My Cats Caused A Noise Complaint! Please Help!

[laurenag]

Hi, I am coming on here to ask for help.

I received a Lease Violation because of noises about a week or two ago and the deranged neighbor broke their anonymity and came up to verbally attack my boyfriend today at 10pm. They tried to threaten us with saying they would call the cops and get lawyers involved.
She tried to blame the noise on the two of us when we know its our cats. We have two one year old cats and a very playful 3-4 month old kitten. They make A LOT of noise in our living room at night with the woman living under our neighbor. Our neighbor to the right of us has never complained to us about the noise but apparently its unbearable to the woman beneath her? We are not sure if its us or someone else at this point. She tried to blame it on my boyfriend and I playing video games but where our apartment is located it right above the concierge desk, package room and mail room. There has been multiple occasions where I have left my bedroom to go stop the cats from going crazy and hitting the walls, knocking stuff over and trying to jump up on the windowsill. We have wooden-linoleum floors and not that much stuff in our living room since we are two college students. I can understand why the noise would echo. I have thought of putting rugs down everywhere and buying more furniture for that area.

I bought two cat crates and stuff for the two noisy ones just now and will keep them in a room across the apartment where she isn't located since its above a common area for the people of the apartment. I also sound proofed this room because we thought it was us at first but over time and where she explained where the noise was coming from, we knew it was our kitties. (Or even someone else) The cats usually go crazy around 11pm-5am and the laws in our state are from 11pm-7am. I do stay up to play my games but its because every time my cats make the slightest noise now, I am really on edge so I cannot sleep properly and try to go make them stop. The room we are usually in is our Den which is separated by a bathroom, kitchen, AND our bedroom. Its a good 10-15ft away from our living room. I find it hilarious she was blaming it on me yelling and playing games at 2am.

Any recommendations? I plan on making a visit to my leasing office tomorrow morning and I will be gone from Wednesday till the 18th.

Lets see if she will come up again to complain and have her yell at my boyfriend trying to say it was me when I wasn't even there! Ha ha!

 

[Jcatbird]

Hi! Welcome to the site!
Yes, I have some tips. I would say that you need to be careful how you handle this. I once lived in a lower apartment and the wooden floors magnify sound. A little noise can carry so you had a great idea about getting rugs down. Until you do, use blankets or anything you have to muffle the sound. Your kitties do need to be able to play. Can you switch the room they are in? When you go to discuss this with the person in authority, be firm that you feel sure the noise does not come from your apartment but that you really do care about your neighbor. You feel they are mistaken but will do everything humanly possible to see to the comfort of those around you. Be the bigger person in the way you speak to the apartment authority. By that I just mean, you can say that the person complaining is mistaken, but try to find a positive way to approach this. If you appear to be the easier one to deal with, they are more likely to prefer dealing with you. Sometimes other people are under stress, irritated by something, having a bad day, mistaken or just plain mean. I have also had the role of managing rentals. Some people are just complainers. Just their temperament. I always knew who they were because they came to me a LOT! I needed to keep things rented but I preferred the tenants that didn’t cause hassles. Be the better tenant. Be the one that they want to keep there.
There are ways to help the kitties too. Make sure they get to play a lot earlier in the day. Give them lots to do and play with. Right before the time they need to be quiet, have a lot of running play that will tire them out. Then give them a nice full tummy and see if they will join you in bed. Make sure that toys left out at night are quiet toys. No bells or hard toys. I think if you do this with the kitties, it will help to stop the noise that makes you nervous enough to stay up. If everyone is down for the night then you can’t possibly be the issue with the neighbor. You won’t have any doubt or have to keep the kitties under constant watch. It’s always better to be able to speak with the certainty that you are 100% in the right.
I hope some of the kitty play tips will help. There is something called Feliway too. It is used to calm kitties. You could use it at night. Good luck with your sweet babies and I hope this all works out smoothly and quickly.

 

[laurenag]

Hi! Welcome to the site!
Yes, I have some tips. I would say that you need to be careful how you handle this. I once lived in a lower apartment and the wooden floors magnify sound. A little noise can carry so you had a great idea about getting rugs down. Until you do, use blankets or anything you have to muffle the sound. Your kitties do need to be able to play. Can you switch the room they are in? When you go to discuss this with the person in authority, be firm that you feel sure the noise does not come from your apartment but that you really do care about your neighbor. You feel they are mistaken but will do everything humanly possible to see to the comfort of those around you. Be the bigger person in the way you speak to the apartment authority. By that I just mean, you can say that the person complaining is mistaken, but try to find a positive way to approach this. If you appear to be the easier one to deal with, they are more likely to prefer dealing with you. Sometimes other people are under stress, irritated by something, having a bad day, mistaken or just plain mean. I have also had the role of managing rentals. Some people are just complainers. Just their temperament. I always knew who they were because they came to me a LOT! I needed to keep things rented but I preferred the tenants that didn’t cause hassles. Be the better tenant. Be the one that they want to keep there.
There are ways to help the kitties too. Make sure they get to play a lot earlier in the day. Give them lots to do and play with. Right before the time they need to be quiet, have a lot of running play that will tire them out. Then give them a nice full tummy and see if they will join you in bed. Make sure that toys left out at night are quiet toys. No bells or hard toys. I think if you do this with the kitties, it will help to stop the noise that makes you nervous enough to stay up. If everyone is down for the night then you can’t possibly be the issue with the neighbor. You won’t have any doubt or have to keep the kitties under constant watch. It’s always better to be able to speak with the certainty that you are 100% in the right.
I hope some of the kitty play tips will help. There is something called Feliway too. It is used to calm kitties. You could use it at night. Good luck with your sweet babies and I hope this all works out smoothly and quickly.

Thank you for responding so fast,
Do you recommend any toys for them? We bought them a laser toy but it does not stay on for long. I have tried playing with them and feeding, they still end up getting energy and being loud around 3-5am..

 

[Jcatbird]

The wand toys use up a lot of energy. There is one called,”Da Bird” that has interchangeable toys for the end of the cord. A toy bird, feathers etc. . That’s a good one to get them to fun and jump until they are really tired. A soft catnip toy before quiet time is one they may play with by them selves. A soft ball to chase before quiet time. The trick is to play with them to keep them running around a lot before quiet time. Cats do tend to get up some during the night but you can work to shift their hours around. Also, if I get up during the night, my cats always want to be with me. They can be sound asleep but if I move, so do they. Lol If you ate up, your cats will probably get into the same pattern.
There are some great video games for cats too. Mine love the mouse chase games and the fly chase game. They crack me up chasing the fly. There is one that is just a string on the screen that a couple of my cats like. Oh yeah! The fish one too! They pat the fish and the fish swims away or goes to the bottom of the pond. I get into watching the cats play these. A lot of these are on YouTube so if one ends, the next one starts automatically. That might keep the kitties hovering around the screen a good while. Really active play before bed though. It’s the running around that gets them tired enough to play easier later in the night. I am guessing your kitties are fairly young too. I know you said one is a kitten. As they get older they won’t be running around as much. Are the spayed or neutered? That helps them settle down and is also better for them in a lot of other ways. They stay a lot healthier. I hope something here will help you. I am sure others from the site will give you some tips on good toys too. Ha! I keep thinking of other things to add. Do you have a cat tree? A cat tree with cubby holes, a scratching post or climbing shelves that are securely attached on the wall might help keep them playing up off the floor. There are shelves designed to be cat trails on the wall too. Very cool. That would probably be great in your situation. Cats that have those love staying up high. It’s like they have their own little world up there. If you look on Chewy you can find all kinds of kitty stuff. There are some ads that come up here that show some pretty cool stuff too. Amazon has a lot of cat stuff too. The variety of cat stuff is endless. Just look around some. See what fits your home and kitties. For right this minute, the video games are free and easy to start with. See if that will get you started. I hope they like them!

 

[Neko-chan's mama]

My cat's favorite you that really tired her out is the pet fit for life wand. It's not too expensive on chewy.com and has lots of different attachment. I do two play sessions a night and she's rather quiet til 6am when I get up.

 

[Maria Bayote]

I used to live in a first floor flat and I could hear almost everything the people living above us were making, including the soft toddler steps, their giggles when watching TV shows, etc. The floors were concrete but could not really muffle the sounds, leaving me sleepless at nights. I did not complain though. I just moved out. LOL.

Invest on much thicker carpets on the floor. As much as possible, try to exhaust their energy (particularly the older cats) by playing and then feed them before bedtime. For the kitten there is not much to do with the playing, as kittens' energy is unlimited. Remove anything that can be knocked off by them from shelves, counters.

And lastly as Jcatbird advised, you can deal with this in a civil/nice way despite your neighbor shouting at you or your BF. Act apologetic and at the same time explain that these noises could not be coming from your apartment. Who knows, by talking and dealing about this with your neighbor in the sweetest way, she could end up your good friend.

Goodluck.

 

[di and bob]

Yes, carpets/rugs would really help to muffle the noise. Your cats are all young and bound to be boisterous, but they should improve in a year or so. If you would establish a regular routine, like going to bed at the same time every night, that would help too, they should start learning then that that time is bedtime.

 

[pearl99]

When my daughter lived in the downstairs of my house she could hear Waffles zooming around in the night, sounded like a herd of elephants. So sound can really travel to the downstairs of a dwelling.
I second (third, fourth) rugs on the floor to muffle the sound. Even put carpet pad s beneath it. It can really help.

 

[Libby.]

I second the suggestion to play with them earlier in the evening. Get a laser pointer and have them race around the room to wear them out. I'd consider popping them in a big crate at bedtime. Big enough for all three of them or maybe try and take them to bed with you at night, they might just fall asleep and sleep all night.

My Leo and Mouse run up and down the hallway upstairs after dinner and if my bedroom door is open, they'll make the bed their launchpad. I can hear the thumping and galloping from the family room. We have hardwood floors, and it really magnifies the sound.

 

[maggie101]

I am on the first floor. The people above said they did not hear my cats playing at night. I could hear their foot steps so wearing slippers would help or move on the first floor. My ceilings are high