Claws out in £20k street battle over who feeds the cat
A CAT-LOVING psychotherapist went to court in a £20,000 fight to ban her award-winning gardener neighbour from feeding her wandering pedigree pet.
Jackie Hall and husband John enlisted a top QC to sue Nicola Lesbirel in a legal first after accusing her of adopting their Maine coon, Ozzy.
They claimed Nicola, 57, had enticed their pet into her home and removed its collar eight times – replacing it with ones bearing her own phone number and the words: “My home.”
Nicola, a landscape gardener who has worked with Sir Terence Conran and won gold at the Chelsea Flower Show, denied any wrongdoing.
She said Ozzy was a “sentient being” who fed “in a number of premises” in their affluent street.
Following the costly fight, Nicola has signed a legally binding agreement stating she will not feed Ozzy cat food, tinned fish or meat or remove his collar. She has also promised not to put him in a box or basket or to let him into her home, unless he is making a disturbance at the front of her flat, in which case she can carry him through and put him out back.
She previously told the Halls in a letter: “He is very loved and well cared for and he is very attached to his territory, and to me.
“Surely leaving him where he is determined to be and where you can be reassured he is settled and happy and healthy is the best thing for everyone involved?”
The spat erupted in March 2015, a few months after Jackie and company director John bought Ozzy.
When he started spending long periods away from their luxury house in Brackenbury Village, near Hammersmith in west London, the couple attached a GPS tracker to his collar. It showed he was regularly in the area around Nicola’s home, a few doors away.
A heated exchange of emails and texts followed, with Jackie telling Nicola: “He is not your cat and we are not just giving him over to you.
“What was something that we tolerated – because we are a nice family and didn’t want to cause hurt – has now become intolerable and you have gone too far.
“I understand that you feel it is impossible for letters, you to close your door to Ozzy, as you have spent years grooming him to come to you, but that is the only decent course of action. “The question we have asked ourselves year after year: ‘Why doesn’t Nicola just get her own cat? Why can’t she leave ours alone?’”
As the row escalated, the Halls hired Tom Weisselberg QC to apply for an injunction banning Nicola from taking in or feeding Ozzy – who was referred to legally as worth at least £500”.
In newly released court papers, the lawyer wrote: “They have been deprived of the enjoyment of the cat for significant periods of time, including when their children are at home, and for a significant proportion of the life of the cat.”
Nicola’s lawyer responded: “She has never deprived their rights to the cat. It is averred that the cat is a sentient being and goes where he pleases and the decision is wholly outside of Ms Lesbirel’s control.”
The case – the first of its kind – was due to be heard at Central London County Court but was settled last month.
The Cats Protection League said: “Cats are regarded as property and an offence would be committed under the Theft Act 1968 if the ‘feeder’ dishonestly appropriated the cat with the intention of permanently depriving the owners of it.”
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