'We stole our neighbor's cat and I don't regret it': Neighbor goes on vacation without leaving his cat any food or water, his neighbors take matters into their own hands and save the cat

When you see that a cat is being neglected, at what point does "stealing" turn into "rescuing"?

Some people have no business being pet owners. Adopting a cat comes with work, with responsibility. Cats may not ask for much, but they do have needs, and they do have to be taken care of. If you're not planning on taking care of the cat that you adopt, then don't adopt it. Even being stuck in a shelter for more time is better than ending up with a neglectful owner. And if you, as a decent person, see someone else neglecting their cat, what do you do? For how long do you look away? When do you take matters into your own hands?

The person in this story found the line when their neighbors left for vacation without leaving the cat any food or water. The cat was outside, alone, fending for itself, and coming to said neighbor to ask for food and help. This person describes what they did as "stealing their neighbor's cat", but we disagree. They did not steal the cat. They rescued it. They saved it. Any word is more accurate than "stealing". For all we know, they saved this cat's life, because there is no telling how it would have survived outside on its own.

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via @saniyafatma1278
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via @saniyafatma1278
Seriously, we cannot imagine many things more awful. Whenever we go on vacation, we worry about our cats every single day. We ask for updates from our sitter, for pictures, for anything to let us know that our baby is doing well. It's unthinkable - the idea that an actual cat owner left this cat to fend for itself without so much as leaving it a little food and water. Or maybe it's not that unthinkable.
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via @kitkatmama1
An actual cat owner - someone who cares about their cats would never do this, but someone who doesn't care… yeah, they could do something like this. And that only strengthens our conclusion, and that is that we can safely say that we are happy that you ‘stole’ this cat from your neighbor. Although we don't even know if we would call it ‘stealing’. If you are saving this cat's life, did you really ‘steal’ it or did you rescue it from a terrible owner and even possibly a worse fate it would find living alone in the world.
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via @rashim_s
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via @AspringMom
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via @Saved5872
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via @Saved5872
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via @Saved5872
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via @_kathleennkelli
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via @_kathleennkelli
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via @missany
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via @missany
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via @Erictheowl1
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via @charben13
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via @JuleoftheLake
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via @chairman_maiow
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via @nicjane333
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via @sally_jean