Lost Cat Found 1,000 Miles From Home Sparks Standoff Between Finder And Owner
It started with dinner at a friend’s place and a friendly cat lingering outside an apartment building. The kind of cat that doesn’t dart away, doesn’t flinch at touch, and seems oddly comfortable following strangers around.
After a couple of hours and no sign of the owner, OP decided to make a decision on the fur ball.
OP took it straight to urgent care to check for a microchip. That’s where things got a bit interesting.
The chip traced back to an owner living in Virginia, while the cat was found in Arkansas, more than a thousand miles away. At this point, OP became confused.
However, the owner was contacted, and OP left their details as required in this type of situation.
The next morning, the owner reached out to OP, claiming that the cat had been stolen two months earlier. In addition, she mentioned this was the third pet she’d lost the same way.
OP was eager to return the cat, but their condition was that the owner was to fly to meet them in their city, then pick up their pet at the airport.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t comfortable with this arrangement, as she revealed that this trip was beyond what she could afford at the moment.
Trying to be reasonable, OP offered temporary care, after which they would hand over the cat to a shelter if she was still not able to travel down to Arkansas.
The response that followed felt dismissive of OP’s efforts. She also made it known that she would involve the police if they couldn’t come to an agreement.
Now the question is: what actually counts as “doing the right thing” when a living creature is caught between two strangers.
Go through the screenshots below to see how the situation unfolded in the owner’s own words.
Let’s dig into the details
A bit of background
The owner of the cat reach out to OP to get their cat back. Apparently, her cat was stolen in Virginia
OP asked her to fly over to their city to get her cat back, but she insisted that she doesn’t have any money for that
OP told her that they were going to hand the cat over to a shelter if she didn’t come to claim it
At this point, she threatened to involve the police
We gathered some interesting comments from the Reddit community
“If one single thing about this post is actually true, please do take that poor kitten to a shelter.”
“Reach out to a.shelter and explain the situation to them and ask for their advice.”
“YTA if you take him to a shelter. Shelters are like pet jails and are overcrowded.”
“I know a lot of people are gonna disagree but YTA for planning to put the cat in a shelter.”
“It’s kinda insane that you just decided to take a friendly cat that you saw outside after only 2 hours ‘to see if you liked having a cat’…”
The Reddit community agrees that OP was right to ask the owner to fly down for the cat. But they’re not happy that OP decided to just take a stray cat home to see “what having a cat would feel like.”
Some have even gone as far as accusing OP of “stealing” the cat. While others have asked them not to take it to a shelter, which some described as a “pet jail.”
In all, we do hope the owner gets reunited with their pet. In addition, we’re sure OP will learn from this experience and how to handle things better if they find their-self in this situation again.
What do you think should have happened here? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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