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!!

I truly hope you get her back! You're going to have to keep her locked in a while though to stop her heading straight back

It's difficult. We were accused of stealing a cat once and the neighbours were extremely rude about it. The cat kept coming in, we kept taking him back. He'd be let go again and jump straight over the fence and come in through the back door. He was only a kitten at the time, and they had young children, and I suspect he either got teased or didn't get sufficient attention.

The neighbours moved away - and we kept the cat, and he lived contentedly with us until he passed away at age 18. I have no idea whether he was a six dinner Sid kind of cat, but I don't think so.

When are the police going round?
Lets hope they find your other cat too.
I hope the thieves will be suitable ashamed.

police.

I've just spoken to someone at the Celia Hammond Trust and been told - contrary to what the police said and what the law states - that since her 'new owners' had her micro chipped that she is legally theirs!?!?!?!

Obviously being told this is most dissapointing and unhelpful and now I'm not sure what to think.

She might be legally theirs at the moment but if you can prove (by photos /vet records) that she was yours and they have stolen her from you then I can't believe that could be true. Otherwise I could just pop out, nick a cat and whistle it away to the vets to be microchipped and hey presto it would be mine!

I'd be going on what the police have said tbh - wait and see what happens tomorrow

I did think that may be the case tilly. Is it worth posting in Legal on here and ask if anyone knows?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_matters

if it is the lw you could still use the locl paper to "campaign" for a change in the law, citing your experience of why it is not currently working.

How is it the case? Effectively that means if you steal someone else's property and then put your name on it, it makes it yours, that's not the case surely?

If the police can't sort it tomorrow, local paper and Daily Mail with sad face by lunchtime on Wednesday - they love this sort of thing...

The Celia Hammond Trust is wrong. The microchip is owned by the person who had it done. The cat is not.

But if the cat was already chipped then they wouldn't have been able to do this I suppose.

I hope the visit from the police does the trick.

How awful!

You did the right thing in contacting the police. I do hope you're able to get her back.

how can just the act of micro-chipping be enough to take ownership of a cat?!

i might try that tack on my neighbour's bike!

if you have taken an item (alive or not) and held it in your possession with no intent of giving it back or even asking for it, then it's theft. pure and simple.

What utter bastards.

A friend of mine had a very weird g/f who regularly fed a cat (with a collar) that came round. Not so strange, except that the owners contacted her several times and asked her not to feed it or take it in, but she continued. Then she started taking it to the vet's, getting it wormed etcetera. I think they lost their temper at that point.

OP - you had TWO cats go missing at the same time? Did you tell the police about the other cat?

If the police visit doesn't work out you will have to have your DC pose for a sad face photo in the local paper, holding an empty cat basket up to the lens.

OP - when you put the posters up, did you do,them on a PC, and if so, did you save the poster on there? Because that would demonstrate that you looked for the cat, so they can't claim you didn't care when it went missing.

I hope you get the cat back.

The plot thickens! You have a missing little boy cat too? The bastards!. I hope your visit from the police goes well tomorrow Tilly

Thanks for the update about chips and vets records Tilly.

If you went round postering and asking neighbours, they will be able to help confirm that StolenCat really did go missing around the time that BastardThievingNeighbours mysteriously acquired a cat to take to the vet and get chipped.

I'm shocked & outraged on your behalf - I didn't even know things like that happen

Good luck with the police & hope you get her back.

Good luck.

We love our cat, he's my favorite in the household!

If they look at the vets records re when the cat was microchipped they may be able to find out if they microchipped another cat at the same time.

Interesting that they went to the effort to chip her if they planned to keep her indoors. Bastards. It all seems so unbelievable that they'd do this and think it was ok.