On November 24th, our beloved cat, Newt, was let out for a night time scout. Later that night, I received a call about my cat being at someone else's house further away than any cat her size would wonder.

Turns out, a neighbour had "found" Newt, posted her online in a local Facebook group. Members of a charity volunteered to drop by and scan her chip. They ignored. The comments were full of suggestions of neglect and horrible things. Other comments tagged a complete stranger, suggesting this was her missing cat. Newt was then picked up by the stranger, took home before realising that Newt was not her missing male cat.

She refused to hand her over after she was scanned, due to it being "late". The agreed hand over was 10am the next morning. We did not receive Newt until 2pm.

When Newt came home, she was limp. She was tired, weak and lethargic. Whatever happened in them hours has done damage.

Today (November 26th) at 11:50am, Newt was euthanised in my arms, surrounded with love. She was a stray that we found in May, not chipped and nothing but skin and bones. Her recovery was remarkable. Originally believed to be merely 1 year old, she was in fact 5. She had spent 5 years abandoned and only a few months with a life she deserved. She loved her licky-lix, her little bits of cheese we would sneak and chicken left over from Sunday dinners. She was yappy and her deafness did not do favours to her volume.

Our last memories are of her being in worser shape than we found her in May.

If the person who found her first contacted someone to scan her chip, we may have had a few more hours with Newt, or, her death being prevented completely.

Newt's law will make it mandatory for those who find cats to get them scanned asap, not palming them off to complete strangers. Microchips are mandatory for a reason. Use them. It will also make it law to handover pets if their owner has been located via microchip, asap.

 

 

 

 

Newt was neglected and unloved for 5 years. But the months she lived with us... I hope she knew how much she was loved.

This isn't the first time this has happened and it won't be the last. Make it mandatory for all found pets to be scanned or reported to charities INSTEAD of posting online to random people who could easily lie. No pet should go through pain due to the irresponsibility of others.