u/Helpful_Hat_836

AITA for not wanting to return a cat to its owners after finding it twice outside at night?

So about a week ago I found a cat outside at night, clearly scared and hiding. Me and my girlfriend spent a lot of time trying to catch it, got scratched up, and brought it home. We managed to find the owners and returned the cat to them.

What bothered me was their reaction — they showed basically no emotion, didn’t ask anything about how we found the cat, didn’t seem relieved, just took it back with a quick “thanks” and that was it.

Now, literally a week later, I found the same cat again, at night, in a similar scared state outside. I brought it home again because I didn’t want to leave it there.

Since then, the cat has been stressed, meowing all night, even peed on my clothes, and overall it’s been a lot to deal with. My girlfriend also got scratched while trying to catch it (both times).

I’ve now seen that the owners put up flyers looking for the cat, but I honestly don’t trust them anymore. This is the second time in a week the cat ended up outside at night, which makes me feel like they’re not taking proper care or precautions.

At this point, I don’t feel comfortable just giving the cat back again like nothing happened. Me and my girlfriend are actually willing to take care of it properly if needed.

AITA if I don’t return the cat and keep it with me and my partner?

This situation is very weird but I’ll try to explain.

One day I was leaving my place heading towards parking and spotted a cat near the parking lot, the cat was very frightened and it was a British shorthair.

I took him to my place, posted everywhere about him on Facebook local groups and of my area but no one replied.

I went to get some groceries and back and realized that there’s some very young (early 20s) couple looking for something at around 11PM in the night.

I came to them asking what they are looking for and they said a cat. I asked to show a photo and it was the one.

I said I found it but here’s the weird part - both of them were absolutely emotionless when they found out someone found it. I was that struck by this reaction that I even asked ‘do you guys even want it back?’ And they were like yeah sure.

So I asked to come with me to grab the cat, they followed but asked nothing, no questions, no nothing, absolutely emotionless and silent which was super weird.

The cat was definitely theirs as they shown the photo before and it was it.

So I gave it back and they were again no smile no nothing and just a dry ‘thanks’, the guy didn’t even say thanks or bye.

Just a week later today I again found this exact cat outside in the night lurking scared and all alone. I again took it home, gave some food water, it’s a lovely kitty.

Question is, should I return it again to them? That’s crazy and the cat will defin it rly end up n a much worse situation when it will be third time he’s lost. But I don’t want to steal it, and I also don’t want to give it back to such owners who are careless.