Neighbors at war dig a trench, build a fence and line up their bins to separate their homes as stay-at-home dad claims woman next door harasses his family and shouts abuse after he asked her to stop feeding cats

Two neighbors at war with each other have dug a trench and lined it with a fence and bins to divide their properties after they fell out over one residents' alleged obsession with feeding local cats.

John Gutierrez, 33, a stay-at-home father from San Antonio, Texas, claims the woman living next door has repeatedly harassed his family and shouted abuse at his children while they play in their garden.

Gutierrez said he had a good relationship with his neighbor until he asked the elderly woman to stop feeding the local cats as they defecated on his lawn - a request she did not respond well to.

Gutierrez explained that after visiting the property and discussing the dispute with the two neighbors, the police recommended they put up a fence to divide the property line.

The father said: 'On one of the many times she called the police, they told us both that we should look at getting a fence or something to divide the property line because we have a shared fence in the backyard and I have my trash cans between the dividing fence and my gate.'

Gutierrez said the elderly neighbor decided to take it one step further and built a trench between the properties.

'She decided to kind of "eyeball the property line" and dig that trench so we have a physical line that neither of us can cross,' he said.

If what I’m doing encroaches on another’s property. I’m at fault.

Mr. Zoysia needs to trim back his grass so as to not encroach on his neighbor’s lawn.

At my first house, I had some great neighbors. They were friendly, sweet, and peaceful people. Unfortunately, they would also never treat their lawn for weeds. After several years, their entire front yard was a mess of carefully manicured weeds.

Every summer, we were out there battling the weed infestation migrating over from their yard. At one point, my husband and I had to till up the curbside and replant the entire thing with new sod. Time, energy, and money wasted. It could have blown up to a dispute, but their friendship was more important.

Things did come to a head when mice, which had been nesting in their shed (they admitted they had them after the fact) decided to come over to my home. Unbeknownst to us, we were missing the soffit cap at the end of the soffit leading from our outside AC compressor to our attic unit. They crawled up the fins, then the sleeve, and made themselves at home nibbling away at things in our attic.

Despite catching them early, we were out $16,000 in total damages.

As a clean freak, I was horrified that they had gotten in. My husband was furious at the price tag for mess we had to clean up. Their urine is very pungent and ruins anything it touches.

To ensure nothing else came our way, we bought a tomcat. He brought home one or two as “presents” upon first arriving, then things subsided drastically. The smell of his urine was enough to send them running.

The mouse disaster put a chill on our friendship. I couldn’t point directly to them, but it was serendipitous that they admitted to an active mouse nest (that they refused to treat) on their property at the same time our trouble was detected.

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