For the past three years, my neighbor has been convinced that her cat keeps disappearing somewhere on my property.
It all started after her cat began wandering off regularly. Eventually, she bought a GPS tracker to figure out where it was going. According to the tracker, the cat was supposedly somewhere in my house or garden almost every time it went missing.
At first, I genuinely wanted to help.
Whenever she knocked on the door, I’d go outside with her and help search the garden. After a while, she started asking if she could look around herself instead, and I agreed because I figured she’d quickly realize the cat wasn’t there.
The problem is that the searches never stopped.
Our garden is large, but it’s incredibly open. It’s mostly lawn with a small patio and a couple of modest trees. We don’t have a shed, greenhouse, flower beds, dense bushes, or any of the places a cat would realistically hide.
Ironically, almost every neighboring garden has exactly those kinds of hiding spots.
Despite that, the tracker keeps pointing to my property.
Now she shows up multiple times some weeks asking to search again because the GPS says her cat is here.
My partner and I both work full-time, and we travel fairly often. If we’re not home, she doesn’t even wait for permission anymore.
She simply unlatches our decorative iron gate, walks into our garden, and searches by herself.
I’m fairly certain she’s even looked through our windows while trying to spot the cat.
Every single search has ended the same way.
No cat.
Not once in three years has she actually found it anywhere on our property.
Lately, she’s started asking to search inside our house and garage as well.
We’ve always refused.
Our garage isn’t some forgotten storage building—it’s where our utility area is, and we use it constantly. We know the cat isn’t inside.
There’s another reason I’m so certain.
I’m extremely allergic to cats.
Not mildly allergic—seriously allergic.
If a cat had been hiding inside my home or spending time around me, I’d know almost immediately because I’d be reaching for antihistamines. I can’t even spend long at friends’ houses if they own cats, and I often avoid hugging them because of cat hair on their clothes.
I don’t hate cats.
I just physically can’t be around them for long.
The funny thing is, we barely even see this particular cat.
It’s dark gray and wears a large tracker with a bell, so it’s easy to recognize.
We probably spot it once every few months.
Meanwhile, we regularly see several other neighborhood cats wandering through our garden almost every day.
We’ve tried to be helpful.
She has our phone numbers, knows exactly where we live, and we’re connected on Facebook.
Whenever we happen to see her cat somewhere else in the neighborhood, we’ve called her immediately to let her know.
We’ve done everything we reasonably can.
Instead of appreciating that, she’s started posting screenshots from the tracker in our local Facebook group showing my house and garden.
She’ll write things like, “They say the cat isn’t in their garden.”
It feels like she’s subtly suggesting we’re hiding something.
Some neighbors have even joked that she’s leading a witch hunt against us.
At this point, my patience is gone.
Being interrupted before work so someone can spend fifteen minutes searching a garden where they’ve never once found the cat is exhausting.
Having someone let themselves onto my property without permission feels invasive.
Seeing vague accusations online after years of trying to help feels insulting.
I’m honestly ready to tell her that she is no longer allowed to search my garden, house, or garage, and that she needs to stop entering my property altogether.
I understand she’s worried about her cat, and I genuinely hope it’s safe whenever it disappears.
But after three years of false alarms, constant interruptions, unauthorized access to my property, and public posts that make me look suspicious, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to finally draw a firm boundary.
I’ll still happily contact her if I ever see the cat somewhere.
I just don’t think I should have to keep proving that it isn’t secretly living on my property.
So now I’m wondering…
AITAH for refusing to let my neighbor keep searching my property after three years of her GPS tracker repeatedly sending her to the wrong place?