They took my cat and they put her to sleep

[MarjorieStuartBaxter]

It's quite long so I'll try not to drip feed...my cat was 17 and starting to look old lost a bit of weight etc but still jumping fences no sign of illness at all still alert she never really goes far, and stays in all day and goes out at night if she chooses.
She had vet checkups a year ago scans blood s etc let deftly fine. Eating drinking fine though not eating like she used to teeth fine as she was eating meats etc from dinner.

Anyway Monday I open the door for the cats as usaul and her and Apollo always come in for breakfast Lola didn't turn up ok strange but assumed she was chilling somewhere.
Had to go and do some shopping came back ask kids if she'd come home no so me and my lad went out looking...the street busy body was around and I ask her if she'd seen her to which she then informs me neighbour 4 doors up thought she was sick took her to the vets and had her put to sleep! My beautiful cat was gone forever 😢
now these people that took her we had issues with a few months back over something it's long but was just words and they were in the wrong whatever. So to me it felt like this was done with malice.
I stormed round there and she said oh she was eating hedgehog food she wasn't well then tells me she paid to have her cremated! Wtaf this woman didn't attempt to knock on any door on the street and regardless everyone knows whose pets are whose mainly.
The vet scanned her chip after the event and it was still registered to the rescue from 10 years back when I got her it was meant to have been updated when I got her but they obviously hadn't and she was a cat that was 90 percent at home never went missing etc though I know this was stupid on my part.

If they'd taken her to the local vet they would have known she was mine....but strangely they took her to a random one....after all the upset etc I rang the vet the next morning sorry they said all the pets were collected for cremation I won't get her back I was devastated and fuming. She said hang on I'll see if I can do anything..2 hours later they ring me and tell me they still have her! In the freezer wtf.

So I collected my beautiful girl and at least got to bury her etc. it's been a horrendous week I could accept if she just died but to have her final moments taken away when she should have been at home with us is devastating. The vets were telling me she had a mass in her stomach but apart from losing weight she was still jumping fences going in neighbours cat flap eating drinking weeping etc normally! I never felt anything wrong when I picked her up and she'd lost weight sureky I'd have felt something? And my neighbour told me she was running home the day before......so his in a mattter of hours was she on deaths door?

Ive got the police involved just waiting on that....I just can't make sense of it everyone I know is shocked and angry about it lila was at her house eating food that's all which cats do if you leave it out 🙄 the neighbour that told me the news said oh she did ask on Facebook but no one I know saw it? I contacted admin of the page and he said there was no such post. Regardless I live 4 doors down if she was worried why not knock doors?! It makes no sense I've been numb all week over it miss her so much and it hurts she died with strangers this isn't normal or right is it?

This sounds awful, Op. I am sorry for your loss.

Was she microchipped?

Op said the cat was chipped but it was still registered to the rescue from a decade ago.

I am pretty shocked that the vet put her to sleep.
I think I would be complaining to them for a start. You said they scanned for a chip AFTER they put to sleep? So neighbour claimed it was their cat? Because if they said it was a stray the vet should have scanned for a chip FIRST.

You shoudl have a record of your cats chip number and that number should be registered at your vet, so sadly that part is on you.

And this could possibly be something like criminal damage for your neighbour to have take your cat and done this? Not sure if the police will act though.

Thanks and yes don't hold out much hope for police..,.I hadn't checked her chip as by the time I moved etc she was old and never was one to go far anyway and obviously never thought so Ethan g like this woukd happen as it's not as if she was missing she was 4 doors down....if I'd found a cat I presumed to be sick I'd knock every door on the street before being drastic, and in this row of say 20 houses only 2 of us own cats so even if she'd knocked on her own next door neighbour they'd have told her she was mine as it's my daughters friend so why didn't she?

This is awful. I would definitely contact the police. Maybe the rspca could advise too?

Surely that's criminal. Absolutely shocking.

I’m pretty sure it’s on you to register the microchip. What a shame, highly doubt the police will get involved though.

When I got her from the rescue I didn't have chip details they said everything woukd be swapped over and I've never needed to even check before I know and I feel shit about it but even so it woukd have been too late she woukd have been scared and it was a long trip to the vet they took her so woukd have made her worse

I’m very sorry this happened. Ask the police to request a copy of the clinical notes from the vet (they might not release them to you directly due to GDPR) as it’s relevant if the neighbour said the cat was hers or claimed it was a stray, and if there was anything that should have triggered the vet to scan the cat. A vet can put down an ‘owner unknown’ animal on welfare grounds but usually only if the animal is in immediate distress (so for example a badly injured RTA or in respiratory distress, not just old and skinny) and in that case we’d always try to get 2 vets to agree and document that in the notes to cover our backs. If the neighbour registered the cat as hers and the microchip only said it was rescued years ago then the issue is with the neighbour.

Oh god, I would be distraught. But I'm also surprised the vet just put her to sleep. My friend was cat sitting my cat and she needed to go to the vet. She took her to the nearest vet to her (my friend's) and the hoops we had to go through to give consent that this new vet could treat my cat!

I don't think the vet was in the wrong

If a stray is brought in and is unwell and it depends what story they were told. It would be better for the animal to be put down.

It's all on your neighbour,and obviously this would have all been avoided if you'd updated the microchip.

But if your cat hadn't been microchipped and the vet was told it was a stray?

So sorry op, but just to play devil's advocate, 17 is a grand age and there may have been the possibility of the cat becoming suddenly ill, internal tumours can suddenly rupture and as your cat had a mass this may have happened. We recently had a cat with a mass on her abdomen and the vet was certain that euthanasia immediately was the kindest option.
The vet wouldn't have pts lightly, especially if the owners weren't present.
I am sorry for your loss, but your neighbour may not have been acting maliciously.

I doubt my neighbours would still be alive if they did this to my cat. I think I'd lose my mind. I can't imagine what you are going through. I'm so sorry.

I am so sorry - I would have been distraught about this if it happened to my cat.

I suppose the question is "did they know the cat is yours?" if no then perhaps they took the cat out of concern, however, even if they didn't know and found a cat in their garden who was clearly old and looked thin and they took him what they should have done is asked locally to see where he/she lived.

If they knew the cat was yours then they are totally not just wrong but morally, ethically and everything else wrong.

Having said all this, and knowing how distressing loosing a cat what ever age I think it might be better to focus upon the fact the cat had lived to a very good age and perhaps she/he might not survived for a huge amount of time and therefore maybe it stopped suffering.

Your neighbour had no right to do that OP, and I'm very sorry. I lost my 17 year old boy last weekend, he went downhill really fast. He was fine on Thursday at tea time, and dying by Saturday morning. I've had two cats with a mass in their stomach, and both were younger than your cat. In both instances the vet recommended they be put to sleep - they could have had treatment, but the outcome would have been the same, and they wouldn't have had a great quality of life. So, maybe it was for the best, but I can understand how you feel.

I’m very sorry for your loss. FWiW I would speak to your own vet because our vets check the chip every single yearly vaccination visit, especially when they do more complex checks.
I have had a similar type of problem in that I had a cat with lip cancer. It was a large visible tumour hanging off her mouth but didn’t bother her too much. She was on meds and we were giving her a last summer whilst she was happy. A neighbour took her to the village vets because they were concerned. The vet knew her(and she was chipped), phoned me, I picked her up - spoke to the neighbour, they were genuinely concerned for the cat. All ok. Then it happened again,different neighbour. Same result. I put leaflets round the local neighbours to tell them the situation. The neighbours apologised and said the way she looked upset them. Understandable really.
To me, I’m sorry it is your responsibility to check your cat is registered to you, and I don’t know why your vet hadn’t checked that. The receiving vet didn’t know who owned your cat and deemed pts the best option. I can’t comment on that. Cremation isn’t cheap. Your neighbour was perhaps quite upset by this.

Thanks for all the replies...my issue is the neighbour made no attempt to knock doors or ask around the fact that we had an issue a few months ago with them also makes me think it was done maliciously...even if they didn't want to knock my door the majority of doors they would have knocked woukd have known she was mine, plus we have a local vet thief could have rang them or taken her there they woukd have known she was mine...instead they put an allegedly sick cat into a car and took her miles away.
It's just wrong Lola would have come home for breakfast if she hadn't put food out (she has firm for feeding others cats) she should have let her come home to die with her family I just can't make sense if it Lola had been there Sunday apparently then she came home all day and went there Monday morning so she knew she had a home I suspect she knew she was mine.

It's so shit honestly I knew she was old and we may lose her but she's been taken away from me and in regards to the microchip apparently there wasn't even time to check etc and even if it was updated I was in another town and wouldn't have got to this random vets in time if she'd left her alone or alerted me that she was sick my vets is 5 min walk away none of it makes sense. If I hadn't by chance seen the local gossip at the back of my garden I still would never know what happened.

And why did the vet tell me Lola had gone butvring back and say oh no she's still here in the freezer I just don't understand I'm thinking did they even scan for a tumour? They couldn't even tell me times or anything as it was all paid for on this bloody woman's account wtf.

Cremation isn’t cheap. Your neighbour was perhaps quite upset by this.

I agree with this. Cremation most certainly isn't cheap, and no-one would pay for it to be done just to get back at someone. Even the process of having a cat pts isn't cheap. I really can't imagine anyone having a cat pts out of malice. Your neighbour certainly should have checked to see who the cat belonged to, but it is possible that Lola had become ill quite quickly, which happened to my boy, and she didn't want her to suffer. However, of course there is no way of knowing.

I don't see what is so strange about the vet ringing back - originally he would have thought she had been taken for cremation, then discovered she was still on the premises.

Several years ago a neighbour was about to call the SPCA about my cat, as he was thin and walked with a bad limp. He had diabetes, and nerve damage in his legs, but was otherwise fine. She didn't realise he was mine as he had lost quite a bit of weight, and she was distressed because she thought he was suffering - maybe your neighbour felt the same.

It does sound malicious.
She didn't knock on doors to find the owner.
She took the cat to a vet miles away. This suggests to me that she didn't want to risk going to a vet that knew the cat.
If the woman told the vet it was a stray, surely they would have scanned first, not put her to sleep and then scanned?
Sounds to me like she deliberately went to a non-local vet and told them the cat was hers. Maybe she thought the revenge was worth the money.
Yes of course you should have had the chip details changed, but I'd never have expected a vet to euthanise first and scan afterwards if they thought it was a stray.

I just wanted to say how very sorry I am for your loss. I can't imagine the pain you're going through. Our fur babies are like our children. I'm sure you gave her a wonderful life. Thinking of you 💔

I’m so sorry OP, this is appalling.

I can’t put into words what I would do to your neighbour in your position.

I hope you can take some kind of action against them, keep all the evidence you can.

Coming in to say sorry for your loss.

FWIW, our beloved cat was knocked down by a car on our street whenmwe were away at a funeral a year or two back; whoever hit her took her to the closest vet - not the one we use - who immediately scanned her, while they tried to save her. She did have to be PTS as it happened, but they scanned her first, to see if we wanted / were able to get to her (we were 5 hours away so couldn't).

When we picked her up on our return home, they told us they routinely scan before pts just in case. So in this case, they would have seen the rehoming centre and then been fed some excuse by whoever took your cat in - as even the rehoming centre would have been able to give an owner's name, ffs.

So, so sorry that you're going through this.

To be fair to the vet when my cat had cancer, he was still eating, drinking, going out and jumping fences. The only symptom was weight loss. The vet could feel two tumours that we hadn't seen/noticed. The day after the vet, he then went really downhill v quickly, and became lethargic and suddenly developed lots of tiny tumours that we could feel. He was PTS the following day. The day he was PTS we went out in the garden with him and he tried to climb the fence! Cats are very stoical and the vets involved told me (something I hadn't realised) that cats can be taken very quickly by cancer - a matter of weeks. He had been losing weight for only about 2-3 weeks before he was PTS.

That does not in any way excuse what your neighbour did which was completely out of order. I would be fuming and devastated. There seems to be a new trend of finding cats wandering about or begging for or eating food (ie their normal behaviour) and randoms deciding they are strays/underfed/unwell and catching/adopting/taking them to the vets. It's ridiculous. People should leave other people's cats alone.

Thanks...and yes i don't get people who do that with cats feed them etc assuming they aren't looked after what gets me as well is we had a genuine stray turn up a while back (she fed that too) he litrally camped out on my front never went home so my next door neighbour posted on Facebook left a few days then took him to our vet and they scanned him and he had come from like 8 miles away!.......now she was feeding this cat never posted him on Facebook and it was my neighbour who borrowed my cat basket and took him vets.
If she was so concerned about cats why didn't she take that one?

People saying it wasn't malicious I really think it was as there is no way she didn't know Lola belonged to someone on the street even if she didn't know it was me. Her next door neighbour knew as she's my daughters friend so she hadn't even asked them! Lola had apparently been eating off her front Sunday and that's when this non existent Facebook post was meant to have been put on here did she think the cat was for 24 hours after that if she didn't have a home?! Vet also said Lola was dehydrated which I'm struggling to belive as she drank a lot! She finished the dogs bowl and woukd dtink from the sink etc nothing adds up at all.
And yes there was no reason she couldn't have taken her to our vets. The cremation thing as well of course that's weird why make a decision like that for a cat that isn't yours