Would you be upset

I would definitely be very upset.....the kids will be kids excuse is ridiculous! This is kids not respecting another life, and it sounds like your dad may not be the best influence

Why was NO one keeping a close eye on the children?

That is kids being kids, but I don't mean it as in she should get out of punishment. She definitely deserves a time out. I mean to say that with that excuse it sounds like she didn't know better, and a time out will teach her. I would be upset with your sister though, for both not teaching her daughter how to treat animals as well as being inconsiderate of your feelings about that. Perhaps she thought the dresser drawer wasn't so bad because of how cats like small spaces, but she should still sympathize with your feelings instead of ridiculing them.

I don't think it's kids being kids. Me and my siblings never did that. If we ever did... I'm afraid what would have happened to us.
Our pets are treated like our family. Another person. They aren't hit, hair pulled, ear pulled, anything. Any kid who does that is gonna get spanked. For sure. I'd definitely lay into some kind of punishment for them. I'd definitely be upset over that. Probably furious.

Exactly, thats how you were trained as a toddler. If no one had taught you any better chances are you wouldnt know what was wrong and what wasnt. That is part of raising children, teaching them what is okay and what is not.
I would be upset, but having known how your family acts instead of going to them and expecting them to do something, I would start teaching the kids on my own. Help them understand how to behave with cats.

Also not be to devils advocate or anything, but Shelly (moms cat now) and one of her cats in the past would sneak into drawers any time they were open and would end up getting shut in them accidentally on a regular basis... always a fun game of search for the cat after!
Although now Shelly has figured out she can climb into the drawers from the bottom even when they are closed! Is there any chance she may have done this to herself and not known how to get out?

If I had a sibling whose child did that to one of MY animals, in MY house, I would tell my sibling that her children aren't allowed in my house either until they have adequate supervision (her mother watching her like a hawk around my animals) or know it is wrong to do things to animals like that.

That is just wrong. Instead of comparing the cat to a dog you could've compared it to a child "You wouldn't allow your child to be stuck in an enclosed area just so you could keep it handy or close by, why is it any different with a cat or any other living breathing animal?"

ugh, people! :P sorry I am so frustrated for you..

It might not seem fair, but can you put a lock on your bedroom door and when the kids are over lock Pixie up until they are gone?
Their mother doesn't keep an eye on them and is teaching them terrible habits. I wouldn't trust any of them (the kids or their mom) to be honest.

ahh that sucks, hopefully you can talk to your sister, tell her that it really hurt you that your niece did that and maybe could explain to her child that it isn't okay to make decisions on how to handle others animals the way she did, and explain to her that the cat's will be there for her to play with regardless of where the cat is.

I agree, since you know the kids will misbehave make sure your cat is put away when they are around.

No that's not just kids being kids. When I was a kid, even a very little kid, I would never have done something like that to any animal. Since you don't get a say over who's allowed in the house and who isn't, is there anywhere you could lock her in a room, to keep her safe when the kids are there? Also maybe you could teach your niece to respect animals, and how to be responsible for animals? Since her parents obviously aren't capable of doing that.

I don't think the child should be punished, as she obviously doesn't know any better. At her age, it would make perfect sense to put the kitty in the drawer for next time, if nobody has ever taught her that kitties shouldn't be closed in drawers. Perhaps if you kindly explained to her next time she comes that kitties don't like to be locked up in dressers, and it made the kitty sad that she got closed up like that, maybe she'd actually learn something, instead of punishing her for something she doesn't understand. That wouldn't teach her anything at all.

I have to say I agree. From the sound of it; your niece must be quite young and she cant learn unless someone teaches her. I remember a friend of mine in school telling me how when she was little her mother caught her trying to put the cat in the refigerator because it was hot out and she didn't want her cat to get too hot. Wrong yes, but completely innocent.

There is a boy at my church who for some reason is afraid of cats. He came to a BBQ at my parents house and when he started to act scared of the cats I took him and showed him the cats and talked to him about them. He got brave enough to pet them. He may never be a cat fan; but he knows more about them to not be so scared of every single cat.

Take the time to teach the kids. If they will not learn, I would shut your kitty somewhere safe when they visit and save everyone the headache.

Just make sure you get a carbon monoxide detector down there if that happens.. Honestly I think I'd lock myself up away from your sister and her kids, too. Awful disrespectful bunch. They all treat you terribly.

I don't know if you've missed her past post about the sister. She teaches her kids to slap, call names, and just generally be disrespectful/abusive towards the OP. If a kid is taught that a person isn't someone they have to listen to or even be nice to, there's no way that child would listen to anything that adult tries to tell them.

Was she always like that? Did your parents spoil her? Otherwise I would wonder if she didn't have some sort of personality disorder because even if you're exaggerating her behavior, if one tried to look at it more neutrally - something just doesn't seem right about the situation.

I don't know how you manage. I'm a person that can only be pushed so far, and do not like my personal space invaded.

BTW, my mention of wondering whether she could have a personlity disorder is because some of what you describe reminds me of a bi-polar step sibling. Hers seemed to start in her teens, though nothing was done then. It runs in her mothers side of the family

That makes sense to me, depending on how old your niece is. Although if your sister is such a witch, it probably wouldn't do any good anyway.

Our grandson will be 5 and our granddaughter will be 3 years old and they've been brought up to understand that cats are living creatures who suffer pain when we do bad things to them. They've been so good around our cats, for the most part.

Except for the one time that our grandson decided to try to kick BooBoo a couple of months ago. It wouldn't have been a hard kick and he missed Boo anyway and he was watching me the whole time, probably trying to figure out what I would do. I did take hold of GS's shoulder and say, "You do not EVER hurt a kitty! EVER! And kicking will hurt him!" He started to cry, but they were just crocodile tears and I think I may have scared him more than anything. But nobody even tries to hurt one of our cats and gets away with it. Not even our beloved grandson. Once he calmed down, GS went over to Boo, petted him, and said, "BooBoo, I'm sorry." On his own...I never said anything. Then he came to me and said, "Grandma, I'm sorry about hurting BooBoo" and gave me a hug.

I think part of it is that they have an adorable HUGE yellow lab that puts up with a lot from both kids. Maggie just adores the children and they can ride her and do anything to her. And she just goes with the flow. (Although our son will tell the kids when they're being too rough with her.) She's the biggest lab I've ever seen in my life. Just a beautiful dog. So the kids are used to rough-housing with this huge animal and they're not really used to small cats.