I am a guy who loves to hang out in my garage. Got a TV set up there and I hang out there and say hi to my neighbors. A few weeks ago this young black cat comes up to my garage.
He looked pretty normal and had very orange eyes. He was pretty friendly and had a collar on him. This collar wasn’t a normal collar for cats though. Cats are supposed to have breakaway collars because, if you have a cat, you know they like to crawl into tight spaces and explore. This cat had a Cuban link collar on that was somewhat tight. Not choking it but definitely snug.
This collar had no name tag or nothing on it at all. I gave it some food and it seemed like it was starving. I gave it some dry cat kibble and it instantly started scarfing it down knocking the food everywhere while doing so.
We live near a very busy street and the cat didnt seemed fazed by the cars at all. About ten hours passed and the cat was still hanging around im my garage, so I decided it was best keep the cat overnight so it didnt get hit by a car. i posted a few missing cat ads on Facebook, next door app, and other sites. And the next day I went to my local shelter to see if it had a microchip. It didnt have one unfortunately. This is the exact same way I got my current cat. But my cat had a microchip and we tried to contact the owner for over a month but they never responded so we just kept it.
So I decided it was best to wait a week to see if anyone responds to my missing cat ads. A week passes by, nothing… so I booked an appointment to get this cat fixed because you are supposed to get stray cats fixed so they dont spray everywhere and so they can be less territorial. Went to the vet, got it fixed and after the healing time passed, I decided it was good to roam the streets. I was still concerned that it would get hit by a car but i just didnt have the extra time or resources to keep another stray cat. But I had faith that the cat would be able to survive by itself. I do see a couple stray cats that roam my neighborhood that are very feral but they have been around for years. So I was hoping that the cat would be able to do the same.
The same day I let the cat roam free, the owner came knocking on my door. I answered and it was some young dude and he basically told me that the cat I neutered was his. I told him everything I went through to find the owner and he didnt really seem to care that much. He told he wanted to breed that cat and also told me dont go around neutering cats that are not yours. Then I replied by saying well for next time, have some sort of identification on him so I can tell that he is actually owned by someone and not some stray that was abandoned.
Im not sure if what I did was an asshole move or if I am justified in trying to keep my neighborhood cat population under control. Tell me what you guys think.
NTA. He is negligent and isn’t responsible enough to own a cat.
Nta.
He’s lucky the cat is still alive.
I would have dropped it off at a shelter.
NTA
Your point was spot on – if that cat was so important to the owner then they need a way to communicate where that cat belongs if they get lost. If you have no good indication that cat is owned by someone and you go to fairly extensive lengths to find the owner with no success, you’ve done everything you could reasonably be expected to do.
So yeah, the owner sucks. You did the right thing.
NTA he was clearly an irresponsible owner and would not be a reputable breeder. If he were, his cat wouldn’t be wandering outside while not fixed (because yeah hes definitely gonna end up with some kittens but not able to sell them, they’ll just be more strays) he also would’ve had his cat registered and microchipped. Also hope that guy knows TNR organizations exist. They will find strays and neuter them because the cat population is out of control and shelters are overflowing.
NTA, a cat worth breeding wouldnt be let outside. Guys just pissy his parents yelled at him.
NTA, and you’re my personal hero. Fuck that “owner”
NTA. Anyone who lets an unfixed cat roam the stream is one though.
Has this guy never heard of TNR? People absolutely do go around neutering cats that aren’t theirs, and it’s considered a very noble and altruistic service to both the community and to the cats.
If you don’t want your cat neutered, don’t let him roam the streets without a tag or microchip and ignore the notices that someone else has him.
NTA
NTA. If he wanted to breed the cat, he should have kept it inside. Why would you let a breeding cat roam around?
NTA you did your due diligence to find the owner.
Anyone who wants to breed their cat but let’s them roam free and doesn’t chip them or put an id tag obviously shouldn’t be breeding any cats
NTA. We take care of a feral who decided to stick around even after we got her spayed.
Any cat who comes around our house that we can trap gets spayed or neutered then released.
If you have a cat you let outside there is no reason to not have it spayed/neutered. They reproduce incredibly fast(9 weeks IIRC) and they can devimate local wildlife populations.
It’s bad pet ownership on their part especially if they didn’t get it tagged/chipped.
NTA. If the cat was worth breeding, it wouldn’t have been roaming the streets in the first place.
I think the odds this guy planned to breed his cat are just about zero. More likely he had some idea of getting money out of OP for his “damages” but wasn’t sufficiently committed to the scheme to push when OP pushed back
NTA
Cats who are not neutered have no business being outside. Period.
If he wanted to breed the cat he should have kept her indoors. He is an irresponsible cat owner or a lier. (Who let’s a cat they want to breed with roam free? Doesn’t make any sense unless you desperately want mutts and hope you don’t have to look for a partner that way. But there’s far too many of those already, so that would make him an even bigger AH).