Someone STOLE a cat from my shelter!

I got an email from the shelter I volunteer at this morning saying that this woman came in and gave them some harebrained story about having a male cat with a high sex drive who was trying to spray but couldn't and wanted another dominant male cat to keep him company. They let her into the cat area and she walked out with one when no one was at the front desk. They have a physical description of her and they're alerting all the area vets.

The shelter has a sign-in sheet for visitors, but I really think they should take your driver's license to hold as collateral until you leave.

The cat she took was definitely a strong-willed male, but he was a good cat and I hope she doesn't do anything bad to him!

yikes! thats definately brave...but I guess once you get past the doors anyone outside would just assume that she paid for the cat...
hopefully you find who did it.

How strange! If she was a bit hairbrained anyway, I almost wonder if she thought that shelters work that way - wander in and take the one you want - it's not beyond the realms of possibility, I mean if you intended to steal one wouldn't it be easier to pick one up off the street? Very odd.

That's odd and a bit scary. I hope that the cat will be alright. I can't imagine that happening too much so I don't know if the shelter wanting to hold someone's liscence would be a necessity. But maybe one time is too much also.

I was at a shelter once when a guy who's adoption application had been rejected tried to steal a puppy.

Geez...

Hopefully she just fell madly in love with him and couldn't help herself.
I hope you found out what happened to him, or he turns back up.

Well, there's a local pet store that had to start collecting licenses from anyone who wanted to hold a puppy because a woman used her kids (!) to distract the store owners while she smuggled a $600 Boster terrier puppy out of the store. The puppy needed medication and would have died if someone hadn't called in a tip a couple days later and they caught the woman.

The email they sent seemed to imply that this woman knew excatly what she was doing- they said she was being very sneaky and suspicious, but that's all in hindsight. This cat was just your average tabby, not a purebred or anything. I think she was just nuts.

OMG! SURELY SHE WON'T HURT HIM!!! People what is wrong with them? She said , "WHAT ABOUT HER CAT?" HE was trying to spray and couldn't, so she needed another one to do what with? how did she get back
there in the first place? if she hadn't ever done this before, I would be a
surprise, because you have go to know the way things are done to slide out when someone wasn't at the front desk!! Please keep us posted on that
poor baby, I would like to know if they catch her? I'll be praying for that kitties return!
mOnique

It is not unheard of, I know we have lost a couple over the years in similar circumstances.

We now have the fill out the adoption application before even going into the cat rooms that way we have their information and then just have to fill in the contract afterwards. It also means that if the people are going to be rejected, we do it before they fall in love with a cat.

She could have been a bit... off, mentally. The worst possible situation is that she could be a hoarder... I'm hoping for maybe a touch of schizophrenia; that kind of person doesn't hurt cats unless they're basically mean, or on drugs, and would do it without the mind problems. If she was talking in kind of a vague way, never really getting to the point, then she's probably schizophrenic (and has no more risk of hurting a cat than the average person). Actually, if you've got that or most other mental illnesses, a cat could do you a lot of good. Let's hope that's the way it'll be for her. Cats are great therapy...

Maybe she was afraid of being rejected for adoption or had already been rejected? Who knows, that is so odd!!

I hope the kitty is ok though.

One of the local newspapers wrote a little article about the situation...it was completely patronizing and condescending, though- the guy made us look like a bunch of crazy cat ladies, crying about the sky falling. What an idiot.

As one of the volunteers said, I guess any press is good press.

Anyway, I got more information about what actually happened. The woman came in before the shelter was open to the public (some days, we don't open until 4:00 for the public, she came in at 2:30) and the person at the front told her she'd have to come back after 4:00. She told them that wacky story about her other cat, said she had a particular cat in mind, but we told her she'd still have to come back. So she left, pissed off.

Somehow, the side door got left unlocked- people use it to get back and forth to the dumpsters quickly- and she snuck back in through that door, went in the cat room and walked off with him. It wasn't until a little while later that someone went in and noticed he wasn't in his cage (he doesn't play well with others, so unless it's a time when someone is there to keep an eye on him, he's kept caged.)

The police have closed their case- apparently there's not enough useable evidence or witnesses to continue.

I hope he's okay out there.

Sending prayers and vibes that the kitty is returned safely, soon
....and kharma and juju on the nutty guy who wrote a condescending newspaper article about the situation