Just a short while ago, some family friends of mine decided to go on vacation for one week. Of course, as responsible cat owners, they paid one of the nieghborhood kids to come by twice a day and feed their cats, a "blue" Persian stud kitten (he was only 8 months old, but had excellent papers and they were going to breed him when he was mature), and a shaded silver female Persian, but she isn't really involved in this story.
Anyways, while they were away, someone broke into their house...the girl who was "babysitting" the cats discovered this when she came to feed them on her way to school one morning. She called the cops and they did their usual "look around and investigate" but they couldn't contact the owners of the house because they were away from the hotel for the day surfing or something. So it wasn't until the day after that the girl began to worry like crazy because she couldn't find the male cat; the burglar had broken a window and the cat had gotten out.
Someone down the street had found him, and taken him in. Waited a whopping *day and a half* for the owners to reclaim them, put a little white sign on a tree in front of their house. Of course, they never got called, and so I guess they decided to take the cat in. Upon discovery that the cat was a tom, they decided to "do the world a favour" and got him neutered. Now if it had been some ratty looking stray I would have commended their actions, but he was well-fed, he had been brushed every second day for his whole life, and was very well socialized...did they not notice that he was also a relatively expensive breed? My goodness...you can imagine how ticked off my friends were when they came home, found that not only was their house broken into, but their prize stud tom was missing! And when they called around the neighborhood and finally found him, they were horrified to find out that he had been neutered.
I'm sure the poor cat wasn't too thrilled at his sudden change of careers, either.
It really angers me how some people fail to execute the "observe, think, and *then* do" process! They paid a lot for that kitten, paid a lot in vet bills to make sure he was healthy enough to advertise for stud, and now some righteous do-gooder goes and messes it all up for them, without so much as a second thought to what might come of their actions.
Grrrr.
Anyways, while they were away, someone broke into their house...the girl who was "babysitting" the cats discovered this when she came to feed them on her way to school one morning. She called the cops and they did their usual "look around and investigate" but they couldn't contact the owners of the house because they were away from the hotel for the day surfing or something. So it wasn't until the day after that the girl began to worry like crazy because she couldn't find the male cat; the burglar had broken a window and the cat had gotten out.
Someone down the street had found him, and taken him in. Waited a whopping *day and a half* for the owners to reclaim them, put a little white sign on a tree in front of their house. Of course, they never got called, and so I guess they decided to take the cat in. Upon discovery that the cat was a tom, they decided to "do the world a favour" and got him neutered. Now if it had been some ratty looking stray I would have commended their actions, but he was well-fed, he had been brushed every second day for his whole life, and was very well socialized...did they not notice that he was also a relatively expensive breed? My goodness...you can imagine how ticked off my friends were when they came home, found that not only was their house broken into, but their prize stud tom was missing! And when they called around the neighborhood and finally found him, they were horrified to find out that he had been neutered.
I'm sure the poor cat wasn't too thrilled at his sudden change of careers, either.
It really angers me how some people fail to execute the "observe, think, and *then* do" process! They paid a lot for that kitten, paid a lot in vet bills to make sure he was healthy enough to advertise for stud, and now some righteous do-gooder goes and messes it all up for them, without so much as a second thought to what might come of their actions.
Grrrr.