Just Kitten Around
This happened about four years ago now and still is one of the more ridiculous things to happen to me. I was living in San Diego at the time in a small apartment building with seven or eight units. I lived on the 2nd floor. Our building was right near the highway overpass on the outskirts of downtown.
We were also very close to the airport flight path, which made our neighborhood pretty loud. At this point, I had already lived in my apartment for just over three years. I decided to get a cat, got the permission from my landlord, and paid a pet deposit.
When I got her through a shelter, she was probably about three months old. One night I was watching TV when there was a knock at my door. I answered, and couldn’t understand what I was seeing.
Standing on my porch were two officers, both with their hands on their holsters, both seemingly tense. They told me they had a noise complaint from my downstairs neighbor and that he thought I was on substances and rolling a bowling ball around.
It took me a few seconds to understand what they were talking about. Then I burst out laughing. “Oh haha, that’s probably just my kitten running around”. They were not amused.
They told me if they had to come back they would have to do something—which is a pretty wild threat after finding out the noise was from a cat.
I left a message with my landlord to let them know what had happened. The next day, my downstairs neighbor came to my door to apologize to me.
He said he thought I may have been into some shady stuff because his “army intelligence friends” told him that those noises he heard align with substance activity. That made zero sense to me, but I came to realize this guy wasn’t all there.
He said he was sorry and was happy I had a cat and that he even had a toy he would give me. Cool, problem solved, right? Oh, so very wrong.
About two weeks later I had officers at my door again. This time, they were aware of the situation and we all chuckled about how absurd it was. However, since they were called, they had to come. They just told me I’m doing nothing wrong, don’t worry about a thing.
Right around this time, my neighbor began hitting his ceiling anytime my cat ran around. It got me anxious to the point of having my cat sleep in a separate smaller room so she couldn’t run around. This only lasted a couple of nights since she would cry the whole time.
I just thought, whatever, I’m doing nothing wrong, we live in a city in a loud area, it’s an apartment, etc. I’m not sure of the exact timeline, but about a week later, I had an officer at my door again.
This time, it was the San Diego County Sheriff. And that wasn’t all. He had a court summons. This neighbor was trying to get a restraining order against me! For what?? ELDER ABUSE. Yes. Because of the noise of a now six-month-old kitten!
The court date comes around and I had printed up about 15-20 pictures of my cat to show the judge. I was furious. My neighbor’s “evidence” was handed to me, which was basically a list of dates and times that he marked down when he heard noises from my apartment.
It’s legit insane, and five pages long and I still have it. The judge didn’t want to hear any of it, just forced us to enter into court-appointed mediation. I’m fine with that, I just want things to improve.
I received a call a few weeks after our court date to let me know that the neighbor refused mediation and that we would have a second court date towards the end of the month.
Throughout ALL this time, he was banging on the ceiling and scaring my cat. But then, things took an even darker turn.
He started being malicious and would just whack the ceiling in the middle of the night, oftentimes waking me and causing my cat to go crazy and run around. Finally, the second court date was here, and at this point, I had already decided I would be leaving San Diego.
It had nothing to do with this ongoing situation, but it was a light at the end of the tunnel for sure. We’re in court, and the judge starts yelling at my neighbor for refusing mediation and wasting the state’s money.
I interrupted to say, “Just want to make sure everyone knows this is about the noise my six-month-old cat is making!” I hear laughter from other people behind me in the courtroom. Neighbor pleads his case, says I am harassing him and making too much noise.
I repeat, this is about the noise my six-month-old cat is making. The judge is clearly angry that this old man is wasting the court’s time and said that we must enter mediation. I tell him—I’m sorry, we shouldn’t even be here.
“I’m moving out of state in just a few weeks, and again, this is about the noise a CAT is making”. Again, more chuckles from the courtroom.
To this, the judge replies “Oh. Well, if you don’t end up moving then you’ll need to come back to court”. I said ok, and was ready to be done with all this.
My neighbor tried to have pleasantries with me at that point but I just ignored him and walked out.
I wish there was some sweet revenge at the end, but really, I never spoke to him again and my cat and I are living happily in an apartment where she can run around to her heart’s desire and no one can tell her otherwise! By the way, during this entire ordeal, my landlord did nothing to help me out.
The most he did was just chuckle and say “Oh yeah he’s a character”. Story credit: Reddit / (therealjameshat)