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Adopting a rescued animal should begin a happy chapter, but sometimes the past arrives asking for custody.

This young woman formally adopted a wounded kitten after the shelter completed its recovery, spaying, and microchipping.

Days later, a stranger tracked down her private number and claimed the kitten had escaped while searching for her.

See how it all played out.

AITA for adopting a kitten & refusing to give her back to her previous owner?

I (21F) went to an animal shelter about 2 weeks ago and fell in love with this gorgeous 6-month-old kitten, who was so friendly and needed a home.

Apparently this kitten had a troubled history.

I asked the team about her history to find out why she was there, and they said she was found in the road, abandoned and bitten by a dog.

I immediately filled in the adoption paperwork for this kitty, but she was still healing, so I couldn’t take her home straight away.

After some time passed, the day finally came to take her home.

On Saturday she was finally spayed, microchipped, and ready to come to her new home, which she has slotted into perfectly.

But that’s when she received a strange message.

So tonight I received a call and message from an unknown number that says she is the owner of my kitten and she wants her back.

She said she saw a post on Facebook that I had adopted her kitten and tracked me down on Instagram to find my phone number on my business’s account.

She had quite the convenient story.

She explained that she moved out of her parents’ house where the kitten lived and that she had to wait for her new landlord to tell her if she could have a kitten or not.

She said the kitten kept trying to find her, and one morning the kitten went outside to find her and wasn’t seen again.

Then she had a big request.

She asked me if she could have her kitten back. She even offered to pay for her because she’s been looking for her for a month and sent me photos to prove it is hers.

But she knows she doesn’t want to comply with this stranger.

I told her that I adopted her from an animal shelter, where she was recovering from a dog bite and kept in a cage, and that I am NOT interested in giving her back.

AITA?

She shouldn’t feel threatened into giving up a pet she rightfully adopted.

What did Reddit think?

Unless this alleged owner can prove she really was the rightful owner, this commenter thinks she should just move on.

She did everything right in adopting her new pet, so she should have no qualms about keeping it.

This commenter thinks that if the cat really was hers, she would have put more effort into looking for it.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an artist who made sure to leave the walls of her home blank and boring before moving out, even though they were covered with gorgeous murals before then.

This cat appears to be in a much better home now.

This young woman completed the shelter’s adoption process after the injured kitten was found outside and nursed back to health.

The former owner may be genuinely heartbroken, but any dispute belongs with the shelter rather than the unsuspecting adopter.