To be annoyed that my cat was "rescued"

[Newbiewife]

We have a cat who loves to wander, he goes for miles but always come home when hungry,

He wandered to a local park (literally a 3 minute walk from my house) he loves kids because they play with him and stroke him because hes super friendly.

Someone saw him roaming around the park for a few hours and "rescued him".

Took him to their house and kept him in for 2 days, he hates being kept inside all the time. The house they took him to is literally 10 doors away from ours.

They scanned his microchip (he gets collars off so we cant do that) and saw the address and sent us a letter in the post to tell us.

We have been worried sick walking everywhere calling him etc and he was literally 10 doors away the whole time.

AIBU to be annoyed that the "rescuer" who admitted herself there was nothing wrong with and he looked happy and healthy took our cat in and kept him for 2 days when she could have walked 1 minute and knocked on the door?

Looking at their facebook she does this all the time. We took him to the vets (for a check up) and apparently she regularly brings in lost pets.

Its amazing that she does this for genuinely lost cats but, cats wander and id never dream of taking one that was healthy. If he was skinny or had a limp fair enough.

Also worried that because shes been feeding him non stop with chicken breast and tuna he will go back their now.

Our other cat spent the whole of last summer getting into next doors house and begging food off them. They were renting and all young professionals - and not in a position or allowed a cat themselves, so they enjoyed it. I used to hear them talking to him. He got really far but short of telling them not to feed him I let it be because they enjoyed his company.

My NDNs were stunned when I said I had to chase their new cat out of our house as it had strolled in and curled up on the sofa as if it lived there. I was not daft enough to think that meant anything more than he was a chancer.

Well, just because a cat looks healthy doesn't necessarily mean it's not got lost/abandoned. I can't fault her in that sense.

It does boggle the mind though why she sent a letter rather than bringing him round when she found out where he lived!

In this scenario she’s bonkers. However, I think some cats choose where they want to hang out. My elderly parents spend all day gardening and a local cat clearly loves company and follows them around garden. Has a nap next to them whilst they’re working etc. They don’t let him inside And actually don’t really fuss over him or rarely feed him, but they decided that owners must be out all day and it was a cat that liked company. This has gone on a year, and recently we noticed it has a collar saying ‘do not feed, has a home etc’. My parents are a bit mortified, but honestly they don’t feed him but he pitches up for hours a day and disappears presumably home in evening. I do think some cats choose their company (don’t we all)!

No doubt she gets lots of attention and 'likes' on facebook for being such a wonderful, caring animal (thief) rescuer. Did your cat feature on her page?

There is a cat near me that hangs around the entrance to the local primary school at drop off and pick up time. It clearly loves the attention it gets.

I’d go up the wall if anyone “rescued” any of my four cats, they’re all chipped so we can easily be located/contacted should one of them wander off (they won’t, they’re too lazy and too greedy to be too far away from food for any length of time )

The amount of people who think it’s ok to steal other people’s pets is staggering!

I'm a member of a local lost cat group and the members do this all the time, egged on by admin. There are a few members who have scanners, I assume they get owner details somehow.

Only yesterday there was a skinny cat in the park, who apparently was starved because it ate some food. Luckily the admin recognised him as he had been photographed many times before. This cat had a very visible tag with details and telling people not to feed her.

My skinny boy is completely healthy, he always eats like he has not been fed for months. He looks healthy despite his skinniness and has a collar and chip and I worry he will get picked up sometime. He spends a lot of time hanging out in a neighbours garden but luckily she is sensible and leaves him alone.

I've had various wee visiting cats over the years, I love petting them but deliberately don't feed them because I don't want them tempted away from their homes.

Leave random cats alone, if they look well cared for the chances are that they have their own house.

Thanks everyone for your replies i wasn't sure if i was overreacting.

I appreciate that she may have been trying to do a good thing but surely you would just go and see the owners. I'm putting it down to her being a bit over keen on being a hero.

I can't believe this happens to so many cats, I had no idea!

And so many stories of stolen cats, instead of stealing cats can't they go and rescue some of the genuinely abandoned ones in centres like where we got ours from!

Did you ask her why she sent a letter instead of coming round with your cat

Bizarre! I often wonder how someone decides that a cat needs rescuing. Okay if it's skinny and looking particularly worse for wear then maybe but ours, like yours OP, will not wear a collar and will roam all over the place but he always comes home.

I can understand a dog far more easily as they should not be out alone, but cats? I'd never just stop and pick up a random cat. It could literally live two seconds away, how would you know?!

If she has a reader and read the chip, why did it take 2 days to contact you? What am I missing? Sounds batshit.

We had a cat that used to have a couple of other 'homes' and another one that was missing for a nine days, we assumed he had been run over, but he turned up fit and healthy so he'd been somewhere! Remember, you never own a cat, they own you.
Cats often do this, although not just pinched off the street, children might enjoy a lovely book Six-Dinner Sid

Do you have a facebook group for the local community?

I ask because this has reminded me of a cat that wanders abut in the park near where I work. It is a very vocal cat and many times has sat under our office window yowling its head off. Recently we spotted a message on the facebook local group thingummy from the owner of the cat basically saying "My cat is fine. He likes to wander. He make a noise but he isn't hurt, ill or hungry" Presumably she has had similar issues. Anyway, you could maybe try that. Unless you already have and we are talking about the same cat!

I'm so glad you got him back.
A similar thing happened with us last year, lady snatched our cat, took him to the vet, then had her chip transferred into her name!
We have gone to the police and everything, but the vets claim that they tried to get hold of us by phone, even though they had 2 phone numbers, address and email they could have used, and gave the cat away to this woman the same day.
She is also a 'cat rescuer', there should be regulations to stop these people which are enforced. You wouldn't be able to steal a car, re-register it in your name, and then keep it if the original owner wanted it back, so why on earth can you do this to a beloved family pet?

@GabsAlot her husband suggested it apparently. It all made me think that she was hoping nobody would claim him to be honest, but her husband said she had to make some attempt to give him back to the owners.

But i'm hoping she wasn't thinking straight and was trying to help.

He is lovely and he acts more like a dog than a cat excited to see people, comes when you call him, plays with toys etc. So he will just go up to people and roll around and perform for attention haha! Always worries someone would take him because of this!

YANBU. I'm seriously considering starting a let cats be cats campaign, my FB is full of dumbfuckers posting concerned photos of cats sitting in the sun minding their cat like business. Someone actually knocked on my door recently worried because a neighbors cat had followed them up the street.

Cat follows everyone. Gets to the end and stops........it's like we've got the message regarding keeping dogs on leads, kids are kept indoors now.because playing out and having a childhood is a no no so now they've started on fucking cats. !

Our local FB group is always full of pictures of normal sized cats with the caption "this cat turned up in my garden and is so skinny and so hungry, is anyone missing him?"

It takes everything I have not to rant on each one. Honestly I think people have no idea what a cat is meant to look like. You know how people say we have lost our sense of what overweight in people looks like? Well we definitely have for cats. If your cat is not the size of a barrel it is a poor skinny waif who must be rescued.

I always worry about this with one of mine. She's an older girl (over 17) and is looking a little scraggy these days but is perfectly healthy now that we've got her on a prescription diet. If someone were to "rescue" her and start feeding her normal cat food, it would actually make her really poorly and she would start losing weight again.
Can't keep her in though when it's nice outside, she'd be too sad.

I worry about that too @Pineapplebaby - my boy cat is 11 and has feline IBS so is a little skinnier and scraggier than he should be, but if people fed him the wrong thing it'd set off his symptoms and make him worse. He hates strangers and hates the vet just as much so if anyone grabbed him it'd really stress him out. Luckily he mostly wanders the back gardens where we are and doesn't venture onto the street.

This happened to my friend !. Her cat kept wandering off and didnt come back for about 2 weeks!.Finally found the "kind " person offering him salmon ,and keeping him in her house/garden!.My friend explained that he didnt need feeding as he will get too fat ,woman replied that he always comes round for "his bit of fish" and she enjoyed feeding him ,Maybe they could "share" him .My friend said ,what about sharing the vets bills/flea tabs and so on ! .Strangely didnt have too much of a problem after that!

Newbiewife
He is lovely and he acts more like a dog than a cat

For some reason I thought you meant her husband

She sounds like a compulsive virtue-signaller, or an animal hoarder in training. Rescue centres have problems with people who have a compulsion to rescue animals because it makes them feel good, but they then can't look after them because they keep adding more and more.

@Juells hahaha no he was less lovely, yeah the vet did a big eye roll when i mentioned her name. My husband thinks she likes the attention and being a hero!

My cat certainly doesn't think shes a hero he shot out of her house at 100 mph when we went to "collect him". He then just strolled (about 1 minute) home with us!

Well we definitely have for cats. If your cat is not the size of a barrel it is a poor skinny waif who must be rescued.

This is so true. My old cat was the type to put on the “I’ve not been fed for 500 years” wail to anyone who might fall for it and at least four people locally did!

He was getting fatter and fatter (at one point he was nearly 8kgs despite barely eating at home) and one of the women just wouldn’t stop feeding. In the end I had to very bluntly tell her that she was killing him as he already had kidney problems and because of her it was getting worse and he was missing his medication.

I said she was either to take him on completely - vet and medication bills and all - or leave him alone. In the end she was apparently intimidated (I’m 5’4 and was in tears - she and her husband are both into martial arts) - and bullied into abandoning him. More like she didn’t want the sodding her bills.

My kitten has had a ‘please do not feed me’ collar on since she started going out in the hope it will prevent the same thing.

My cousin was invited to friend-of-a-friend's house for a bit of a do, a few streets away from where she lived. When she walked in she saw her cat ensconced in a chair. "What's my cat doing here?" "What do you mean, 'your cat'? That's our Charlie, we've had him for years."

He was very even-pawed, spent half of each day and night at his two homes.