Fur Flies Between Neighbors

Disputes between neighbors can be spurred by many factors and a common one is pets.

In part two of her series on neighbors at loggerheads, Tracy Smith finds two Southern ladies (video)"The cat sleeps on the car, walks on the car, goes under the car," she says.

The neighbors quickly got catty, Smith reports.

"She said that I had given someone the finger on the street," Mullen tells Smith. "And I'm going, 'The finger? What is she talking about?' She also said that I had been flashing. Flashing? At my age, darling, flashing?"

"She's just unhappy, and this is something she can sink her teeth into," Evans counters.

The matter wound up in the Livability Court.

Judge Michael Maloney hears up to 100 cases a day when the court is in session.

"In the old days," he says, "they might go over and knock on the door and say, 'Look, your son, you know, chased my dog today,' or what have you. Nowadays, they bring the case to the court."

Maloney put a restraining order on King Tut: "I did tell the lady that owned the cat to make sure that the cat, at all times, as best you can, is either in your yard, in your house, or constrained."

Tut is supposed to stay in his yard, though he sometimes violates his order.

"I try very hard to keep him out of her yard," Evans says.

And Mullen compiles evidence.

Reading from notes, Mullen points to specific dates and says. "The cat was in the yard, the cat was on the balcony, the cat was in the flower garden."

But the court experience seems to have settled things down, Smith says, adding the ladies have had enough.

"All I want," Evans says, "is to live in peace."

"What she does with her life, I could care less, darling," Mullen says to Smith. "We have nothing in common."

And even though he's grounded, Smith says, Tut is still king.

The livability court concept is popping up around the country, Smith says. People like it because their small issues can be heard by a judge, and it helps clear the criminal dockets for more serious cases.