Rescuing Obadiah

mom of 10 cats

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I received an email earlier in the week from a woman who had found our website and asked us if we could take her 20 month old Norwegian Forest Cat, Obadiah. Although we are up to our eyeballs in cats, I said yes, knowing that I could either locate the breeder or enlist the aid of a purebreed rescue to help place him. Her reason for surrendering him was that a family member was allergic. I also found out that she had him front declawed.


Even before he got here, I'd started networking with the great people at the Northeasten NFC rescue and had several offers to adopt him. He arrived yesterday morning, a very upset and scared Wegie, with his litterbox and a quarter-bag of food. I had asked for a donation, and was told, that was it. (They are a well-off family and I had hoped for at least a $20 donation)

Lo and behold, they brought his TICA paperwork with him, which had the breeder's info on it. I contacted her and let her know we had him and the circumstances behind his arrival here. She was thrilled to hear from us, but was upset that they hadn't contacted her to let her know they couldn't keep him, and furious that they had him declawed, both of which were a clear violation of the contract they'd signed. She is on her way to pick him up now from us.

Last night, I got a call from the family who had surrendered him to us. The woman acted like I was the most evil, heinous person in the world and told me I had "betrayed her trust" by contacting the breeder. I told her that I had done what any ethical rescuer would have done. She harangued and berated me for a few minutes, I let her dig herself into a hole. Finally, I said, calmly, "I don't think I have anything more to say to you." and hung up on her.

A question for the breeders out there: has anyone succesfully sued a person for breach of contract for having declawed the cat, and for placing the cat for adoption/surrender in a manner which violated contract terms? I know the breeder is planning on contacting a lawyer, and even if it only serves as an aggravation factor to the (former) owners, I'm glad of that.

I feel like I've earned points for the Light side of the Force for this one.
 

nano

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To be fully blunt, most adoption contracts I've read are very weak and not terribly useful. The breeder will be wasting her time going after the former owners, although if she wants to blacklist them with any associations known to reputable breeders, that'd be understandable and probably save future cats from ending up in an unsuitable home.

Anyway, thanks to you for doing the right thing and hopefully this cat finds a permanent home where he can get a new start.
 

beckiboo

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What an ugly situation. Poor little baby. I hope he finds a good forever home soon. Or was the breeder going to keep him?

Thanks for getting involved.
 
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