If it continues and they try take him - threaten legal action. Send a letter to them explaining he has been domesticated as your family and after 8 years of expenses and caring, he is part of your family. Keep him indoors for a while, hopefully he wont wonder around their area althought I would be cautious they dont cat-nap him.....
Send them a complete bill of the vet/medical expenses associated to the cat and tell them if they want the cat, they pony up w/e the amount is, if they say no then tell em to GTFOkthxbai.
They've got no proof, and no right to have the cat back. They didn't show any love or care to the cat for all those years, and when they found it prowling they claim ownership? Ridiculous.
I am glad to hear that you got the cat back. They don't sound like very responsible owners. If some one ever tried to take my animals (see flickr below) I would proly go on a killing spree until I had them back safe.
If they want him back so bad, send them the vet bills from the past 8 years and if they refuse to pay tell them that you are keeping the cat then.
Dogs have owners, cats have slaves But seriously, if you've adopted & taken care of the cat for all that time, and it sounds like the cat has adopted you as well, then it's yours. As a cat person I believe implicitly in the opening statement, my cat is spoilt rotten
My sisters cat almost got stolen by a neighbour of ours. Like cats do, they befriend other families for food and stuff, but it turned out a family just a few houses away had actually assumed this cat was a stray and they almost took her when they moved house. Luckily they put a collar on the cat (with a new name ) and realising pretty quick that someone had obviously gotten a bit too attached we put a note on the collar and in a few days we had a very upset family knocking on the door. They actually asked if they could keep her which was a little odd, but understood at least when we said no.
I spend $46 a month on Insulin for my black lab. Go the vet and get a printout and tell the neighbor to S T F U. It's your cat now. You have earned the right. It's called love. john
The downside to this however, is when they say ok we will pay... and take the cat. Unlikely? Yep, but you never know lol
In Britain you don't own a cat in the same way you own a dog. This has advantages and disadvantages, if your dog mauls a child you are legally responsible but if your cat does you aren't, the disadvantage is that you have no legal recourse if someone steals "your" cat. My cats grew up knowing only me, they wont go anywhere near anybody else. Moriquendi
I can't believe this is actually as common as it is. I walk to work everyday. Every morning I pass a street which has a very friendly cat. I'm not a pet person but I grew very fond of this cat. The cat, who I'd later find out to be called Sam would be sitting at the front garden of the house waiting for anyone to pass by. Sam would greet any passers by with a good morning meow and would follow that person for half the length of the street before turning back home. Over the weeks Sam got to know my iPod blaring as I come and would actually come to find me as I come round the corner. Over the weeks, this cat became part of daily routine, I'd always take my earphones off as I came round the corner. I say again I'm not a cat person so developing a relationship with an animal in such a way was a very strange experience but now I understand how a pet can be regarded as a member of the family. About a month or two ago, I noticed that Sam was no longer there in the mornings, being slightly worried I didn't think much of it since there could be a whole range of reasons why s/he wouldnt be around so I let the matter go and expecting to see him/her again in the near future. Later though, posters had started to turn up stating that Sam had been missing for a while now and to text a mobile number for any help, I didnt have any information but I thought it would be nice to text just to say that I'm sorry to hear the cat go missing and that I used to see him/her every morning. A while later, the owner happened to be at the front of the house as I was walking to work so I stopped to have a chat with the owner who told me someone had spotted a cat resembling Sam in a house window a few streets away with a different collar. It later turned out that that cat was in fact Sam, someone must have took a shining to this friendly cat and swiped him/her away as he came to greet a passer by. The owner was trying to recover her cat by her cat nappers who denied Sams identity stating that they've had he cat for years. I later saw the missing posters had been updated to say that Sam had been found dead in a nearby park after being mauled by a dog. I guess the cat nappers did this in spite of the whole situation. I don't mean to hijack this thread with my own story but wanted to share as I didn't realise how common it is for people to "steal" pets from others thinking its ok. I totally understand how difficult this situation must be. As far as I'm concerned, this is your cat and an important member of your family. Fight for him as you would any other person in your family.
Wow that sucks. I had my cat get an RFID tag implanted in her with my personal information on it, in the event she is lost or someone takes her, I have proof she's mine by running an RFID scanner over her. May want to look into that, it cost me like 40$ to do and is permanent, unlike a collar (it's the size of a grain of rice as well, so the cat won't feel it at all).
Gooey_GUI: You are falling into a trap that most intelligent, reasonable people fall into: you are trying to be reasonable. You are dealing with unreasonable people. It's all about them and their wants, not about their responsibilities towards the pet that they care for or its needs. It's a whim. They see the cat, they want the cat, they'll have the cat, damn the consequences. It is only after you pointed out the considerable medical care and responsibilities that come attached that they handed it back over to you. At this point, it pays to be a bit bull-headed. Ownership is nine-tenths of the law. You own the cat. You have always owned the cat. You can prove it. The neighbours must be mistaken: the cat that they owned must have been another cat. They all look alike, after all. Get your cat implanted with an RFID chip to register and prove ownership. If they take your cat again call the police and formally accuse them of stealing your cat. It is not their cat. It is your cat. It has always been your cat. Theirs must have been a different cat and it has nothing to do with you.
Just because you paid for vet bills does not make the cat yours. Its just hard luck. This cat had an owner and you have taken it away from that family. Cats roam and can take a liking to many people. If a cat comes by your house and you feed it, it will come back again and again for the food. Just because it takes your food does not mean its a stray and not being looked after. Food is the only reason an outdoor cat comes back. Cats can go mising for days on end as they are their on master and live their own lives. Compared to a stupid dog that rely on humans to survive because they have become too domesticated. A cat lives or itself. The the owners probably assumed him dead if hes been missing for a long time. We had a cat who went missing for over a year and then turned up with a collar, it was clear that someone had claimed him as theres and kept him indoors. In the summer we dont see much of our cats as they enjoy the outdoors and live outside more and come back indoors during the winter. If you want a cat then go get your own and stopped feeding other peoples and claiming them to be yours.
Although that is a reasonable point, you have to ask yourself what claim the owners can make if they let their cat roam unchecked for years and make no attempt to recover him --despite "sightings" of him every few years or so. No collar with name tag and address? No RFID tag? If you don't look after your moggie, it will go to someone who will...
