Bad Owners of Good Pets - I Need to Vent
I am still pretty upset after giving a lovely cat back to bad owners/neighbours. The cat has been here off and on since September. Daily since it got cold. At night too, OH rushed outside in pajamas and slippers, in the snow and cold, to break up a screaming, howling, fur flying cat fight a couple of nights ago.
I myself rushed out to break up a fight with our own Joey two days ago. That's when Mr. Charming decided that HE would come to me too. I enticed him into our house and he was here for two whole days, inside my house. This lovely, to me anyway, if not to my cats, friendly, purring, playful, intact and not microchipped male cat. !!!
I put him on FB to try to find his owners. I had a couple of potential homes lined up. I was putting him through a local rescue I belong to. Meanwhile my own cats and he had a hate on hate for each other and I had to rotate cats from room to room to keep them separated yet still give all some time to be loose and play with me.
The woman across the road said he was hers. She said he'd been at her home last night. NO, I had him. She didn't say anything till last night but SHE is the admin who approved my posting him on our community page 48 hours earlier and she is the very first person who saw that I had found him. She said he was a barn cat so they let him out, they don't have a barn. She is the one who tortured her dog with a shock collar and after repeated strayings by him, including three she posted on the same page looking for him, STILL did not fix his fence, the collar with the battery for the fence or microchip him. He's gone, they never found him after he strayed last. I really think they contrived to lose him. He is also the dog they left outside alone and he barked for hours, all night for nights on end. 7 hours one Christmas Eve.
So I knew this was a bad, abusive, careless, neglectful home. Heck, I have more pictures of her cat than she does. But it was her cat, distinctive markings.
Next time I find an animal I will seriously consider not looking for owners, just try to find a good new home. I know that will not be fair to the good owners who do look after and love their pets but through no fault of their own lose them. I'd want my pet back. :(
ARRGGGHHHHH!