The main character of the famous book The Little Prince by the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once told the narrator: “We are responsible for what we have tamed!” This phrase more than ever truly reflects the essence of the relationship between people and their pets - at least, it should.
But, unfortunately, in the real world, everything is completely different. Here, for example, people can abandon animals simply at the slightest whim, they can easily lose a cat that they were asked to look after for money, or they can - and this is far from the worst case - simply leave the cat in the care of a former friend.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post once agreed to house their homeless friend with his cat
Image credits: Dragonscatsandbooks
It happened several months ago - and recently the guy moved out but asked the author to take care of the cat for a while
Image credits: Dragonscatsandbooks
Image credits: Gustavo Fring (not the actual photo)
The author agreed once more - but when they tried to reach out to the cat owner in order to pay for the vet bills, it turned out that he had disappeared
Image credits: Dragonscatsandbooks
So the author ended up losing a human friend but got a new fluffy buddy instead
This story appeared in the Mildly Infuriating community on Reddit by the user u/Dragonscatsandbooks, and it must be said that its content is completely consistent with the theme of the community. The whole thing started a couple of months ago when a homeless friend of the Original Poster (OP) asked them to shelter him for a while. Him and his cat.
Well, to be precise, the guy was kicked out of his house by his own mom for abusing, let’s say, a certain illegal plant. The man was 28 years old, but he preferred to have a dissipated life. At the expense of other people, of course.
Well, that's what friends are for - the author of the post took in their friend and a cat named Chance, who lived in their house for almost six months. Then the cat lover moved out - apparently, he found a job and a new home. And he asked the OP to look after the cat until he finally got back on his feet. Moreover, the cat was a little sick.
Needless to say, some time later, when the original poster tried to contact this ‘friend’ to remind him of the need to pay for the cat’s treatment, he simply didn’t answer, apparently choosing the ghosting strategy. At the same time, the OP learned from mutual friends that the guy was doing quite well financially. Apparently, he decided that he no longer needed the friend... Neither the 2-legged, nor 4-legged one.
Image credits: Sam Lion (not the actual photo)
Well, the statistics are quite inexorable - approximately 6.3 million pets enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year, according to ASPCA data. Of these, 3.1 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats. At the same time, only 4.1 million shelter animals are adopted, and about 810K pets are returned to their previous owners. By the way, according to these statistics, only 100K of them are cats, all the rest are dogs.
However, the original poster, it seems, is not going to give Chance to a shelter, but plans to share their roof with the cat in the future. At least, in the comments to the post, the author admitted that they had studied the legislation and found out that after 18 days, they could claim the rights to the animal. It looks like they will do just that. Well, let's wish them good luck!
Most of the commenters to this post also believe that the cat has found his new home - and congratulates the OP on finding a new friend. "That's your cat now. Do what you need to but please try and be kind," one of the commenters wrote. "Well, looks like you got a new friend," another one added.
And people in the comments also hope that everything will be fine with the cat’s health - some even volunteered to help pay for vet bills. But the original poster assured readers that Chance's treatment would not be burdensome for them. "My pre-existing kitties will just have to accept Chance is now part of our family," the author summarized. By the way, have you ever encountered such situations in your life?
People in the comments gave the author a shoutout for doing so and wished them both a great time together
