Pet sitter tries to steal cat Bessie when 12-year-old comes to pick her up after vacation by hiding her in a crate disguised as ottoman furniture: ‘Bessie jumped onto my bed, curled up next to my feet, and stayed with me the whole night’

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  • EM almost steals my cat...with a twist

    She LOCKED her up?? What the heck?? "I didn't say anything. Just opened the crate, gently took Bessie out, and hugged her"
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  • The real Bessie

    ?
  • Hi. Last year I made a post in this sub about an ED trying to steal my dog. Now I've got a story about how my cat was almost stolen from me as a kid.
  • I've been debating for several months whether I should post this or not. Well, here you go. This all happened in the summer of 2012, and I was 12.
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  • I'd just come back from a family vacation to Cuba. Before we'd left, we had to find a place for my kitty, Bessie. Kennels, pet daycares, pet hotels,
  • they were all extremely expensive, so we looked at online forums and stuff to see if someone would keep her in their house while we were gone.
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  • We came across this woman who was offering this service for cheap. Really cheap. It also turned out that this woman lived only a couple of streets away, walking distance really.
  • And, well, my family jumped at the opportunity. So. We paid this woman in advance. She took Bessie off our hands. We went to Cuba. Had fun.
  • Came back 2 weeks later. The day after we'd returned, I offered to go get Bessie. All I had to do was bring her carrier, go over to the woman's house, find Bessie,
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  • stuff her inside, and get outta there. Easy, right? Right, exactly. So my mom let me go by myself. I walked to the woman's house by myself. I knocked. She came to the door with a big smile.
  • *Hi!!! Welcome!!! Hope you had a great trip!!!* Real nice lady, you know. Except not really. After I'd stepped inside,
  • EM: Bessie really enjoyed herself here. I mean she loves it here! Me: Oh, that's good. EM: Yeah! She *really* loved staying with us. Me: Cool.
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  • She let me wander around the house to go look for Bessie. EM: She loves to hide, so I don't know if you'll be able to find her haha. I had trouble finding her myself!
  • Me: It's okay, I'm good at finding her. I started to look for her. Checked everywhere. Looked under anything she could squeeze beneath, the couch, the beds, the fridge, the closets, everywhere.
  • Couldn't find her. EM, as I continued to look: My daughter just *loved* her, you know. She loves cats so much! I've been wanting to adopt but I never got the chance.
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  • But I know we'd have a lot of fun with a cat around. We had a lot of fun with Bessie, anyway! Me: That's cool. About half an hour went by.
  • I tried everything, tried shaking a bag of treats, tried calling her name, tried that *pspspspsps* thing. Nothing. I was starting to get nervous at this point in time.
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  • Me: Well...I can't find her. EM: You can't? Oh no! She hadn't bothered to even help me look, so I figured I should ask. Me: Can you help me, please?
  • EM paused for a couple of seconds before she answered. EM: Of course, honey. We looked together, to no avail, for maybe another fifteen minutes. EM: Darn, sweetheart.
  • I don't know what to tell you. If we can't find her, maybe that's because she wants to stay here. Me: ??? EM: Yeah. Like I said, we had fun together.
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  • My daughter loves her so much. Me: EM: Bessie has become part of our little family, I guess. Me, completely baffled at the thought of my cat loving another family: But...
  • EM: I know. I'm sorry. I'll never forget the condescending tone she gave me. EM: Maybe this is her way of saying she doesn't like living with you.
  • She wants to be with me. You know? Me: But...she's...*my* cat. EM: It's okay, honey. You don't have to worry. She's in good hands. Okay?
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  • I don't exactly know what happened next, but she went to the bathroom or something, and I was determined to snoop. I mean, really? I was on the verge of tears.
  • I was missing my cat and really needed to get her like right now. I went into her daughter's room (who was only a couple of months old and was in a crib) and decided to check around again.
  • The whole time I was wondering what I would tell my mom when I got back. Should I lie and say Bessie ran away? Or tell the "truth", which is that Bessie abandoned us for a better family?
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  • I felt like sh. I thought we'd given Bessie a good life. But if she was hiding from me on purpose...maybe it wasn't as good of a life than I thought.
  • A few minutes later -I heard a sound in the baby's room. Something vaguely metallic. I called for Bessie. The sound again. A little bit louder. ? I kept looking.
  • There was this square- shaped thing I remember in the corner of the room that had a pile of clothes on it, so I thought it was an ottoman or a stool or something, didn't pay any attention to it.
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  • I went over and touched the thing. Well. It wasn't an ottoman. I shoved the pile of clothes off. Saw that the fabric covering the square thing was a *blanket.*
  • A fuzzy blanket tucked under and all around the cube, as if to give it the *impression* it was a stool. I untucked the blanket-and yanked it off. It was a metal crate.
  • And inside...was Bessie. Sticking her pink nose through the holes of the crate, which was what was making the sound. My heart stopped when I saw her. Luckily, she appeared to be fine.
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  • The EM came into the room. Not smiling. Just staring at me. EM: So you found her. Me, a little scared: Um. Yeah. I'm going to take her home now.
  • EM: You know you're selfish, right? She was perfectly fine with me and my daughter. We were happy with her. You're gonna take her away from us?
  • Me: Yeah...I have to go now. EM: Fine. Just take her. You're very ride, you know that? Very ride. My daughter's going to wonder where she went.
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  • I'll just say her selfish mama had to take her back. How does that sound? I didn't say anything. Just opened the crate, gently took Bessie out, and hugged her.
  • She seemed happy to see me, actually. I can assure you that I put Bessie in her carrier and I got the f outta there. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Bye.
  • When I got home, my mom asked me what took me so long. I told her everything. From beginning to end. What the woman said to me, all the way to when I finally found Bessie.
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  • My mom was livid and horrified at the same time. She told me she would take care of it. Okay, I said. Good. And that was that.
  • Later, Bessie jumped onto my bed, curled up next to my feet, and stayed with me the whole night. _HERE'S THE TWIST._ I tried to forget this experience, obviously,
  • but some time after -maybe a couple weeks, or a month or two-l asked my mom what she had done to take care of the woman. She said she ended up telling the police.
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  • The police took it seriously. They went to go pay the woman a visit. Took a look around. She got busted. For.........math??!?!?!? And I guess she got arrested.
  • My city is kind of known for its moth problems, but I don't know how true this is. All I know is that I never saw that woman again-to this day, still no sign of her.
  • As for the baby I saw...I went by this lady's house a year or so ago as I took my dog Ozzie for a walk. A little girl was in the yard with someone who could be her dad.
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  • It's definitely possible it's a different family altogether. But if that's the same girl whose mom tried to steal my cat, I hope she has a good life.
  • As of February 21 2019, Angel Bessie has returned to her truest form. I miss her everyday. We spend only a part of our lives with our pets, but our pets spend their entire lives with us.

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