Is it a bad thing if my next door neighbour's cat has moved into my house?

Perhaps you should ask your neighbor first. He or she may have an opinion. Most of us with cats got them from shelters and no problems, some problems, or severe problems.

Catburglary is bad.

Did the cat run away? Do they know/care that it is missing?

The cat still goes there but I think it has moved in from loneliness. I think that they care but don’t have a choice because I try to kick the cat out but it comes back in after 10 seconds

Several years ago, worked out of town for long periods of time, and my neighbor kept our cat. When we got home on this one occasion, Mitzy returned to our neighbor and never came home again. If we went over and brought her home, she would return. apparently, we were not good parents!

They say cats choose their owners. I’ve seen this happen lots of times.. in fact, in my parent’s neighborhood they regularly trade cats. Rather, the cats regularly trade owners. They cats just decide which house they like best for a while and then move on, it’s actually kind of funny.

You should talk to the neighbor.. see how they feel about it. Tell them that the cat is staying at your house and that you don’t mind – but if they are particularly attached to the cat and are upset by this, maybe you should suggest they keep it in the house for a while?

Cats will choose to stay where they are fed best. And I also agree with @TheOnlyNeffie, they will sometimes just choose the people. I don’t think it has to do with enviroment always. When I had a cat it would be all over me. Ever since I could remember cats seem to like me. Owners would often be surprised saying that their cats usually ignore other people.
In some cases I think some people (like myself) like to pet their fur and maybe they see this as an affectionate thing.
I would talk to my neighbor and find out what they feed the cat.
Then I would feed it that only and not show it any affection.
Now its also possible they are affectionate and the cat likes to be ignored.
With time he may find his original owners are not so bad.

It’s only bad if it causes a problem with the neighbor. You really do need to have a talk with them to find out how they feel about this.

They might be totally unaware that the cat is with you. They may think it’s just wandering around.

If they are aware of what’s happening and do nothing to stop it or don’t care then I don’t see a problem.

Has the cat been neutered? If not, THAT’S definitely a problem and needs to be taken care of. There are already way too many cats being put to death in shelters every single day. No need to add to the problem.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing.

I would give your neighbor a heads-up, though, in case you want to end up on one of those court TV shows.

These are why cats leave one house to live with another; It’s usually a combination of factors involving the following:

-Because their original human didn’t change their water daily
-Because their original human fed them dry food that was stale from being left in a bag with the flap left open to the air, because the human is too lazy to take 1 second to close the flap
-Because their original human didn’t change the litter box timely
-Because their original human didn’t talk to them or chase them or pet them
-Because their original human goes on long trips away

@Kraigmo What cat told you this?

Personally, I’ve seen cats change houses for reasons like the dislike of another pet, the addition of a new family member, or because the sun would shine in the window better at the new place.

Cats are cats. They don’t need reasons.

I have a dog that did that. His owners used to come and get him, but they finally replaced him with a dog that wanted to live with them, and he’s been mine ever since.

Our neighbor cats spend most of their days in my yard, because of the shade. I don’t like it because they are infested with fleas. I had to call the pest control to come over and spray my yard, but the fleas will just come back.

I’d be devastated if someone stole my cat… :( Are you feeding it? You should really talk to them about it. Not good :(

@YL

I’ve read that Nematodes are an effective way of controlling fleas in one’s yard as they feed on them. As long as there are fleas, they’ll continue eating them.

Ive never had to use them but at least they seem like a better alternative to heavy duty chemicals.

There was a cat in my grandparents neighborhood who did the same. His name was Tarzan and he would come over to my grandparents house and stay literally all day. He was very social and affectionate while his sister, Jane, was more of a loner. She used to come by to “pick him up” when it was time to go home. Eventually the neighbors got fed up with their cat rejecting them so they locked the cats up in the house and after a while they moved away. I miss that cat.

So to avoid confrontation or unpleasant relations you should probably have a discussion with said neighbor about this.

:O thief!

Not for the cat. They many times do what they want.
I had a neighbors dog do that and I got him his shots and flea and tick stuff and neutered him. The guy was never home and never minded that the dog roamed. So I had to protect my dogs. Nice dog but very bored at his own home.

Yeah its bad.
When I was five I had a cat named Snowball. The neighbor decided to keep her.
I’m still resentful, can’t you tell?