Cat foster carer claimed she had lost owner’s cat but said she had given him away

A young woman, Rosie Rezaie, living in Brisbane, Australia, wanted a person to act as her cat foster carer for a while and used the website Gumtree to find a suitable person. We don’t know why Rosie wanted to put her cat into foster care for a while.

Rosie placed an advert on Gumtree and a woman responded. Rosie interviewed the woman and discovered that she didn’t understand what cat fostering meant. Warning bells rang but Rosie pressed on. She explained what being a foster carer meant and the woman said she understood. Rather reluctantly Rosie agreed to go ahead but when she arrived at the woman’s home there was another cat there.

Rosie asked whether the resident cat was suitable in terms of character to get on with her cat whose name by the way is Jet. The woman, whose name we don’t have, convinced Rosie that all would be well so she agreed to leave her cat with her.

That night, Rosie received a message from the woman to say that the cats weren’t getting along so Rosie agreed to collect Jet the next day. Later on in the evening she was messaged again by the woman who told her that she’d given her cat away to a man. Rosie obtained the man’s name and address but she was told by the woman not to go to the man because he was crazy and that he would hurt her cat.

Despite this bizarre warning Rosie visited the man at the address provided. He told that he did not have her cat, and that he hadn’t been given Jet by the woman and that she was lying. He said that the foster carer had lost Jet.

Rosie returned to the foster carer’s house and confronted her. There appears to have been an argument because neighbours had gathered around to see what was going on. During the argument the foster carer threw another cat at Rosie and said:

“Your cat’s gone, take this one instead.”

Rosie and shocked neighbours called the police. They took the cat thrown at them away from the foster carer. The next phase in this saga was occupied searching for Jet. With great good fortune, Jet had been spotted by children who lived in a backyard which I understand was not too far from the foster carer’s home. It seems their their parents had telephoned Rosie to inform her of the good news. They had her contact details through Facebook and through posters put up in the area.

The obvious moral to this story is that a person should not let another person look after their cat under any circumstances unless they are 100% sure of their credentials and competence. The only way you can be sure is if that person has a track record which you know about either through a reliable third-party or personal experience. Personally, I would have great difficulty letting another person look after my cat. This is why I have not been on holiday for around 15 years!