I accidently stole a cat. The cat started to visit me at the start of first lockdown and I think he may of been about 6months old. He was full of fleas, had worms (I could see them in his poo) and kept stealing food off my kitchen side. We have a lot of strays in the area. I put a paper coller on him and no one rang. I flead, wormed and started feeding him. He was a scrapper, got injured so I took him to the vet. No chip, so vet chipped him to me and I paid about £300 in vets bills. I thought nothing of it and accepted that I now have a cat (I couldn't leave it out injured and PDSA wouldn't see him during the pandemic as not life threatening). I'm not a cat person and am actually allergic to them. Anyway, turns out the cat did have a home (found out through friends a couple of months later and owner had proof) so I hand delivered him back to his actual owner along with chip details and change over ownership forms. The owner did not offer to reimburse me vets fees but I didn't really mind as he needed treatment. Cat still visited multiple times a day, slept in the shed overnight but I did not feed him (to encourage him to not visit).
Fast forward a couple of months, I have a call from a vets who say they have my injured cat.....erm I don't have a cat anymore but it turns out I do as the actual owner didn't change the details over (I should have checked tbf) so I contacted owner to explain about the cat in the vet. They reluctantly agreed that I could keep the cat as he seems to prefer it here but owner was really upset. I had him treated, vaccinated and neutered and now he never leaves the house, he's like my shadow. But I feel so so bad that I have essentially stolen someone's cat (twice) and I'm finding it hard to bond with him because of the guilt (silly I know as its been nearly a year since he officially came).