AIBU to expect next door neighbours to give me my cat back?!?!?!

[tillytrotter11]

I am absolutely fuming and doing my nut! This is the first nice day of the year and I've just noticed my 11 year old cat, which went missing 11 months ago, in my next door neighbour's garden. The next door neighbour was sitting outside with her patio doors open and my cat was sitting next to her. Me and my daughters were in shock as we have searched for her and asked around and had even put posters up but had little luck and therefore we assumed that she had died. We kept calling the cat and she instantly recognised us but the woman just sat their ignoring us. We finally got the woman's attention and when we said "excuse me that's our cat" and asked for her back, she blatantly refused as she said she had "taken her to the vet and had her micro chipped". She then brought her husband out, who spoke to us like we were a bunch of idiots. He told us "she was an indoor cat" after we had showed them a load of photographs of her and then they stormed back inside.

It's very obvious that the cat had been shut all this time and the reason we have spotted her now is because it's a very nice day and they have let her roam in the garden.

Where do we stand and AIBU to expect them to return our much loved cat back to us? Thanks for any advice!!

[Pendipidy]

report them to the police, of course.

[hedgefund]

blimey, wonder if the police could advise.

[SauvignonBlanche]

Phone 101 for advice.

[SoftKittyWarmKitty]

Oh good god! Call the police on 101. It's theft. Bastards .

[GlitterySkulls]

report to police for theft.

did you adopt or buy? (if you adopted her, the rescue could provide proof of this, thus proving your ownership)

[TidyDancer]

Omg police. Definitely.

Did you have her chipped? Any other way of identifying her?

What shitbags they are.

[MummyNoName]

Had something similar myself.
Police will do nothing,
You can go to the county court (if I remember correctly) yourself, but you'd struggle with a case since the cat was micro chipped by them. Proving ownership would be difficult.

Cats aren't covered under the same laws as dogs.

The best you could hope for us that the cat isn't actually chipped, and you go to court and get the cat back.

But cats will go where they please.

[tillytrotter11]

I bought her and her sister 11 years ago!! Tragically we had to have her sister put down 6 weeks ago because she was dying from cancer, if we had our cat back it would ease the pain slightly of losing her sister. I'm livid!!!

[LadyVoldemort]

Oh I don't know how you'd legally get her back but I'd be tempted to kidnap her! That's Awful of them to steal her :(

[tillytrotter11]

We've got loads of pictures of her throughout the years. Starting from the day she was 8 weeks old!!!

[andubelievedthat]

legally ,and by cat opinion ,you do not,/cannot own a cat ,the cat decides who it wishes to live with (until it finds someone who will feed them more/cuddle them more/provide more of what pleases them. Sadly, if cat wished to return to your home , it would have ,it"s what cats do ,they do not have "owners" ,cats keep humans as servants, and replace them with all 2 often regularity, when and if it suits them.

[MummyNoName]

Cats, by law, are free to roam.
You really would struggle getting get back.

We had our cat 11 years before a neighbour enticed him away and he won't come back now. Lots if heated discussions with neighbour, police called etc.

They just aren't covered by the same laws as dogs.

[fluffiphlox]

Buy a new cat. I'm pretty sure you are dead to this one now. It prefers next door.

[GlitterySkulls]

how about taking the cat off them?

if the police won't do anything, then what else can you do but take her?

i don't mean going to their door with a baseball bat, btw, just, next time they let her out,wait for them to go in for the loo or something, jump the fence, pick her up & jump back over. they come back out, but too late, she's in yours & they can't prove she didn't leave of her own free will.

[MummyNoName]

And we brought our cat to the uk from where we lived abroad. He was in quarantine for months, loads of paperwork, vets bills etc, even chipped him. But we could have gone to court, won, got cat back and he'd have still gone to neighbour.

Very upsetting at the time, but a year on, I can see and u d'état and now that cats do as they please.

[Sparklingbrook]

If you didn't have her chipped but the neighbours have I think you may find it difficult to get her back.

Can't believe the nerve of your neighbours, they must have kept her in for all this time?

[kjrv81]

Tell the newspapers, they love a story like that. Hope you get your cat back, they have got a cheek!!

[Lj8893]

I would catnap her back to be honest, that's what they have done and yes there will be nothing the police can do other than maybe talk to your neighbours (depending on which police officer you talk to!)

[Sparklingbrook]

Oh yes. Local paper. Sad faces with pictures of the cat.

[tillytrotter11]

Yes, cats do go where they want but these patronising scumbags kept her locked in for 11 months!!!

[LovesBeingWokenEveryNight]

I understand you are upset, shouldn't you be pleased the cat is alive and loved.

[Sparklingbrook]

I would be sooo angry. they let you believe she was dead, they must have seen the posters saying she was lost. that feeling when your cat is missing is just horrible.

[GlitterySkulls]

my mums cat lived till 17, & she never chose a new owner. my mum had her from she was 2 years old (work colleagues kid got bored with her) & she never strayed.

her neighbours cat keeps trying to move in, but she feeds it & sends it home because it's not her cat- decent people don't steal cats!