In today’s story, someone finds a lost cat whose owner lives over 1000 miles away.

The pet’s owner calls, but returning the cat isn’t all that easy.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

AITA For not returning a pet to their owner who lives 1000+ miles away?

I went to a friend’s for dinner and found a friendly cat outside his apartment.

I decided that if the cat was still there after dinner, I would take him home for a bit – since I wanted to see what having a cat would be like.

After 2 hours, he was still there.

I noticed he was neutered so I look him to urgent care to see if he had a microchip.

Urgent care contacted the cat’s owners.

The cat is a 6 month old male American shorthair.

They found a microchip, called the owners and left them my contact info via voicemail.

They noticed the owner’s address was in Virginia. I am in Arkansas (1000+ miles away)

That night, I bought some cat stuff and let him stay at my place.

The owner called OP.

The next morning, the owner called me and told me:

Cat was stolen 2 months ago, along with all the cat stuff she had for him

She lives in Virginia

“The crazy thing is, this is the third time I lost a pet”. (the cat was the 3rd pet that got stolen from her)

“I don’t care how long it takes, I just want my cat back”

The cat’s owner can’t afford to fly to pick up the cat.

I told her I’d figure smth out, this is what our conversation was word for word:

Me: “How do you wanna get the cat back”

Her: “I have no idea ur a 4 hr flight away”

Me: “If you fly over to , I can meet you at the airport and hand him over. I don’t think I should be the one to fly over”

Her: “I don’t have any money to fly anywhere. My cat was stolen n takin over state away I don’t know how imma b able to do that”

The woman is unwilling to ever pick up her cat.

Me: “I’m willing to foster it until you have the funds to fly over”

Her: “I guess I’m just never going to get my cat back it’s whatever”

— 2 days later

Me: “I’m going to take care of him until Sept 14

If you still cannot afford to fly over, I’m going to leave him at a shelter and will send you their contact”

Her : “At this point it’s whatever yall can have him I don’t have the money to just get on the plane And it don’t look like nobody’s going to give me my cat back So imma just let the police handle” — end of convo

It seems like it should be on the pet owner to come get their pet.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story…

This reader wants to know how the cat’s owner keeps getting pets stolen.

This reader thinks OP should keep the cat.

Another reader is shocked at how the story ended.

Here’s the perspective of a dog owner…

Another reader calls shelters “pet jails.”

But really, how do her pets keep getting stolen?

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.