This roommate is an Academy award-winning actor! I’m joking but his acting performance deserves an Academy award. The story comes from Laura Morrison on Facebook. I think she works at PetSmart in the cat rescue section.
A guy came in with two cats last summer. He said that he had found them in the Target parking lot. He was acting out the role of the good Samaritan. He wanted to make sure they were rescued and in safe hands and had, therefore, taken the time to carry them into PetSmart’s rescue department.
Both cats were taken in by PetSmart to prevent them from being euthanized by Union County. As it happens this guy was not such a good Samaritan. He was the roommate of the cats’ owner who was a friend. He had obviously offered to look after the cats while his friend was out of town working.
While he was carry out his duties the catsitter decided that the upkeep was too much for him so he packed them up and gave them away to the local cat shelter. He had produced his “cock and bull story, hoping people would feel sorry for him, which they did. Academy award buddy!”
The owner of the cats came forward in September; last week in fact. He was in no hurry was he! He wanted one of the cats back, the black one. Unfortunately the black one had been adopted months ago. This left the cat rescue people with a dilemma. This sort of dilemma has happened in the past. You get a competition between two potential owners; the original owner and the new owner.
Apparently the new owner is a college student who lives in Wilmington and who absolutely loves the cat. Laura says that they will be able to work out the problem because it seems that the original owner is not overly concerned about the situation and may relinquish all his rights to his cat.
Laura is obviously annoyed and concerned. She thinks that it is pathetic that people try and manipulate rescue staff and toy with their emotions as she says. In the future she will be more careful and question people in more depth while “looking dead center into the eyeball of the person telling me their story”.
Lying comes easy to some people.
Comment and Analysis
Reading this story, it seems to me that both the cat sitter and the original owner are not ideal people to be involved with looking after domestic cats. Why on earth did the roommate/cat sitter relinquished the cat owners cats to a rescue center? It makes be almost believe that it was done in collusion with the original owner such is its callousness. This idea is supported by the fact that the original owner came forward very late in the day to reclaim his cats. Why he simply couldn’t have given them up to the rescue center legitimately without his roommate telling lies is also a mystery. Perhaps he was too embarassed and felt guilty. I think the owner wanted to relinqish them but did not have the guts to do it. An/or perhaps the roommate/cat sitter lives a Walter Mitty life and was looking for sympathy, love and attention?
Or he didn’t know until he was back in town. However there is a continuing issue with college students and the military here who must often leave a pet behind. There are organizations that foster pets for service individuals though.