.. Just wanted to thank everyone who replied.sadly Bob is going back to Celia because we cant handle him outside with other dogs.We have a very large garden with a 6foot fence all around so that the dogs could run around safely but unfortunately a neighbour's cat came in and was caught by Bob.It died the following morning at the vets nd Bob was badly injured.He spent 4nights in the vet hospital and gets his stitches out on Friday.We are being blamed now for being irresponsible dog owners but I dont see how we could have prevented it.We are very sad to lose Bob but we think it is for the best.Thanks again
Margot New
Sorry to hear about this - not a nice situation to be in.
Cats typically have the good sense to avoid gardens with dogs in them, but sadly not in this case. I think the main thing to bear in mind here is that your dog did not leave your property - the cat entered your property. There's nothing you can do to stop a cat from scaling a six foot fence and entering your garden. If the cat was foolish enough to do that there is no way in my opinion that you can be held responsible. If the cats owner didn't want it to get into a garden with a dog they should have done something to stop it roaming freely. If they were unwilling to do that then they need to accept the unfortunate consequences of their irresponsibility.
We occasionally get one or two cats in our garden, and its my biggest fear that Ace will encounter them. He goes mad when he sees one, especially out on a walk but at least we can control him when he's on a lead.
However, as Steve said, if a cat comes into our garden and Ace did get at it, we can hardly be blamed. We live inside an MOD compound with 12 foot fencing and razor wire all round. The cats squeeze through this fencing and explore the compound. Ace only has access to the garden of our apartment, not the whole area.
If the worst was to happen, although we would feel dreadful, no one would have the right to blame us if their cat visits our garden
