To have released this cat

[idonethisthing]

I did something on the spur of the moment and now I’m wondering if I was in fact wrong to do what I did.

I went round to the house of a family on my street the other day to let them know that their dog had escaped and was running maniacally towards the woods. Someone in the household then wandered off to find the errant dog.
i was then talking to the woman of the household on the doorstep when she said ‘guess what’s in there?’ and pointed to her downstairs loo (Our houses are identikit new builds so i know exactly what the room looks like. It’s 1.5 meters by 1 meter with a loo and a sink only. Tiled floor) Then she said she’s got a stray cat in there. I asked what cat and she described a local very distinctive cat and said he’d been in there for four days and she was going to take him to the vets.
When she went back inside I waited and then opened the front door quietly and unlocked the loo and released the cat. Was I wrong? I feel bad, but I can’t see on our local Facebook groups that she made any attempt to find the owners of this cat and four days locked in the little loo seems rather cruel to me. Was I wrong? If the cat needed help then there are people you can call. There’s no need to wait four days if you have the animals best interests at heart, surely? You don’t just go around picking up random cats that you think need help and then shoving them in a cupboard until you get round to it.
I’ve got a strong feeling she knows it was me because you had to physically unlock to toilet door from the outside so it didn’t happen accidentally. I’m hoping she confronts me soon so I can stop stressing about it!

Ahhh gotcha! That makes far more sense than the bolt I was thinking of 🤦🏼‍♀️

IMO something best left to and reported to the authorities rather than becoming a have a go hero.

I'm pretty sure that if it were acceptable behaviour then there would be a large number of loonies walking about setting animals free from peoples property "because it was humane to do so", this sometimes being done for legitimate and justifiable reasons, and sometimes for reasons a lot less legitimate depending on how crazy the animal freer actually is.

So you think I should have turned a blind eye and let the cat stay captive?

Interesting. You. Not me.

Very awkward situation. She sounds completely unhinged. I’d be wary of what she’d do if you reported it. At least she doesn’t necessarily know it was you. I think you probably did the right thing.

You liberated a cat which had been imprisoned by this woman.People need to seriously re examine their attitudes to cats who can live a perfectly ok existence in urban areas.

Yes definitely alert the cats owner if you know them.

Why didn’t you say “oh it sounds like Tigger from number 34, you need to let him out as they’ll be worried”. If she refused to I’d tell the cat’s owner where he was.

some ppl (not OP) are nuts

So there have been some developments. There was a Facebook post and a enquiry on our local group about how they report someone for ‘braking in to my house’. They know it was me and I subsequently admitted it. There was some name calling and they told me I’m insane and that they’re calling the police on me to report me for breaking and entering.
I’m actually looking forward to that visit from the Old Bill. 😌 But otherwise things haven’t been pleasant today. I’ve hung around in my garden, played outside with my children and just tried to carry on as normal, whilst they’ve stayed indoors in this glorious weather. That makes me feel a bit bad to be honest.

This is the obvious thing to do, but she’s been trying (and I don’t know how successfully) to capture cats for her special loo rehabilitation for ages. If I’d said this she may well have just doubled down and taken the cat to a place I’d never be able to release it.
And there’s also the fact that I don’t know where this cat lives. I just know it’s loved, because it’s beautiful and well fed.

Oh wow that’s crazy, I think you did a brave thing but unfortunately there are consequences. Hopefully police won’t take it further after they’ve had a word with you

I was taking to my husband on the phone about this earlier and he pointed out that we have Ring Doorbell footage of her entering our home without our consent. I don’t think for a second that what she did was with malicious intent, but she knows our key ‘hiding’ place and I shared that video to him via WhatsApp almost a year ago saying ‘can you believe her?!’ I had to message my eldest daughter, who was closest to our house at the time and ask her to go home and politely tell this person to leave our house.
She sent me a WhatsApp the day BEFORE I released the cat asking if she can come round to ‘help’ me. I didn’t reply. I sound horrible now, I’m aware, but I have four children and a baby and my home is immaculate. I’ve got my shit together. Her place is a dump. They can barely open the front door for all the junk.

Urgh. I feel like I’ve conducted myself quite badly, overall. But I still strongly feel that authorities wouldn’t give a toss and meanwhile an animal was lingering, probably terrified in what amounts to a cupboard for four days and four nights.

I’m more than happy for the police to pop round because I still firmly believe I was acting in the cats best interests, and I’d be okay with all consequences of that. I just don’t like arguing with neighbours.

God….reading my posts it seems mental, but if only you lot knew. 🥺 The things we’ve experienced living alongside this family. Last month I was returning home from walking the dog and the swaying drunk mother came outside and was telling me all about how she’s been ‘fucking some girl’ she met in the pub and needs to have a word with her husband because the swinging lifestyle isn’t working out. It’s none of my business what they do behind closed doors but I was 😱at the volume of her voice discussing such sensitive matters to a practical stranger with people’s windows open.

Cats seem to bring out the worst in people sometimes
all the local FB groups with “looks lost” when cat is just out for a stroll or sunbathing happily. Like they do go for walks!

mine got spotted by one of those people who messaged the local cat woman. Cat woman messaged me and said “I’ve had a report of a scruffy cat sauntering across the zebra crossing. I take it yours is out for a walk? Because the minute she said sauntering I knew which cat it was”