It is not responsible to assume a roaming cat is lost or a stray simply because of the law. Most people don't follow that law, as a stroll down any alley at midnight would tell you. It is smarter and more responsible to assume those cats know exactly where they are and what they're doing. I would also like to reiterate that my cat was not exactly roaming. She was lured out of our yard by two girls going "Here, kitty, kitty"--and then they took her. I don't think they were thinking about any law. I don't think they were thinking about much of anything. They could have just left well enough alone, and everything would have been fine.

Well that's your opinion I suppose. But most people want animals to be safe, and allowing them to roam could lead to getting hit by a car, disease, or attacked by another animal. Also, please stop blaming those girls. You said yourself that you watched your cat follow them down the street and not return. It's YOUR cat meaning it's YOUR responsibility to look after it. If it was those girls who brought the cat in, they did exactly what they should in that situation. when people choose not to follow the laws, they typically have to pay the consequences. Hopefully your article will show people the steps to take in keeping their animal safe.

I've rescued eleven kittens born feral in the neighborhood in the last 3 years. We found homes for most of them and kept three. Instead of wild, they grow up tame and gentle--but they do go outside. I would not deny them that. And I will blame the girls, because people need to be educated that most animals they see out and about--both wild and domesticated--are not lost. They're going about their lives. You should leave them alone. And if they were truly concerned about the cat, why didn't they knock on the door of the house where they first found her lounging comfortably on the pavement in the sun? I made mistakes, as I admitted time and again in the article. But it was the well-meaning busybodies who created all the problems in the first place. It's the same reason so many young fawns die in the spring--busybodies find them and assume they're abandoned, so they monkey around with them and then they really do get abandoned. Somebody save us from busybodies.

You are clearly angry and in pain. And I feel your anger. I feel for your family. But the fact you did nothing to recover your cat until it was legally too late IS abandonment. You made an assumption that the girls took your cat. But you don't actually know. You assumed she was safe and cared for, but did almost nothing to make sure that was the case, which is your duty as an owner. You had abandoned her to "the girls" in your mind. If you assume she was stolen, then why not a police report? Why not SOMETHING?
As an exercise, replace "Polly" in your article with "diamond necklace". You left the necklace on your front lawn. You saw some girls playing with it. You never saw the necklace again. You looked around for the girls and the necklace, but hoped the new owner loved it. Then at the public property auction, your wife and child saw it purchased by someone else. The police would ask if you filed a police report. You say no but show them pictures of the necklace in your house. Sorry, Charlie.
To you it may be normal to leave a cat outside illegally. But this isn't true for everyone. And as a lawn owner, I can testify that not all the cats that appear in my yard are mine, nor do they all have loving homes. These "busybodies" were taking the caring, recommended steps to help an animal they found illegally wandering the streets. If it actually was "the girls" after all. Because again, you don't actually know the entire circumstances. Perhaps she followed the girls home. Perhaps she wandered away and someone else rescued her from a more precarious position. You don't know.
The situation is clearly frustrating, but the system isn't catered to your feelings. It is in place to keep animals safe. You weren't doing your duty to ensure your animal's safety, before or after she was "stolen".
I hope in a few month's time, when your anger cools, when your family has healed some, that you can see it in your heart to forgive "the girls". That you can forgive Animal Allies. In your absence, they cared for your animal. You already gave her away in your mind once. I think it's time to do it again.

Yeah, I've heard over and over again (here and on Facebook) how wrong I was and how little I did, as if the crimes of not microchipping and not leashing the cat are so terrible that I forfeit all rights. I don't get credit for vaccinating, spaying, housing, feeding, brushing, tending to wounds, emptying litter box and so forth. I only get lectured for the things I didn't do.

I began the article by listing my mistakes. But to say I did "almost nothing" is objectionable. I looked, for days. Everybody's acting like I should have known to call the pound. It didn't cross my mind. The circumstances didn't lead me down that path. That's not negligence. It's doing a different thing. People think in different ways.

The diamond necklace analogy is (no offense) stupid. I wouldn't be accustomed to a diamond necklace being played with by the kids in the neighborhood. If I saw somebody playing with the diamond necklace, I would say something. I'm not accustomed to the diamond necklace staying out at night, so I would have been looking for it immediately. And if I proved to the police at the auction that the diamond necklace was mine, they would certainly remove it from the auction until the issue got sorted out.

The reason somebody else wants our cat is because she's a great cat--gentle, trusting, good with people. The reason she's like that is because of her good life. She was born outside to a feral mother who dumped them in our yard at 8 weeks old. We took her in and made her tame. No wonder she likes the yard so much.

And those girls were busybodies. All the problems started with their "caring" actions. They cared so much that they messed up the cat's life, took her away from three kids who grew up with her and dropped her off at jail. If they had just left well enough alone, everything would have been fine. I'm not saying that all cats you see around have loving homes. I'm saying that most of them know where they are and what they're doing. In most cases, the best course is to leave them alone. People need to be educated about that.

My anger will not cool, because I have the recordings of the moralists steadfastly ignoring me no matter what I say. It makes my blood boil just thinking about it. They have our cat. They know it's our cat. They are in a position to do something about it. And they just...won't. But I can tell you're the same way. Maybe I'll send you the recordings and you can drift off to sleep listening to them with a smile on your face.

Well, I just got the word. Polly was adopted by someone else. Score one for the sanctimonious busybodies of the world.

John, you are right, the girls were wrong, the shelter is borderline criminal, and the other comments trying to make it your fault are filled with stupid and asinine reasoning. Leashes on cats is an idiotic concept for the exact reasons you gave. This is what happens when an entity like that shelter gets a little power, given to them thorough the narrow minded and unrealistic leaders of the city I was born in. Every time I read where they have done something like this I become more embarrassed to say I'm from Duluth. Sorry you had to endure this, I pray the people who adopted your​ cat will see the article and do the right thing, like normal people.

To John and all readers:

Let me start by saying that we are very sorry to hear about the loss of your cat, Polly. The loss of a pet is always difficult, no matter the circumstances. We understand this because it’s part of our work every day. As a humane society we pride ourselves on providing a safe, temporary home for pets entrusted to our care and do our best to help each of them find a loving home.

We recognize the frustration you are feeling and are truly sorry that you were unable to be reunited with your pet. This is, without doubt, unfortunate for your family. Sometimes we are separated from our pets despite our best intentions as pet owners. We hope you find peace in knowing that this cat was well cared for prior to being adopted into a safe, loving home. She is one of the lucky cats.

With all our dedication to helping pets and people, we know we still have work to do to educate the community to help prevent stories like yours from happening. We will do our best to continue this work to help the people and pets our community.

To read our full response and find more information, please click here: http://bit.ly/2qrPNO4

The prospective owners of the cat should be informed. As someone who lost her cat, I would never be able to adopt someone else's cat knowing their owners missed them.

The owners of the cat are probably the same girls who grabbed her. If so, they won't return anything.

Animal Allies told me they would tell the prospective adopters that the original owner was looking for her. Whether they did or not, I don't know. I could easily see them encouraging the new owners to adopt Polly as quickly as possible so the previous "bad" owner couldn't get her back.

Yeah, you're sorry. But you had the means to fix the situation, and you didn't. Nobody's so ironbound by policy that they can't bend a little here and there. That's just your puritanical mindset making you act that way. I never saw such a bunch of holier-than-thou a-holes as came out of the woodwork on this issue. "Humane." Ha.

As others have mentioned, I too am sorry your family lost their pet. No doubt everyone in your family feels the pain and loss, and I know you must be hurt and emotional over this.

And I'm especially sorry it was your personal negligence and failure to meet your most basic responsibilities as a pet owner that allowed this to happen.

Nobody stole your cat. You abandoned it.

You watched your cat - a member of your family who depends on you for it's every need - walk away with two people you don't know. Then, when it didn't return on it's own you didn't check with the City or anyone else for 12 days. Twelve days is a very long time to let a member of your family go missing without following up.

You admit you failed to follow the law and let your cat run run free in the city without a leash.

You admit you didn't take the common-sense precaution of getting your cat micro-chipped, an invaluable tool that is designed for precisely this situation.

And yet, when someone else took your cat in, fed it, kept it safe, made sure it had proper medical care, etc. - you choose to demonize and try to blame them for your failure to meet your most basic responsibilities as a pet owner?

You choose to accuse them of "stealing" your cat?

You say in your article,"If that happened to a kid, it would be a serious crime."

And you are right - if you watched your child walk down the block with people you didn't know, watched it go out of sight, didn't equip the child with any ID or contact information (aka - micro-chip), and didn't contact anyone for 12 days - it would be a serious crime. You would be charged with child neglect and have your child taken away from you for their own safety.

And rightfully so.

You had already written your cat off when you went to Animal Allies to look for a new cat. It was only then - when you saw that someone else had saved, fed, housed and cared for your cat - that you wanted it back and suddenly this all became everyone's fault but your own.

The responsibility for this entire situation lies at your feet, John. Perhaps you will learn from it and be a more caring and responsible pet owner in the future.

At the very least, I hope you will think twice before abusing your position and platform as a journalist to try and shift the blame for your personal failures and neglect on to the people and organizations that were there to pick up the ball when you dropped it.

Learn to step up, John. Learn to own up to your responsibilities, and quit trying to blame everyone else when you fail.

You owe Animal Allies an apology.

ML

"Never mind that a leashed cat was hardly a cat at all. How were they supposed to chase squirrels up telephone poles if they were leashed? Or climb up to the peak of the neighbor’s roof to get a better view of the world? Or stalk mice in the tall grass across the road?"

I find it amazing people let their cats roam freely. This practice is illegal people! Also, cats are serious hunting machines. They don't kill just mice. Please! Cats kill everything. I find this practice even more maddening during this time of year when birds are nesting. For some strange reason some cat owners believe they can open the door and let that sweet innocent killing machine out the door. The cat was gone for a few days, life gets in the way, and BAM the cat is in AA. JR wants us to feel sorry for his plight. He wants us to stand up to the bullies at AA and arrest those girls. I get it, but I also see a man who knows he made a bad mistake. Not that it really matters, but I do feel for he and his family. It sucks losing a pet and sadder when your family member is kept from you because the rules got in the way. But... rules are rules, laws are laws and reason doesn't always apply. A Republican politician from Texas once said, "Don't get mad, get organized." If you want to change things, be the change. Peace.

Animal Allies does this all the time then makes you pay hundreds to get them back if you get them back at all. It's money. Not caring.

I hate cats.

^ don't be rude! Can't you see he's in pain?

I think he'll live... if not I've got $20 that says there's another cat he can adopt.

First of all, I want to congratulate you for finally making me mad enough to create an account for the Reader simply to comment on this abhorrent garbage of an article.
Now here comes the part where I rip it to shreds and make you eat your own words from your own article. A lot was already said about the leash laws and chipping, and a cat being outside, so I'll try to keep that out of the discussion.

"It was my mistake, of course. The truth was that it hadn’t even crossed my mind to call Animal Control."

Admission of guilt doesn't absolve you from your obvious negligence. You want to throw yourself your own pity party and all of these people are invited, but sorry to say, anyone with half a brain can recognize how badly you screwed up.

"Camila had urged me to take them somewhere to get chipped, but I procrastinated and didn’t get it done."

NICE. REEEEEAL NICE. At least Camila has a brain.

"The next time I looked, the girls had moved a couple of houses up the street. Polly must have followed them, because they were still fussing over her and snapping selfies with her."

Oh you remember that do you? Do you remember the house that was a "couple" up? Could you have knocked on that door? Or if you forgot which one, ALL of the surrounding doors? Nah? Were you too busy cleaning your car then? Alright sounds like a good enough excuse.

"And those girls were busybodies. All the problems started with their "caring" actions."

OH really? Their actions? Do you mean your LACK of action when you could visually see them walking away with your cat? The cat that you said "must have followed them" in your original statement, but later called them "abductors"? You saw them snapping selfies with Polly and fussing over her but still DIDN'T DO A DAMN THING?

"On Saturday, May 20, my wife Camila took our two younger boys to Animal Allies to pet the kittens and maybe scout out a replacement cat."

Oh really? It only took you about 12 days to "decide she was gone" and went to replace her immediately? Jesus man, let the alleged cat grave cool down before you replace it with another cat.

“'If that happened to a kid, that would be a serious crime,' I said. 'Find a nice friendly kid in somebody’s yard and grab it.'”

You're absolutely right John! It is a crime, but if the child's father SAW IT HAPPENING, you would think he would at least take the steps to stop it. Like maybe, even saying, "hey, don't do that, I can see you doing that." Like, maybe using your vocal chords after you witness your child being taken? No? Too busy washing your car again? Ahhhh just look for the kid tomorrow, he/she will show up I'm SURE.

I could go on, but to be honest, you're probably not even listening. Let me tell you why. Because you can't admit when you're wrong. You can't admit when you've make a mistake and own it. Because of your own NEGLIGENCE AND STUPIDITY, your cat found another home.

You have no one to blame but yourself.

Of course you won't, but that's not my problem.

Hopefully you've learned your lesson and will take care of your other two cats better than Polly.

Thank you. Thank you very much. This is perfectly executed.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.