WEIRD NEIGHBORS and a cat caught in the middle. NEED ADVICE PLEASE?

[Melissa]

. so here the story goes. sorry of its a bit long but hey its a goodie so stick with me here

about a year ago we moved into the house we are currently occupying not long into settling in we started to see a tabby cat come round to our backyard and of course who wouldn't resist to pat it ... and thats where the story begins.

so we didn't feed the cat but it started to come over every night a few months went down the track and we started seeing the cat bring dead mice to the house and eat them =/ so i felt bad and decided to give the cat some decent food every now and then. its started to sleep in our yard and rarely leave. i wondered if it could be a stray as their where a few houses up for sale and sold in recent time and they could have left the cat behind.

no one confronted me about the cat and i always kept an eye out to see where the cat would wonder off to around the neighborhood. their where a couple other cats in the area. but this cat didn't seem to be welcome in any of the houses. i noticed the cat did not like children and defiantly not other cats and dogs. which narrowed it down to a couple of houses. and they didn't seem to take notice of the cat.

so i secretly adopted the cat aka kitty. secretly because we aren't meant to have a cat because we are in a rented house so as time went on the cat started to grow on me and became apart of the family, when it became sick (anal gland erupted) i took it to the vet without a hassle and medicated the cat till it was better. <<< take note for when i discuss the weird neighbors.


SO. THE NEIGHBORS

they are reallyyyy creepy. their very next door. and every time when me and my bf or just me would go outside we wouldn't hear anyone then suddenly you would look over to their house and bam their the weird neighbors where outside having a smoke. and they stare at us, not like a normal glance but STARE.

and we never speak to them nor do i want to. and their 2 kids are just as creepy i swear it runs in the family. anyway.

so i bring up the neighbors because i believe THEY where the cats original owners. and i feel used by them because i took this cat in out of kindness and did everything for it medical, feeding, playing with it, letting it inside when it rained and was cold.

NOW, the cat seems to disappear as soon as it leaves the yard, i would turn my back then look back and shes gone so i walked out to the front. and i see the neighbor quickly grabbing the cat and putting her in their house, ( they didn't see me) i am so angry. they dont feed the cat nor look after it and just left it outside to fend for it self. then they notice hey this girl is paying and doing all the dirty work for us, NOW , NOWWW they steal the cat. and i only see it when they let it out to come over my house to be fed and i don't want to lock the cat up in my house just so this wont happen.

i tried to stop feeding the cat for a week to see if they would start looking after it. but i noticed the cat went straight back to eating mice and lost some weight, and i went back to feeding it the cat shouldnt have to suffer.


WHAT DO I DO???

i don't want to talk to them about it either. because they can easily turn round and say its not yours and i live in a rented place that dont allow pets and i really dont want to take it to the local shelter, trust me when i say their doggy, and it would be put down in a week,






which t
yes i agree the only thing is i would be very happy to let the cat go back to that family. but they dont look after the cat, and our lease runs out in a couple of months, so either i have to search for a rental that allows cats ( hard to find) and take the cat with me. or leave the cat behind. but i want to be sure their going to take responsibility =/

 

[Kitty MomX4]

Keep the cat indoors with you. If your landlord doesn't live immediately in the area, don't fret too much about being found out. If, for some reason, the landlord needs to come in the rental, have Kitty take a little vacation. Maybe you could find someone to keep Kitty for you for a bit, just to keep him safe from the creepy neighbors. It may not be the end of the world if you moved anyway, considering the weirdos by your home. If you look, you should be able to find a rental that allows cats.

You seem like a pretty caring person. If you leave this cat behind or just stop caring for it, the thought of Kitty's abandonment will haunt you. I think you'd be doing EVERYONE a big favor if you'd just take the leap and make Kitty your own.

 

[Percy-and-Penny]

Well if you wanted to keep this cat you should have gotten him microchipped in your name and kept him inside where he belongs. But you can't - since you aren't allowed to have a cat in your house. It's their cat - deal with it. Yes - it's crappy they don't take care of it but you can't either so what are you going to do? Got a friend that could take it? If so then it could just "disappear" and be adopted by your friend.

 

[KHAYOS]

There's not much you can do.

Legally, the cat is YOURS. You have vet records for it, that makes it yours.

Now if they have prior vet records, it would legally be their cat, but I doubt it.

Regardless, there's not much you can do unless you keep the cat strictly indoors.

Whenever something like this happens to me, I try to remember I didn't do it to help the humans, I did it to help the defenseless animal that needed someone to care.