Stories like this really bum me out…

I’m talking about ones where defenseless animals are stuck in the middle of bad behavior by humans.

That’s what’s going on in this story and the young woman who wrote it wants to know if she’s doing anything wrong.

Read on and see what’s going on!

AITA for refusing to give a cat I’ve had for a year and a half back to his “rightful” owner?

“I (18F) and my siblings (18F and 18F) have been taking care of our grandmother’s cat, Tom, for around a year and a half since she has been unable to care for him.

My grandmother used to live with us until she sadly had to be moved to a nursing home and couldn’t take him with her of course, so his custody naturally fell to us.

She’s grown attached to him.

We have three other cats, so he is our 4th fur baby and they feel like my own children. Especially because I have a disability which causes me to be home a lot, so I am with them 24/7.

Now is when I should mention that my cousin, we’ll call her Sally (24F) bought the cat as a gift for our grandmother. He never lived with Sally, but legally, he is her cat.

Uh oh…

So after a year and a half of him being in our care, Sally shows up out of the blue demanding we give him back to her.

Now, Sally and I are not close at all, family drama that would be too much to dive into for this story has made our relationship very distant. And initially when my grandmother moved into her nursing home, Sally did not contact us whatsoever about wanting Tom back.

We are a very tight-knit family, so everyone knew about my grandmother’s condition and how we were taking in Tom. Sally had to have known through her mom (my aunt) about what was happening.

And again, I have to reiterate that in the year and a half he has been in our care she never once asked about him or told us she was interested in taking him back.

This is crazy…

So, Sally started texting my mom and my sister multiple times demanding for Tom back. We at first were asking her why she just now wanted him back and asked if we could talk about this more in depth before making a decision.

However, despite our inquiries she didn’t budge, with her only explanation being that he was “legally hers” and no other reasoning.

We were concerned about Tom living with her since she doesn’t have a good reputation with pets, and Tom is also bonded to one of the other cats living with us, and I know bonded cats can become very distressed when separated.

I will be the first to admit my sisters and I were being very defensive (that’s our child), so we probably didn’t help in calming the argument.

Things got more heated, and Sally texted me and I quote, “Do we want to involve police and ruin whatever this family is or?” So, suffice to say, this day was very rough.

She’s gone too far.

The argument ended with our dad saying that if she ever came around our house to take him, he would chase her off the property. None of us handled this in a very levelheaded way and I look back and wish I said things more rationally.

Later that week, my aunt showed up to our house pretending like she was only there to visit. Before she left, she suddenly grabbed Tom and said she needed to take him back to Sally.

To try and not cause an even bigger fight, my sisters and I let him go even though we were all heartbroken.

This doesn’t sound good.

We were very worried about him because Sally lives in a house with many dogs, and one dog that recently just had puppies, so we didn’t know how safe Tom would be and if he would be getting properly taken care of.

I fell into a very depressive state and a week later texted her asking for a photo of him to see how he was doing.

Which went completely ignored and we never got any updates as to how he was.

About a month or two later (this time frame is very blurry I apologize but I was going through it) Sally randomly called my mom saying she was going to bring Tom back to us.

I still don’t know the exact reason why she decided this, we didn’t want to question it in fear she would change her mind. I theorized that they had too many animals to take care of in her house. But I was so happy I honestly didn’t even care why.

This poor cat…

When we were finally reunited with Tom, he smelled horrible and was extremely on edge. Sally said that he had started meowing repeatedly right as she pulled into our driveway. We now have a (slightly) better relationship with Sally, but she never really asks about Tom.

This all happened around a year ago, and yesterday Sally came over to our house for some family business. She went looking for Tom and immediately went to pick him up, but he hissed in her face, jumped out of her arms, and hid under the table until she left.

He NEVER hisses at anyone or anything, so this really shocked us but honestly seemed well deserved.

So, my question is, AITA for refusing to give Sally her cat? I’ve thought about this situation over and over and I’m so afraid that we are the ********.

All I want is for Tom to be safe and happy (he very much is now) and if we are the ******** I will fully admit to it and apologize to her, but I just felt so protective over him and thought he wouldn’t properly be taken care of.”

Here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person had a lot to say.

Another Reddit user chimed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

Another reader spoke up.

And this person said she’s NTA.

That poor cat is caught in the middle…

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.