at war as cats go missing

THE claws are out in Labrador, where neighbours are feuding over missing pet cats. Threats have been exchanged and a baseball bat produced — but is the whole thing a misunderstanding?

Natalie Gray's cats, Ace (front) and CK (back)

THE claws are out in Labrador, where police have been called to break up a battle over missing cats.

On one side of the fence, an elderly couple claims they fear for their safety after being sworn at and threatened.

On the other side, a mother and daughter say their beloved pets have been taken — and they suspect foul play.

Natalie Gray’s two cats, CK and Ace, both went missing within six months of them moving into the neighbourhood in 2012.

When a third cat, a ragdoll named Shimmer, went missing last Sunday, they feared the worst and doorknocked the neighbourhood to see whether anyone had seen him.

Things turned nasty after Ms Gray looked over a fence and heard Shimmer meowing from a neighbour’s garage.

“(The man who lives there) came down waving a bat and his wife went down and unlocked the (garage) door and our cat came out, took off and came home,” she said.

Ms Gray phoned the police, who have confirmed they attended the address to deal with “a disturbance”.

“The police said it’s up to us to keep our cats inside the house,” Ms Gray said.

“But I know five people whose cats have gone missing.”

The owners of the garage, a couple aged in their mid-70s who have lived in the neighbourhood for more than 20 years, do not deny the cat was in their shed, but say it was locked in by accident that afternoon.

“A man came knocking on our door at night — I got a terrible fright,” she said.

“That fluffy cat has been coming into our yard regularly. It’s a quiet little cat, it doesn’t stalk the birds or anything so it didn’t bother us.

“If you see my husband’s shed, it has a lot of stuff in it — he just didn’t see (the cat) when he locked up.”

The elderly woman said police had searched their home with tasers and guns after the call, and that she was now afraid of several neighbours, including a young man who had sworn at her and accused her of killing cats.

Her husband said visiting felines had never bothered him before but that he had now “declared war on cats”, sought advice and a trap from the council and would take every animal he caught straight to the animal refuge, where the owners would have to pay $75 to bail them out.

“The whole neighbourhood heard them call my wife a murderous (expletive),” he said.

“You can’t just come around here and abuse my wife.

“It reminds me of that poor fellow (who was attacked) on the bus last week, but I’m not like him — I’ll fight back.”

The pair do not want to be identified as they worry that “cat people from all over the place will come and petrol-bomb our house”.

Council laws state cats must be contained to their owners’ properties at all times.