On 5/6/2014 10:57 AM, jmcquown wrote:

> A few years back a woman I know in England (from another ng) was in
> the hospital for a period of time. A friend was cat-sitting for her
> two cats. One of her cats was elderly but under a vets care. One day
> the cat was out for a stroll. Some woman saw the cat and assumed it
> was a stray. She picked it up and took it to the RSPCA. Without even
> attempting to find out whether or not the cat had a home, they
> euthanized it.
>
> Imagine coming home to that. IIRC it took quite a while for her to
> find out what happened to her cat.

A year or so ago in my area, a family's cat ran away from its home.
The family searched to no avail. Several weeks later they discovered
on an online bulletin board that their cat had been found and given to
a no-kill shelter in a nearby town. They called the shelter, described
their cat and the shelter confirmed its distinctive meow. But they
refused to give the family their cat back. They refused to let the
family _adopt_ their cat back, even when the family offered to pay the
adoption fee. Instead, they placed it with another person. The shelter
told the press that it was the family's fault for letting their cat
run, and they had absolutely no intention of telling the family where
their cat was now living.