Battle For Bugsy

Yesterday two teenage girls knocked on my front door.  I answered the door and was immediately accused of stealing their cat.

I said to the girls that I do not have your cat that I have my cat.

They then wanted to see him.  I obliged.  I let them hold him.  Bugsy did  not like to be held by them.  Strange as he loves to be held by most others.  The girls then said that he doesn't like to be held.

They then tried to take the cat from my house.  I said that they were emotionally upsetting me and would have to leave.  They said they would return with their mom and the paperwork to prove it was their cat.

I was fine with that.  The cat is still mine as he is chipped in my husband's name and registered in my husband's name on the installation.  If he had been owned by any one else on the installation legally he would have to have been chipped in their name and registered on post as the installation requires to do so within 10 days of getting a pet.  All the information can be found here: http://www.jblmmwr.com/vet_clinic.html

I followed the rule and tried to find his owner.  I spoke with the lady that owned him and was chipped in her name.  She was fine with me adopting him.  We had her call the microchip company and put my husband's name on the chip as the pet's owner.

So the girls come back with another girl that I swear if she is the mother she must be the step mother and about 14 years of age.  I looked through their paperwork.  Yes, I saw that they had purchased the cat and his chip number matched.  I asked why they didn't register him on post.  They said they did.  I said that he is my cat and not theirs.  They didn't like that and left.

Later the father came by with the paperwork again.  We went over my paperwork and his.  I had to call in the Military Police with the hope that they could set this man straight on the ownership of the pet.  They told us we would have to go to small claims court.

Seriously these folks bought the cat in May and renamed him Mufasa.  It ran away from them twice according to the first owner who was called twice about the cat being missing and found again.  The cat then ended up with another neighbor on another street over in June.  The cat, Mufasa now Garfield, then ran away from the newer owner in July.  He was severely malnourished when I ended up taking him in on 28 September.  I had permission from Garfield's owner to keep him if I found him.

I went online to Craig's list, Lewis McChord yard sales, Facebook, and asked around the neighborhood if anyone was missing an orange tabby.  No one was missing a cat.  Mufasa's owners said that they gave up the cat for dead 6 months ago.  They made no attempt to put out food for him or find him.

So what the heck are they doing now trying to take Bugsy away from me.  I found out his first name from his first owner who had him from the age of 5 weeks.  I found out his food likes, dislikes and toy likes.  I made sure his shots were up to date.  I made sure the veterinary clinic on the installation was away that he was a possible stray/runaway.  They kept me alerted and were even thinking this past week of placing a kitten with me to foster to adopt until I told them I'd be PCSing and was pregnant.  Pregnant women have to be extra careful when taking in new pets because of things like ring worm and scabies.

I spent my entire afternoon crying.  Yes, even when the father of the girls was here.  He told me I needed to calm down.  Well and good but you are trying to take away my fur baby.

He said to J and I that he doesn't think it will come to a court date.  To him the cat is just a cat and he said that too.  The man owns a large breed dog, a mastiff.  He fed the cat fish food that he gives to the fish in the tank.  He has four children that Bugsy obviously does not like.  That family abandoned him and left him for dead.  In my opinion they have no legal claim.  I offered the man the $25 he most likely paid for Bugsy since he was over 2 years of age at the time of adoption.  The ASPCA has a $70 charge to adopt a kitten and this past spring it was $25 to adopt a mature cat.  The man declared he paid more than that.  I looked at J and told him to go to the ATM and get $100 to give to the man.  The man shook his head to that too.

So court it is.  If he calls and tries to take MY CAT away from me I'll tell him to take me to court.  He violated the military installation policy.  I did nothing wrong.  The cat is legally mine or I should say legally my husband's cat.

There was a lot more dialogue that went on.  I didn't swear.  I did cry a lot to the point that my eyes are swollen and feeling like they are full of sand this morning.  I didn't sleep well either.  Maybe an hour or two of sleep.  Fun considering I have to get all my pregnancy blood work done this morning which will be about 10 vials of blood.

I'm going to say it again:  HE IS MY CAT!

**** Update at 1000 hrs****

My husband called the veterinary clinic on post.  We own the cat.  The man who is trying to take our cat from us does have a cat and a dog registered on post.  He has a mastiff listed for the dog.  For the cat it is a black and white cat.  NO ORANGE TABBY.  The man lied to us about registering his Mufasa.

J is going to chat with legal about what we can do to protect our cat.  Our cat is not just a piece of property as the other man called it when he spoke to the military police at our house.  Our cat is family!