The witch on the top floor of my five floor building threw my cat into my apartment today.
He likes to escape when I do my laundry (the only time I leave my door unlocked). But he just had bladder surgery and she knows it. She said he was scared by the “kids” going to the party on the fourth floor (above me). But she just opened my door and threw him in!!!!
When I met her again in the laundry room, I told her that I would try to make sure Clancy doesn’t “escape” again without me knowing, but I would like to ask her to just ring my bell, so I can get him, rather than picking him up. I explained he just had surgery and the danger of ripping the stiches was bigger than him being scared by the guests in the hall.
Well, she just got loud and defensive. and I did not handle it well. I repeated myself: I am just asking you not to pick up my cat again. She got more defensive. I said, “all you have to do is apologize and agree not to pick up my cat again, as you might not know his circumstances. I will try not to let it hapen again, but if it does, please, just ring my bell.”
Again, she’s like “i worked for a vet and I know what I’m doing…and I have two cats.”
And I’m like, “i don’t need to be best friends with you. I just need you to agree to not pick up my cat again.”
And she fumed….leaving the laundry room, saying, “i guesss I’ll leave you to yourself.”
Yeah. That did not go well.
nyfemme 
I have notice that those like you with self respect and a willingness to confront people also incur what I call flack from the other party. I think at the core, humans do not like correction. My favorite book that got me through years of management was, ‘Life Is What You Make It’ by Willingham. He felt that employees do not even like constructive criticism–even when they ask for it.You did the right thing. You were polite. She should have just agreed with you, but her nature got in the way.Hope you cat is OK. Other than this, I hope your day is going well.frank
nahh….I handled it like sh-t. I think I actually should have not said anything and made sure my cat never “sneaks” out again. You are being very polite. But I said things that no one would handle well as it escalated. I don’t know how to bring it “back down” to a reasonabe conversation, even though I started out o,k. I bet you would have done a lot better!
Sometimes you can’t reason with folks, and you just gotta say “Look, Bitch. Keep your paws off my cat!”. You know?
Argh.