I’m conflicted. On one hand, you’re being a bit of an asshole about it and I was tempted to just tell you to get lost.
On the other hand, I agree you should never steal anyone’s cat, and I never would. The only reason I’m answering this at all is to use the opportunity to point out that, yes, there are things you really shouldn’t do, like thinking you can keep it (e.g. closing the doors or letting it stay for extended periods), or feeding it unless it’s clearly mistreated, because it’s unfair to try to both force the issue and to create an unnecessarily tempting situation. I’ve had my own cats, and it’d be distressing if someone kept them.
But when a cat is inquisitive and wants to explore, or wants to be petted or wants to come to you, and it’s the cat’s choice, then I’m fine with that, and would have been fine with that for the cats of my own I’ve had in the past as well. If you’re unhappy with the cat you choose to keep and then let roam around the neighbourhood being petted by people it chooses to approach, then that is entirely a you issue.
They are living beings with wills of their own, not objects.
As for the cat in question, it’s still not my cat. It drops my for a few minutes here and there, chooses to let me know when she wants to be petted and then chooses to run off to another garden, probably to repeat the process. That independence is what I love about about cats, and that has upsides and downsides, but if you want a pet that you’ll have total control over, don’t get a cat (and frankly, don’t get a pet)
I’m an asshole because this was literally the standard response by the majority of people on the equivalent subreddit, to the point where it looked like that people indeed took healthy looking outdoor cats with them, without checking if they had an owner. We had this happen to our cat when I was a kid, it got taken away by someone while it was just wandering around in her turf. Luckily we found her weeks later, the person threw her out again in some small backyard that she couldn’t escape out of. Luckily another neighbor in that house saw her and our flyers that we put out and called us. But this shit happens every day to someone and stupid idiots like him & @DigitalPaperTrail encourage this type of behavior. If it weren’t for that observant and caring neighbor, we would’ve lost our cat, she would’ve likely just starved to death there, all alone and confused.
if you mean why I downvoted you, it’s because you took a simple joke on the internet way too seriously, and pre-emptively lashed out by calling a stranger an idiot for it (now two strangers).
I’m sorry to hear about what happened to you, but don’t view everyone as being like that; if someone is going to steal cats, they’re already going to, and a few funny words on the internet isn’t going to be the thing that convinces them to do it
Grow up. Your little internet “joke” has real life consequences. Your “joke” is encouraging this behavior. Your “joke” is why some people feel validated in doing this and other shit that you people think is cute & funny. Just like the “chonkers” shit encourages obese pets, or how all the YT pranksters think they’re funny by just being asocial assholes towards strangers - until they fuck around with the wrong person. So yeah, fuck off, and again, grow up, take some responsibility.
Sorry that happened to you and your cat, and glad you got it back. I’ll assure you I’d never take in a cat without being sure there’s mistreatment involved (and that’d involve a visit to a vet to verify - it’s hard to tell just from sight; so far thankfully all the cats around here have seemed healthy), and I’m extremely careful about not letting any cats that come to visit get used to seeing my place as home, because I’d have been equally distraught if it happened to any of the cats we had when I was younger.
Looks like it is now
I see this idiocy spread from Reddit to the Fediverse as well.
No, it’s not. Please don’t steal other peoples cats. Thank you.
I’m conflicted. On one hand, you’re being a bit of an asshole about it and I was tempted to just tell you to get lost.
On the other hand, I agree you should never steal anyone’s cat, and I never would. The only reason I’m answering this at all is to use the opportunity to point out that, yes, there are things you really shouldn’t do, like thinking you can keep it (e.g. closing the doors or letting it stay for extended periods), or feeding it unless it’s clearly mistreated, because it’s unfair to try to both force the issue and to create an unnecessarily tempting situation. I’ve had my own cats, and it’d be distressing if someone kept them.
But when a cat is inquisitive and wants to explore, or wants to be petted or wants to come to you, and it’s the cat’s choice, then I’m fine with that, and would have been fine with that for the cats of my own I’ve had in the past as well. If you’re unhappy with the cat you choose to keep and then let roam around the neighbourhood being petted by people it chooses to approach, then that is entirely a you issue.
They are living beings with wills of their own, not objects.
As for the cat in question, it’s still not my cat. It drops my for a few minutes here and there, chooses to let me know when she wants to be petted and then chooses to run off to another garden, probably to repeat the process. That independence is what I love about about cats, and that has upsides and downsides, but if you want a pet that you’ll have total control over, don’t get a cat (and frankly, don’t get a pet)
I’m an asshole because this was literally the standard response by the majority of people on the equivalent subreddit, to the point where it looked like that people indeed took healthy looking outdoor cats with them, without checking if they had an owner. We had this happen to our cat when I was a kid, it got taken away by someone while it was just wandering around in her turf. Luckily we found her weeks later, the person threw her out again in some small backyard that she couldn’t escape out of. Luckily another neighbor in that house saw her and our flyers that we put out and called us. But this shit happens every day to someone and stupid idiots like him & @DigitalPaperTrail encourage this type of behavior. If it weren’t for that observant and caring neighbor, we would’ve lost our cat, she would’ve likely just starved to death there, all alone and confused.
if you mean why I downvoted you, it’s because you took a simple joke on the internet way too seriously, and pre-emptively lashed out by calling a stranger an idiot for it (now two strangers).
I’m sorry to hear about what happened to you, but don’t view everyone as being like that; if someone is going to steal cats, they’re already going to, and a few funny words on the internet isn’t going to be the thing that convinces them to do it
Grow up. Your little internet “joke” has real life consequences. Your “joke” is encouraging this behavior. Your “joke” is why some people feel validated in doing this and other shit that you people think is cute & funny. Just like the “chonkers” shit encourages obese pets, or how all the YT pranksters think they’re funny by just being asocial assholes towards strangers - until they fuck around with the wrong person. So yeah, fuck off, and again, grow up, take some responsibility.
Sorry that happened to you and your cat, and glad you got it back. I’ll assure you I’d never take in a cat without being sure there’s mistreatment involved (and that’d involve a visit to a vet to verify - it’s hard to tell just from sight; so far thankfully all the cats around here have seemed healthy), and I’m extremely careful about not letting any cats that come to visit get used to seeing my place as home, because I’d have been equally distraught if it happened to any of the cats we had when I was younger.