not to offer to pay the man who took my cat to be neutered without discussing it with me

[powpow]

basically my cat came home last night neutered.
We had no idea what had happened or who had taken him.
I called 11 vets in the area until I found the one where it was done.
A neighbor has been feeding our cat and took him to be done. My cat broke through this guys catflap to come home to us where he feels safe. He wasn't missing. We saw him Monday night and he came home tuesday night.

Most of the cats running around the neighborhood have no collar but I would never take them to the vet unless they were hurt!
he said my cat has been coming around for a few months. He never once tried to find out who he belonged to.
We had taken off his collar because it kept getting tighter and tighter on his neck and getting caught on the fences.
But he was very obviously well taken care of, groomed and happy.
We were waiting a few more months to neuter him and would have taken him to the clinic that does it for free.
This guy paid £280.
I don't think I should have to pay for this.
AIBU?

The neighbour only found out who owned the cat once the vet called him to let him know.

Also OP your cat would have had the 'shit scared out of him' when you eventually got around to taking him anyway, it's not as if this man actually harmed your cat. I reckon getting your balls cut off is going to be traumatic for a cat no matter who arranges it.

Re the cat bursting through the neighbour's catflap to get home, this may have been due to the after-effects of the anasthetic. Years ago, it would leave a cat groggy and sleepy - I recall a tom of mine taking over the dog's basket after I'd had him done - but when I had both my current cats neutered a couple of years ago they spent the evening dashing round the livingroom like wee dervishes.

Bear in mind that this man hasn't, legally, got a leg to stand on WRT asking for the money. So tell him you're not going to pay him. It isn't his cat and wasn't his decision to make.

Especially if you were planning to take it to the free clinic! Not that he knew that, but it's not like it's something you were planning to pay for.

SGB, Yes, Legally he isn't entitled to ask for the money but morally he is.

The only thing he did 'wrong' was to assume an entire, unchipped cat with no collar who ate daily at his house was a stray. Hardly a massive mistake to make, as it is reasonable to assume that pet owners would alter and ID a beloved pet.

Also as the OP would of had the same bill when she took the cat to the vets to be neutered, so why is it a problem to pay the neighbour the money back ?

I agree - SGB - that there is no legal obligation. Clearly the OP feels there is no moral obligation either ...

OK, I've missed something here.

How did the neighbour not know that the cat was the OP's when he took it to the vet to be neutered, but now he does know & is round brandishing the bill?

I currently feed a stray cat - the previous tenants of the house 3 doors down appear to have moved & abandoned him. Before I took him to be neutered though, I'd go & knock on a few doors locally & make quite sure he was abandoned.

The man didn't know - the OP claims to have telephoned around all the vets to identify whodunnit

Still doesn't explain why he didn't knock on a few doors & say 'I've been feeding an uneutered tom, it's , anyone know if it's a stray, because I'm thinking of having it snipped & giving it a home?'

V odd behaviour.

I suppose if it's genuinely the going rate for the job I'd probably pay up. Would definitely write weirdy neighbour a letter asking him to stop poaching my cat, though...

ravenAK, If you think you have a stray on your hands try the following things :-

: Get him scanned at the local vets for a chip
: Cut a narrow strip of the long side of A4 piece of paper. Write "Am I a stray? Please contact ? on ? if you own this cat." Lightly tape this strip in a loose loop around the cats neck.
(The reason behind using paper is that if the cat is a true stray and no one removes the collar, it will drop off if it gets wet.
If no one rings you this doesn't prove anything, as the collar could have been lost before the cat went home)
: Catch the new cat and house in your spare room for a few days whilst advertising that you have him with a found cat posters/asking neighbours/register him at local cat shelters/

In the mean time don't feed him, if owned he might be on a medical or restrictive diet.

If he is a true stray he needs to be rehomed properly via a cat shelter, so he has a full time owner for when he gets old/ill/sick someone will be looking after him.

If he is not neutered he is at higher risk of illness or death on the streets, so please do something quickly. Your local shelter will hold him for a few days to allow original owners to re-claim him, so if you are unsure still pass the cat to the professionals.

HTH

Er, lock it in a spare room for a few days, and not feed it? I don't think you really meant that, did you?

babieseverywhere - that is a good point about not feeding BUT, the wrong food is better than NO food. OK so a cat that is healthy wont starve for a few days without food. But a diabetic cat could die, saying that, i would have thought most diabetic cats would have a collar on stating as much. Again, assuming the collar hasn't gone missing.

I don't get the whole cat feeding thing - if it aint your cat, don't feed it. If you then feel the need to take it for veterinary attention then be prepared to pay for it. But from what the OP says, he hasn't actually asked for any money - is that right? A male cat should be neutered at 6-9 months, for many reasons. Not least to prevent fathering of unwanted litters. Will also prevent behavioural issues - an entire male cat can become aggresive.

The vet should have checked ownership of cat before op, I agree to get cat microchipped if not already.

As for your neighbour, how dare he have an op done on someone elses pet without owners permission, what if cat has history of problems with anaesthesia etc that vet would not then be informed of?

Personally if anyone did that to my cats(who are already neutered btw, but I mean if they werent) then i would take a pair of rusty garden shears and neuter the bastarding person myself, sans anaesthesia!

I agree wholeheartedly with Spacecadet

'HOWEVER, I think anyone that has an unneutered cat, male or female, which is allowed out of the house, is completely irresponsible. This is why there are so many unwanted cats/kittens sitting in RSPCA and other rescues waiting for someone to give a damn about them. Fine, if you can't get them neutered for health reasons or whatever, then keep them in the house so they're not breeding all over the shop. This goes for a fair few on this thread - being a pedigree doesn't make it OK for your unneutered cat to be impregnating other cats left right and centre (in fact I find it odd to allow a pedigree tom to wander, as they are hugely likely to get into fights/get themselves killed on the roads).'

We still don't know how old the cat is do we?

There is no way I would pay anything to this man. He never should have taken your cat to the vets.

If your cat is undergoing ga, do you not sign a form of consent? (I am not in the UK). If you take a cat to the vet do you not have to give 'owner's details as next of kin'. If you undertake the responsibility of a cat alteration, I'd have thought you'd be the one to pay the bill. BUT I agree that he should have been sorted out by his real owner at the age appropriate time.

I don't get how people think the vet should check ownership of a cat before doing the op. Surely if vet says "is this your cat?" and the man says "yes," that is the vet checking ownership of the cat? To suggest the vet should be doing more than that is frankly ridiculous.

wannabe, Legally all a vet should do is scan a new client's pet to check for chips. No chip or collar than the cat is offically a stray anyway.

OldLadyKnowsNothing, Doh. If she was to keep him in her spare room of course she should feed him but if he remains outside and possibly owned she shouldn't. Sorry if it reads badly but I didn't think anyone would keep a cat and NOT feed them

If the vet said, "is this your cat?" and the man said "yes", then he lied. And he can whistle for the £280. Either he thought it was a stray, and so decided to spend the money himself, or he didn't in which case he had no business doing it in the first place.

Are you sure he's not taken out some kind of insurance that you can claim more than one animal on?

Perhaps the 'treatment' cost £280 but perhaps he didn't have to pay that amount.

He sounds like Dr Death of the Catworld.

As DMS said, tell kitty to get an injunction

Yes that's a thought knockedgymnast, he's on the scam in some way.

I think it's a horrendous liberty to take someone else's cat to the vet to be neutered. Just awful.

I would say though that male cats need to be neutered. My family have had many long lived cats since I was a child and it's essential to get a male cat neutered to avoid the stink of them spraying. They really do need a chip and/or collar with a bell on it. They'll still catch birds with it but if you do so it sends out a message to the society you're cohabiting with that you're being a responsible neighbour. Disgruntled old codgers will look for any excuse "That damn cat is spraying/digging up my soil/killing the lovely birds"

If you put the belled collar on the cat, chip him and give him a clean litter tray and fresh food and water daily, you'll have a better conscience and feel entirely entitled to be justfiably angry if somebody does this to your cat.

By the way, if you do the above, the cat will not be a 'tart' as one of the posters suggested. One of our cats was so loyal that she used to patiently wait for my father at the end of the street when he returned from work. The other cats would follow my parents if they walked to the nearby woodland. Sweet and not in the least bit tarty.

I wouldn't do the catflap thing, we used to live near a busy road and one lovely cat was runover. Since then, they're kept in after dusk. They don't mind at all if they have a fresh litter tray every day.

I'm very glad that you've sent a letter to this man. The very fact that he took the cat to the vet without your permisson says a lot about his emotional state of mind.

Beware - this type of person might play dirty. I think that you should get a solicitor to send him a letter and the vets should also get a letter too for not checking the ownership. What name did he use for your cat? Have you asked to see a copy of the bill? I would visit the vets in person with your husband.

As for it being wrong for the OP's husband to pay the criminal (for that's what he is) a visit, I disagree. I think that your husband's presence in the matter will ensure that he realises the gravity of the situation.

If you want to play equally dirty, you could claim that since this has been done, the cat hasn't been the same and has become very withdrawn and for days afterwards he was walking with a limp. In fact, I think that you should visit your own vet and take him for a check up and explain what has happened.

Somebody this devoid of emotion is capable of harming your cat again. I urge you to have him chipped and collared. I'm so sorry that you had to suffer this violation but next time get a male cat neutered.

Sorry for the long post but this has really angered me.

I think this is nuts. Cat are notorious for adopting new families. We had a cat like this. First it hung out in our garden. Then we kept finding him in the house (it was the summer and he came in through the window). After a few months we started to feed him as it seemed pretty clear that he thought he lived with us, and if there was anything left in the bowls of our other cats it wolfed it down. Then we took him to the vet, had him checked over, got his vaccs etc. We told the vet what had happened, and he suggested that perhaps his owners had moved away, and that it was very very common for cats to adopt families and not the other way around. He was a long haired cat and very tangly, but when we first met him he did have a collar on. We have no idea what his history was, but as he could always have gone "home" did not feel bad after several months of him visiting, taking him in. As far as we could tell he was a stray that found a home.

One of our old cats conversely was a six-dinner Sid, and had several homes on the go. I don't blame our neighbours, because he was just always hungry and very soppy too. If they had thought he was unwell and treated him I would have thanked them for caring for him!

One of our neighbours at the new house got adopted by a neighbours cat, and they were most concerned that she was a stray, and that she always seemed so hungry if they gave her anything. I did point out that she was a)fat, and b)a very clean white cat. A couple of days later she was sporting obvious stitches and was traced to a neighbour four or five houses away. My point being that if you don't know much about cats it is quite easy not to understand that they are often on the cadge for an extra home or two, and to get very worried and concerned that they are not cared for and feel that you should take responsibility.

So if he wasn't microchipped or wearing a collar, how did the the vets the OP rang know what cat she was talking about?

This man is a criminal??!!! He has harmed the cat??!!! I'm sorry, did I miss the bit where the OP stated that this man had actually carried out the operation himself on the kitchen table with a pair of rusty scissors?

It's all very well saying that your cat is very 'sweet' and not a 'tart' but all cats are different, no matter how well loved and cared for some cats will wander while some are definite homebodies and rarely go past the bottom of the garden. It's not a reflection if how well they are looked after.

He took the cat to the vets for a straightforward operation to have him neutered as the cat is obviously old enough to get it done and as so many posters and OP agree should have had done before now (maybe the cat was spraying in his house). When at the vets it was discovered that the cat had an undescended testicle which can potentially cause cancer and therefore required a more complex and more expensive operation.

The issue here is whether the OP should pay the man and I think that can be cut all manner of ways - the OP would have had to pay for the operation themselves eventually so maybe should pay, but then on the other hand they didn't ask this man to arrange it and they may have gone to a cheaper vets or had insurance to cover
some of the cost.

But calling the man a criminal!!!! Come on!

Keeping a cat unneutered or spayed is so irresponsible people shouldn't be allowed to own pets who aren't fixed.