'A week later, I had police at my door again': San Diego resident adopts 3-month-old kitten, then gets dragged into absurd legal battle by elderly neighbor for his kitten making too much noise

Author image for Blake Seidel
Blake Seidel • Managing Editor & Brand Manager
Jul 13, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

Kittens are tiny little menaces. We love them more than life itself, but they are seriously smol engines of chaos that are simultaneously the cutest things on Earth and also your worst nightmare. 

They climb all over everything, run around at all hours of the night for a good 6 to 9 months… but even with all of that, you choose to keep them in your house because they are like little fluff balls with big eyes and even bigger purrsonalities. They aren't the easiest thing to live with, but they certainly do not warrant an elderly neighbor getting a restraining order against you because your kitten makes noise.

Yes, you read that correctly. After this San Diego resident adopted a 3-month-old kitten, his downstairs neighbor started calling the police on him for his cat making too much noise, and even had him summoned to court (twice)! Everyone understood how absurd this was, except for the neighbor. Read through the whole kitten cat-astrophe below!

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  • 01

    My neighbor who took me to court because of noise my cat made.

    ינעס עוטני 'This old man is wasting the court's time' DUW880
    via THEPALMER

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    This is a pretty wild ride, tldr at bottom. This happened about 4 years ago now, and still is one of the more ridiculous things to happen to me. I was living in San Diego CA at the time in a small apartment building with 7 or 8
    via therealjameshat
  • 03
    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
    via therealjameshat
  • 04
    my apartment for just over 3 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 3 months old.
    via therealjameshat
  • 05
    Cheezburger Image 10528230144
    via Michelle_Raponi from Pixabay

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 06
    One night I was watching tv when there was a knock at my door - I answered and standing on my porch were two police officers, both with their hands on their wapons, both seemingly tense. They told me they had a noise complaint from
    via therealjameshat

  • We would be terrified. Absolutely terrified. Even if we're 100% innocent, we get nervous around cops. Did we do something wrong accidentally? Are they here because we stole some chapstick in the 5th grade? We knew that would come back to bite us eventually.

  • 07
    my downstairs neighbor and that he thought I was on dogs and rolling a bowling ball around. It took me a few to understand what they were talking about and then I laughed - "Oh haha, that's probably just my kitten running around." They
    via therealjameshat
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    Cheezburger Image 10528230400
    via tap10

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 09
    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.
    via therealjameshat
  • 10
    The next day my downstairs neighbor came to my door to apologize to me. He said he thought I may have been making or selling mah because his 'army intelligence friends' told him that those noises he heard align with dog activity. That
    via therealjameshat
  • 11
    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?
    via therealjameshat
  • 12
    About 2 weeks later I had police at my door again. This time, they were aware of the situation and we all chuckled about how absurd the situation was. However, since they were called, they had to come. They just told me I'm doing nothing wrong,
    via therealjameshat
  • 13
    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
    via therealjameshat
  • 14
    couple nights since she would cry the whole time. I just thought, whatever, I'm doing nothing illegal, we live in a city in a loud area, its an apartment, etc.
    via therealjameshat

  • Have you ever tried containing a kitten? Yeah - it doesn't work. A) There's a reason why the phrase “herding cats” exists, and B) kittens are very vocal about being forced to do something they don't like. Being contained is one of them.

  • 15
    I'm not sure of the exact timeline, but about a week later, I had police at my door again. This time, it was the San Diego County Sheriff. With a court summons. This old b rd neighbor was trying to get a restraining order against me and was claiming elder ab e. Yes. Because of the noise of a now 6mo old cat!
    via therealjameshat
  • 16
    Court date comes around and I had printed up about 15-20 pictures of my cat to show the judge. I was furious. My neighbors "evidence" was handed to me, which was basically a list of dates and times that he marked down
    via therealjameshat
  • 17
    when he heard noises from my apartment. (It's legit insane, and 5 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
    via therealjameshat
  • 18
    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 month. Throughout ALL this time, he was banging on the ceiling and scaring my cat. He
    via therealjameshat
  • 19
    started being malicious and would just whack the ceiling in the middle of the night, often times waking me and causing my cat to go crazy and run around.
    via therealjameshat
  • 20
    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
    via therealjameshat
  • 21
    yelling at my neighbor for refusing mediation and wasting the states money. I interrupted to say "just want to make sure everyone knows this is about noise my 6 month old cat is making!" I hear laughter from other people behind me in the
    via therealjameshat
  • 22
    courtroom. Neighbor pleads his case, says I am harassing him and making too much noise. I repeat, this is about noise my 6 month old cat is making.
    via therealjameshat
  • 23
    - The judge is clearly p. ed 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
    via therealjameshat
  • 24
    making." Again, more chuckles from the court room. 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 bulls. My neighbor tried to have pleasantries with me at that point but I just ignored him and walked out.
    via therealjameshat
  • 25
    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 hearts desire and no one can tell her otherwise!
    via therealjameshat
  • 26
    EDIT: my landlord did nothing to help me out, just chuckled and said "oh yeah he's a character" TLDR: old cranky neighbor tries to get a restraining order on me for the noise my cat made, had to go to court twice because of the NOISE MY CAT MADE.
    via therealjameshat

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neighbors legal cat adoption kitten neighbor drama Cats animals police
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