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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To sue or not to sue ?

270 replies

PussyGalour · 14/06/2009 11:50

That is the question.
Grap a cuppa this is long

I've posted on here before about this but situation has changed slightly so things have moved on.

We moved house 2 years ago and our beautiful cat whom we had bought at great expensive (£500) to bred from ran away or so we thought. As it happens after we'd literally walked/drove around the streets, put up posters for months another child at our daughters school went to another parent at the schools house and said oh look that's DD's cat.
So upon learning this we approached them and they basically said they thought he was a stray (yeah right he's clearly a pedigree) and he is chipped and had a collar on - this of course may have come off but that's why you chip them isn't it.
So they refused to hand him back and we didn't really know what to do because we didn't want a custody over a cat thinking they were taking good care of him.
One day out of the blue she called me to say the cat was ill and she'd taken him to the vets where they'd decided to neuter him, knowing damn well he's our cat I said they had better not, she said it was already done
Today he has appeared in our garden and we've caught him and caged him and I'm keeping him.
But I'm so angry about the fact we cannot bred from our own animal.
Bit of background he is the purest of pure, I spent literally 12 months looking for a cat of his quality, paid over the odds and drove 8 hours with the children in the back to collect him.
To bred from cats you have to wait until they are 12 months old, so he was literally just about ready when he went missing.
I reckon this whole excercise has cost me £5,000 in loss of income and cost of replacing and waiting for a new kitten to become old enough to bred.
So who would you sue, the woman for stealing our cat and operating on him or the vet for doing the op on a cat that was chipped and they didn't own ?

OP posts:
MollieO · 14/06/2009 22:01

I don't think everyone would know the difference between a pedigree and a moggy. I had two cats, one black and one grey. Everyone, including the vet, thought the grey was a BSH but as they were brother and sister that couldn't be. They were very sleek looking moggies and the grey was the spit of starshaker's £500 one.

How do you know the cat you have now acquired is actually your cat? Have you had the microchip checked?

curiositykilled · 14/06/2009 22:02

I think they would have a genuine claim to ownership, letting them know you had the cat at all might mean you are the one being sued. Quite apart from the fact that I personally think you're being a bit mean to the cat and the children who've enjoyed it's company for the last 2 years. All this is reminding me of the bible story about the two mothers fighting over a child

MollieO · 14/06/2009 22:03

. Chose to ignore the first rant but obviously more ranting whilst I was slowly typing my post.

PussyGalour · 14/06/2009 22:06

Perhaps I should just take him back then, maybe they'd like the shirt off my back too ... bloody hell.
You lot are amazing .... On here I have read a mother gives her kid a banana off the shelf in tesco's and you'd have her burnt at the stake ...... somebody else steals my animal from me and my children and I'm the bad guy for reclaiming my property and a fraudster tut tut, I really hope I don't know any of you in real life.

OP posts:
2rebecca · 14/06/2009 22:06

Why did she then put that piece about "when" she came to claim then? Doesn't make sense, but then none of her reactions re this cat make sense. I'm not a pet person, but folk I know who are would probably have no qualms about demanding their pet back if they found it and the catnappers were stroppy/ disfunctional.

curiositykilled · 14/06/2009 22:06

I am actually quite shocked by that! I pity her poor children and hope she doesn't treat them like her cats! She's clearly the mother who asked king solomon to tear the baby in half, what a selfish, mean-spirited scrooge...

MagNacarta · 14/06/2009 22:06

In rl you meet people who just don't seem to act in a 'normal' way - the same happens on MN.

curiositykilled · 14/06/2009 22:07

rebecca - I think you got it wrong but NOBODY deserves the reaction you got when it was just a mistake!

Loshad · 14/06/2009 22:08

world gone mad - only on mn

PussyGalour · 14/06/2009 22:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

MollieO · 14/06/2009 22:10

What did your legal helpline say about the timeframe? I think that your difficulty is not acting at the time, for whatever reason and now only acting once you found out the cat has been neutered. If it was to be your livelihood then you really needed to do something as soon as you found out where it was. At that stage a solicitor's letter would probably have been enough to recover the cat. These people didn't deliberately steal your cat and like I've already said, few non cat people would know a pedigree from a moggy.

Nahui · 14/06/2009 22:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

2rebecca · 14/06/2009 22:10

I hadn't read the post about not claiming, just the 1 on the same page that really sounded like she had claimed. If she hadn't typed that then I wouldn't have assumed she had claimed.

Nahui · 14/06/2009 22:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Nahui · 14/06/2009 22:13

This reply has been deleted

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2rebecca · 14/06/2009 22:14

No, I read most of it. You think I need to apologise? I don't think so!

sleepymommy · 14/06/2009 22:14

Wow, if I was your cat I'd be plotting my next escape plan, you seem like a total Psycho!!!!

sleepymommy · 14/06/2009 22:15

Nahui, I think 'slag' beats 'fraudster'!!!!

kormachameleon · 14/06/2009 22:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MollieO · 14/06/2009 22:17

I don't think the cat was stolen. It was found. We don't know if it was found near the OP's house so we don't know if the finders saw any posters. All we know is that the founder was a parent at the school (albeit it seems grandparent). Some time later the OP goes to the finder's house and sees what she believes to be her cat. Asks the finder who says that they found cat and aren't prepared to hand it back.

Again, some two years later, finder contacts OP to say cat unwell, at vets. OP asks that cat is not neutered and finder says already done. OP wants to sue vet/finder only at this stage. Delay apparently due to finder being on trial for manslaughter and OP feeling sorry for him. OP says she has lost £5,000 in income and expenses in the intervening time but only decided to sue once she discovered cat had been neutered.

I know where this thread belongs

PussyGalour · 14/06/2009 22:17

Yeah my kids beat up others for sport ... but you what they do not steal and they get their facts right before accusing other people of criminal offenses.

OP posts:
TheFallenMadonna · 14/06/2009 22:18

Seriously, enough with the name calling. You sound unhinged.

2rebecca, you read it wrong.

kormachameleon · 14/06/2009 22:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sassybeast · 14/06/2009 22:19

Almost scared to ask - but presumably you've had the chip read and confirmed that he is indeed your cat?

seeker · 14/06/2009 22:20

What I don't understsnd is why, when you found your cat with these other people, and they said "That's not your cat, it's our cat" you didn't say at once"OK, then we'll take him to the vet and get his micro chip read" That would have established ownership immediately and uncontrovertably. Without the involvement ot the police, CID or paid assassins.