Dealing with the dark side
I have a lovely terrace, covered with an opaque roof that lets in sunlight, with walls on both sides and garden wire from top to bottom in front. Not a single place for, say, a mischievous kitten to get through — I double-checked all the nails and wires keeping it up. This weekend I also installed wire on the infamous bathroom window, as well as changing the icky chicken wire on my bedroom window to the more attractive green garden wire I found. It’s a nice improvement.
This afternoon, my “terrace neighbor” from across the way — she lives in the building opposite — threatened to kill my cat. She’d complained about Malo when he was alive, saying he brought mosquitoes. My helpful responses to her — explaining that mosquitoes need standing water to grow, and that there’s no standing water at my place, plus the entire French Riviera has a terrible mosquito problem this year due to the months of rain we had this spring — were met only with her telling me to piss off and stop trying to excuse my “dirty habits” that “attracted mosquitoes”. So I let it drop at that.
But this afternoon, she’d “had enough of the damned mosquitoes” and said she’d “rid herself of the problem by poisoning” my cat. “Ca me fera plaisir de le tuer !” she added, using the definite future form and not the conditional “ferait”. (Translation: “Killing him will make me happy!”, emphasis mine on the verb tense used.)
In France, when you witness such a threat, you can porter main courante, au commissariat de police nationale. Apparently it has to be la police nationale rather than municipale. Main courante is literally the police’s daily record of events, but in France it’s evolved to become a means to register a legal complaint that’s not an official plainte. Its usefulness is that it is a legal record, signed and dated, and receivable as evidence if things worsen to actual crimes (for instance, actual poisoning, physical aggression, and so forth). I did this for Kanoko today. The policewoman who took it down was very kind, continuing my now three-year-long string of positive, reassuring experiences with the police here.
Neighbors in the threatening neighbor’s building have also given their support since my arrival, which is how I learned about the main courante. This evening they were greatly relieved to hear that someone outside their building had submitted one, since it gives their own more weight. (Apparently there are several complaints. Note: when checking out a new place, don’t just ask neighbors in your building about how relations are. Also ask neighbors in buildings with which you’ll come into direct contact. It never occurred to me to do that until this experience.) It’s an immense help to have the support of the other neighbors; I just hope the menacing neighbor doesn’t make good on her threat. (There are indeed hand-sized holes in the wire between our gardens. I don’t have enough smaller-grade wire to cover them all — yet.)
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August 2nd, 2008 at 22:37
You’re kidding me! Oh my gosh. Hurry and get the wire and other supplies you need to keep that witch out of there. On ne sait jamais! She sounds like she has problems that need professional attention.
August 2nd, 2008 at 23:17
I hesitate to even bring this up but…
What is the possibility she had something to do with Malo’ demise?
August 3rd, 2008 at 01:46
Hi,
I’ve had at least some experience dealing with crazy people like that, and of course, I don’t want to scare you, but yes, she could do something like that and probably not face too many consequences for it (a neighbor in the U.S. poisoned and killed one of my cats, so yes, it is a real threat, to be taken completely seriously).
You would receive a lot of sympathy, but I don’t think the police would do a thing.
And, as a foreigner, this crazy woman could perceive you as a weak link in her twisted world. So I would take whatever precautions you can to protect your kitten. I would not try to debate this woman or try to reason with her. The mere fact of doing that, especially in this country with Latin roots, can make you seem weak. And that will make you more vulnerable. My advice is to be as “French” as possible when dealing with her, to treat her as much as you can in the same way as your French neighbors do, i.e., be casually dismissive as many French do. Shrug. Tell her to go her screw herself. Not in any agressive way, but in the passive, indifferent, condescending way that the French seem to have mastered.
Anyone who says what she has said is completely capable of carrying out her threat. I’m sorry that you have to deal with that.
August 3rd, 2008 at 08:58
I thought of the possibility re: Malo already. Since the official cause of death is “hit by a car”, from a legal standpoint the neighbor is in the clear. Personally I have no idea. She was happy to overhear me tell another neighbor he died, is all I can say. (I’ve only tried speaking to her directly once, about the mosquitoes.)
Nathanael, oh, I know nothing will be done if Kanoko is poisoned. The main idea is to bring a harassment suit against her, since according to the people in her building, it’s been going on for years. Probably won’t be very effective either, but who knows…
And she’s German, not French, plus she doesn’t even know I’m foreign (I can pass for French so long as I don’t get into philosophical discussions where my English accent and phrasing inevitably come through). As I mentioned above, I’ve only ever spoken to her once. As far as I’m concerned, so long as I’ve done nothing wrong, I’ll enjoy my home on my terms and have nothing to do with abusive people. (But I sure as hell will tell the police.)
August 6th, 2008 at 13:28
I would say go right out and get whatever you need to to protect your enclosure from her putting something edible and poisonous in it. I mean like, today. Nuts like this there are no words for.
August 6th, 2008 at 18:37
Normally I would, except it’s impossible due to store hours here (there’s no such thing as 24-hour stores; there’s even only a single pharmacy in the entire city of Nice that’s open 24 hours, and only one police station that does so as well). And in Sophia Antipolis, where I work, there are no stores other than a magasin de presse, only restaurants. It has to wait until Saturday…
The cat door locks, so Kanoko doesn’t go out unless I’m outside with him, and every time I let him out, I check the terrace. The people in crazy-lady’s building have already warned her that I won’t take her shit, telling her that I did indeed go to the police. She’s made a great show of angrily slamming closed her shutters on my evening arrival every day since then :) (I pretend she doesn’t exist!) She’s threatened all the animals in their building too (but so far has never gone through with the threats…).
August 7th, 2008 at 00:11
I am glad you are being cautious. Even though she is a nut you can’t trust that she won’t do something. That kitty is a treasure.