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?

I cant believe you are sending your husband round and another poster then thought it was a good idea as it shows the man the gravity of the situation

Of course you should pay for it. It's your cat apparently and you should have arranged the operation yourself. I canot believe you are moaning be because someone else did what you should have done. Your first post says your cat was well looked after. Really? You didnt microchip it nor have a male cat neutured. There is more to decent pet ownership than running a comb over it and giving it food

This is all going to wind up in The Daily Mail or The Sun.

Spot on, hercules

So what you do when a cat has adoted you but you don't know if it has a family is to pop a collar on him and place a note nder it.... we've done this and it guarantees owner appears (and non neutered aggressive flea ridden creature leaves your home alone!)

Somevets ovrcharge for everything, they just do. My siss works at one; she takes family pets in personally so the vets don't try it on. We're not solocal though and we had to pay £350 last year for the vvet to cock up an op and kill our 1 year old cat .

Some acts are tarts; our current cat (I say current he's 12) is one of these, wanders between three houses but he is still very definite where home is,he just knows a good thing when he see's one. I did have to when I realised one family had renamed him but they all know who he is as he is famous for knowcking on our door and being a prissy thing(has ear marked a locl drain as a loo, won't dig ). Other cats we have had haven't wandered as we take badly abused ones and it'srare they live solong ortake so well to non-us humans. Last cat we had to do SCBU style kangaroo care on after the horrors humanity had done to him.

I don't think he's a crminal but he is a prat and made the decision to take him to th vets so must pay himself. But yes OP it should have been done, as you know.

Yes,
agree with bellebelle.

i think initially the man should have knocked on a few doors to see if anyone owned the cat he thought he'd adopted.

The OP was irresponsible in not giving her cat nay sort of ID nor having him castrated before he went out- for the reasons I said before hand, for his own benefit, and for the benefit of other cats and owners in the area.

I think it is frankly ludicrus to suggest there is some sort of scam going on...the owner will ahve signed a consent form at the vet and decale=red themselves the owner of the cat. what is the vet supposed to do? If he said it was a stray that came to him, then there is no legal obligation to scan the cat, but would expcet most vets would scan. But here there was no chip anyway so suggesting that the prev o wasn't so interested in having the cat back. And the fact that the cat was uncastrated- another reason suggesting to the vet that the prev o wasn't so interested in the cat
(i know with the op this isn't the case- but stuff jus stacks up sometimes)

I would expect that if the man had insured the cat then the retained testicle wasn't covered by the insurance- as it was a pre-existing condition when they guy took the insurance out... so he probably did cop for the bill.

I suppose the only thing i'm not sure about is the fact that the vets gave out the address of a guy who they accepted was the owner of the cat when the OP called and asked- I'm not sure if this is what hapened.
In my place, we would have contacted the "owner" of the cat and told him of the concern of the person on the phone ...
to the vet the man wa the owenr- he;d signed the forms etc...

So-botht eh man and the OP have lacked judgement/made a mistake...

It sounds like this man has lost out. He's paid a huge amount for an operation on a cat that isn't even his own, even though he though it was.

Some cats do stray. Of course they like to be fed and stroked by other people. However I wouldn't actively encourage another animal in my home. Why should I enjoy the affection of an animal that I'm not paying for? Vets bills cost a small fortune. It's unfair to the owner. It's pretty obvious if a cat is being well looked after. They're clean, well groomed and are far from thin. More often than not they wear a collar! If they're not, then fair play.

Perhaps calling him a 'criminal' is taking it too far. However I would not hesitate to take legal action against somebody who took it upon themselves to decide to take my animal to the vets for an operation. What gives him the right to do so?

Children also roam about. They sometimes have dirty hair covering their eyes and unwashed hands. They also like to stray into other neighbours' gardens, if they're offered snacks by neighbours they'll continue eating them until they're sick. If one climbed into my garden, I wouldn't however take it upon myself to take the child to the hairdressers nor even try to wash their hands. And these are superfical actions that don't involve anaesthesia, risk of lost life etc. However taking the child to the hairdressers could be argued to be in their benefit of seeing better and preventing them from tripping over. I would never presume to do so and a child has the ability to shout back - an animal doesn't!Would it be alright for me to take somebody else's child to the hospital and ask for the surgeon to have their tonsils removed if they complained to me that their tonsils hurt or I believed that they did? Regardless of whether the tonsils needed to be removed, it would not be my right to make that decision.

You'll perhaps think that I'm a nutter (I probably am far too soft where animals are concerned) but I absolutely don't think a stranger is at liberty to take somebody else's much loved pet to have an operation and nor should the owner feel obliged to pay this in any way. What if the animal had died on the operating table?

The man who took the animal to be neutered is probably on the cadge.

Kitty - it seems that the neighbour thought that this cat was his cat.

It seems that the neighbour has lost out - he's lost 280 pounds, and he's lost a cat he thought was his.

And powpow has gained because she has not had to pay for an operation that the cat needed. She should be grateful.

Totally agree with Quattro.

By Quattrocento on Wed 25-Mar-09 22:52:23
I think you should pay to be honest. Going against the grain here, I know. Actually, I think it's bang out of order not to pay.

"1. You say you were going to neuter the cat anyway

1. The man did not know it was your cat because it was neither chipped nor collared
2. He behaves responsibly and gets it neutered

I think you should pay and buy him some flowers for being considerate. "

She makes some very good points.

Either pay or let him keep your cat. You cant prove the cat is yours, you havent chipped it, it had no collar. So YABU not to pay.

Well the neighbour must have money to burn. I'm assuming that the cat didn't look bedraggled. I'm also assuming the cat wasn't thin. Key clues. I admit it would have been better if the cat had been wearing a collar. However as Peachy and another poster said, it would be better to have put a sign up, put a note on the collar of the cat, post notes through neighbours postboxes and only if there's no response should it be taken to the vets to see if it has a chip.

I just wouldn't 'adopt' a cat that wandered into my house. It's bound to belong to somebody. It's unfair.

I wish the OP had just put a collar on the cat.

You sent your hubby round?? What for?? I know the guy should have checked with you first and shouldnt have taken it upon himself, but he did, he paid - count yourself lucky. Also - you say in your original post that you would have taken the cat somewhere where they neuter for free. Why? Are you on disability benefits? Because unless you can afford an animal and all the financial responsibility that comes with it - please don't have one! I get really cross with peoples senses of "entitlement". The free clinics are for people who genuinely can't afford these operations. IE pensioners and people on disability benefits. Did you think about how much this cat was going to cost you when you got it??

• Annual vaccinations £60-£90 in the first year (£40-60 thereafter). Castration: about £150, unless of course there are complications.Worming at £5 a month, flea control. Its not that much, really, but if you cannot afford it or are not willing to pay - perhaps you should have sent your hubby round to the old guy saying "you know what, you seem to care for my cat - why don't you keep him, he will probably be better off" You don't say how old your cat is either WHY were you waiting to neuter him?

Sending your hubby round

Whether the neighbout had money to burn or not isn't the issue. He was behaving responsibly, and some people consider the health of their pets a priory, and do not consider paying for an operation that is medically needed as 'having moeny to burn'.

The neighbour could very well argue that the cat is his cat, and the chances are the vet could agree with him.

well, I am not grateful.
My cat now refuses to leave our house. We have even tried to ply him outside with food.
He is a mess. And I don't know what has happened to him. This man claims he was feeding him for a few months, but my cats behavior doesn't fit with that.
Something is very wrong with my cat now. And this man will not answer his door or return our calls.
What am I supposed to think of that? Am I still supposed to be grateful to this man for taking my cat (seems to me against his will) for an elective surgery that has left him frightened and confused?
I would have taken MY cat to MY vet when he was READY, and the cost would have been free or greatly reduced because of where we go.

And hold on, I didn't SEND my hubby around. My husband loves this cat too. He wanted to talk to this man about what had happened. Does he not have that right?
WTF?

and I will state one more time for those who don't read the threads, my cat DID have a collar on when this man started feeding him. He kept coming home without it! Over and over again. Finally we stopped putting it on him.

If your cat is now a mess, then take him to the vet.

The OP has said that the cat was well looked after. It was obvious that it was owned by somebody else. Why didn't this man at least try and find out who owned the cat? The OP says that he didn't. Why the OP was 'waiting' to have the cat neutered I don't know and personally I would have had it done immediately. I agree that having an animal is a financial commitment and not one to taken lightly. However I still don't think it's ok for somebody else to have the cat neutered without the owner's permission regardless.

powpow, please take your cat to the vet and have it examined. Sorry I thought you said that the cat didn't have a collar but you say it did and the man in question repeatedly removed it? How benevolent of him. How caring.

You still don't say how old your cat is - he was obviously "ready" because the vet did the op!

So, now thre is "something wrong" with your cat - um, might i suggest you TAKE IT TO A VET. Preferably the one who originally did the surgery.

Castration, even removal of an undescended testicle is a routine operation and you should be struggling to keep the cat in, not the opposite - if this is indeed true. Honestly, if he is still "unwell" then he needs to be seen.

Why are you entitled to free treatment?

OP what do you mean by saying your cat is a mess? Very normal for a cat to be a bit out of sorts for a few days after an op but is it something physical like an infection of the wound then you should def get him checked out.

If you genuinely do have a vets who would have charged a lot less then you are right not to pay such a big bill.

I find it a bit when an op is drip feeding selective, and sometimes conflicting information. It is hard to see exactly what happened, when the story seem to be changing.

I think she feels guilty that she didnt undertake her responsibility in the first place. The poor guy is probably a lonely old man and thought he was doing you a favour!! I despair of some people i really do.

Something similar ended up on the front page of our local paper a few years ago.

Someones cat kept coming home with notes tucked in it's collar saying he needed neutering. Then one day it came home neutered.

The owner was furious, and said, and I quote;

"He had a right proud set on him."

I definately wouldn't pay the neighbour anything. Do get a collar though, they do make some streachy elastic ones that a cat can wriggle out of if the get caught, and they keep away fleas.

I think you should in the very LEAST offer to pay what you can afford towards this bill. I bet that poor old guy is so upset. I actually posted contrary to this yesterday but the more i think about it the more i think you are in the wrong and should PAY UP! HAD you been responsible and taken the cat to your vet in the first place, you would have had the op done at your convenience.

LEM & Quint - I'm totally with you there. Not adding up IMO.