Overheard neighbour talking about us?

Hi
My partner and I don't get along with our elderly neighbour. We are in our mid-late 20s and he is 86 and lives alone.
We are not noisy and don't have parties etc.

We have overheard him on several occasions talking about us to other neighbours and generally just complaining. His main moans are about our slightly neglected garden and driveway. Its by no means a mess, it is tidy but it isn't pretty and full of flowers like his as we havn't had the time or money since we moved in as my partner has had 6 months off work following a spinal operation and money has literally just kept us fed and with the mortgage paid recently.

The neighbour knows my partner has been unwell but we have heard him joking about it and presuming that my partner had a motorbike accident (which isn't true, its genetic) and saying he deserved it.

The most upsetting we overheard was a few days ago where we heard him saying something about hurting our cats and asking the other person his opinion. The other person was overheard saying that he didn't want him to get into any trouble. We have 2 cats and his other next door neighbour has 3 and there are lots of cats generally in the street so I am unsure as to why he would want to hurt ours particularly.

I have confronted him in the past and tried to be friendly and hold out an olive branch but to no avail. He ignores any hellos and grunts rudley at either of us if we try to communicate with him.

Just wondering what to do about it as I'm out of ideas.

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