Context – apartment complex. they live on the ground floor. Pretty new to the building. We have been feeding our stray cats for like two decades, maybe more. Me personally, Ive been doing it for 4 or 5 years at this point. Also i have horrible terrible no good very bad social anxiety and conflict avoidance. So every time i interact with someone angry it makes me feel sick with worry for days and weeks, sometimes months.They complain about the smell (there is no smell i swear to god, i checked so many times, not the cat smell anyway. just a normal basement smell, you know? and they KNOW what a cat smell is, they have a cat themselves.) And that us feeding the strays is the reason for it. And they justify their demand by saying, repeatedly, “we have KIDS!”. Like, what does that have to do with absolutely anything? (if it does i need to know, folks). am \~I\~ crazy? do they have the right to talk to me like this?Several times he and his wife saw me feeding they said “Why are you doing this??”, and “it Smells”, but a day before yesterday he alone came out, and very sternly asked “What should I do to make you stop this???”. By the end of this convo he threatened that if he ever sees me feeding them again he will kick me out. Idk what he meant by THAT bc i live here. But its safe to say I dont feel like going outside anymore (agoraphobia is coming back lol).I dont know how to handle this, i dont fight and i am not good at talking. Plus, during social conflicts my brain shuts down a huge part of itself and everything inside feels numb and out of control.
WHAT DO
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I am a HUGE cat person. Like, I have six. All rescues. I donate every month to my local cat rescue shelter.
And – kindly – gently – a population of stray cats *is* a nuisance especially somewhere like an apartment complex (as opposed to somewhere with more land). It’s possible that the outdoor cats are spraying near their windows/doors. Cat spray is awful, but also, unless you get your nose right up against it, it will be hard for you to smell outdoors. It’s a different story if it’s on their windowsill or door something. It’s possible that the outdoor cats are somehow stressing their cat out. Depending on how many cats you feed, it’s very possible that they are smelling things that you may not notice. Depending on how many cats you feed, it’s also very possible that they are worried about disease, ticks, fleas, etc., in the places where their kids play.
I’m sorry that they were such jerks about this. There was no reason for them to be like that, there was no reason for them to be hostile, and they *are* being huge jerks. That is undeniable.
I am not sure how much recourse you have here. No-one’s lease protects feeding stray animals, and a population of stray animals is probably something that your landlord doesn’t want. Reaching out to the landlord may actually result in him backing the other tenants and telling you to stop feeding the cats.
What about reaching out to local rescues about the stray population? Could they perhaps be trapped and rehomed to a managed stray colony? Or maybe they can just give you advice on how to manage the cats themselves to reduce smell/nuisance/etc?
Alternatively, what about moving their feeding spot? Is there somewhere farther away from the building, that you can still get to, but that wouldn’t attract the cats to the building itself?