Cat war ends in victory for teenager after judge rules she’s rightful owner of feline who went walkabout… not the woman who fed her for six months

February 3rd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Damien Gayle

Last updated at 8:55 AM on 3rd February 2012

A long-running dispute over the ownership of a cat who went missing was finally settled in court yesterday with a victory for its original teenage owener.

Della Macdonald from Stornaway, who cared for missing cat Smudge for six months, had sued his owner, Nicola Dempster, 19, after the teenager found him and took him back home.

Mrs Macdonald, who had found Smudge in her garden and taken him in after he went missing from Miss Dempster’s home, had wanted to be made rightful owner of the cat.

But today Sheriff David Sutherland dismissed her action and also a claim for £70 for neutering the cat.

Victory: Nicola Dempster holds her cat, Smudge, after winning a legal battle to prove that she was his rightful owner after he was cared for by another woman

Neither Mrs Macdonald or her husband Neilson, attended the hearing at Stornoway Sheriff Court on the Isle of Lewis – but the sheriff read a letter from her which said she was dropping the action because she had cancer.

It also emerged that the Citizen Advice Bureau, who were representing Mrs Macdonald, were no longer doing so and had withdrawn from the case.

Difficult time: Neilson Macdonald told the Sheriff that his wife had decided to drop the case as she was undergoing treatment for cancer

After the decision a delighted Miss Dempster said: ‘I’m over the moon and going to give Smudge a celebratory meal of prawns tonight.

‘I’ve been through five months of hell through this and I’m just glad the nightmare is over. For that is what it has been – a nightmare.

‘Smudge has obviously been oblivious of what has been going on. But he is well cared for, much loved and in great shape.

‘The letter from the Macdonalds to the court was dated January 3 – so why I was not told about it before has just prolonged my agony. However I’m just glad it is all behind me now.’

Miss Dempster bought the cat at a Stornoway pet shop in September 2010 and had him inoculated at the local vet.

She named him Smudge and she was very upset when he went missing in March.

She
reported him missing to the SSPCA but the body apparently never
realised he was the same cat found about a mile away in a garden in
Manor Park.

Mrs Macdonald took him in and notified the SSPCA who agreed she could temporarily look after him for a fortnight. But they forgot all about the animal and never returned for it.

Mrs Macdonald renamed the cat Oscar and, it is understood, spent about £150 on neutering and feeding him.

But after he went missing again Miss Dempster found him wandering the pavements near the Manor Park roundabout – about midway between his two residences – in August.

Efforts to thank the person who cared for the cat turned sour when Mrs Macdonald traced Miss Dempster via Facebook and came knocking on her door wanting the cat back.

Police attended the incident but the cat remained with Miss Dempster.

Stornoway Sheriff Court on the Isle of Lewis

Mrs Macdonald in November asked Stornoway Sheriff Court to declare her the pet’s rightful keeper so she could take him back.

But the court heard at a hearing the following month that Mrs Macdonald was in hospital for cancer treatment – and that a properly worded legal claim had still not yet been presented.

At the hearing Mr Macdonald told Sheriff Sutherland then that they still wanted the cat back and the sheriff adjourned the case until today.

Mrs Macdonald had said she badly misses the cat. She had alleged that the cat was thin and hungry when it appeared in her garden and she would be able to look after it better.

She also claimed that she has suffered stress over losing the cat and that her dog Hamish is pining for him.

However Miss Dempster said she has proof of purchase, vets bills and has witnesses to verify her original ownership.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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There’s an old adage
”you can never own a cat, a cat owns you”
or something like that ..

– clippyzippy, Lowestoft UK, 03/2/2012 17:47

I loved the picture of the court ! What on earth does this add to the story?Tea boy at the DM at it again?

– Selena, Formerly England, 03/2/2012 17:08

Not only microchip – but keep your cat indoors. Both women let the cat go wandering about. Lucky a third person didn’t find the cat and keep it indoors permanently. And shame on the original owner for not having the cat neutered.
– L R, NY, 3/2/2012 4:02……………………….. Cats are great wanderers and often go off for days at a time, then re-appear and look at you as if to say “what’s all the fuss about” ? They are far more independent than dogs, and I think to keep one confined to a house could amount to animal cruelty.

– Claire, Glasgow, 03/2/2012 16:40

Hope Mrs Mac gets well soon. Why don’t the SSPCA give her a stray, chipped inoculated and neutered after all this seems to be entirely their fault.

– Dave Spart, Fife, 03/2/2012 16:29

My neighbours cat comes to see me quite a lot, I don’t feed him though because he’s not my cat, I give him fuss and he sleeps on my bed at night (the neighbours always let him out at night) but I put him out whenever he gets hungry. If you want a cat you should get one of your own, I mean I would be so worried if my cat didn’t come home…

– Natalie, Paris, 03/2/2012 15:53

There is a lovely affectionate tabby cat in my street who seems to have no owner who stays with me, my kind Scottish neighbour and a nice Polish lady a few houses up the road. He is an international cat. He is very well fed – we check that when the weather is bad that he has shelter. We make sure he has the de-flea and de-worm meds. My sister says he is so used to this life that to have him put into rescue would be cruel. He dashed in for breakfast this morning and was last seen having great fun with a smaller tabby running round the garden play fighting and enjoying himself (he has no chip). I wish I knew who owned him.

– Emme, London, 03/2/2012 15:33

I’m glad Miss Dempster got her Smudge back, if anyone took my cat and made out she was theirs I would do everything in my power to prove otherwise. Unfortunately it sounds like a case that could have been prevented if the SSPCA hadn’t forgotten about the report as clearly both parties love him. Sorry for Mrs McDonald too but think he ended up where he belonged.

– Animal Lover, East Sussex, 03/2/2012 14:58

I hope your cancer treatment is successful, Mrs. Macdonald, and I am sorry that your suffering has been made worse by the actions of this spiteful girl. I trust she was ordered to repay you for the expense of looking after the cat for the time you had it. .
– Janet, Berkshire, 2/2/2012 18:59
Oh shut up Janet!!! You live in the right place all right!!! You Berk!!!

– Steve, Essex, 03/2/2012 14:40

I have a cat, she’s quite old now (16) but last year she kept disappearing for days on end and then just re-appearing as if nothing had happened, not a care in the world, oblivious to our distress that (a) being old had she died all alone somewhere (b) locked in somewhere or any of the other things that cat people think when their moggies go missing. We became detectives and realised that she had become attached to an old man down our road, when we tackled him about it, he said ‘she is always in here looking for food so I feed her’, when it was pointed out that she will keep coming back if your offer her food, he said so what, I was incensed and it has taken quite a few visits to him and being quite forceful over this issue to stop him feeding her, and guess what she doesn’t go missing now. Why do people just not think about the original owners and the distress that we feel when our cats so missing, don’t feed a strange cat until you actually know it doesn’t belong to someone else

– JJ, Milton Keynes, 03/2/2012 14:34

(No one owns a cat, cats own you…..- Cat lover, leeds, 03/2/2012 13:31)
So true! I used to spend summers on the Dalmatian Coast and would feed the stray kittens there. It didn’t take long before they found my apartment and jumped through the windows to make themselves right at home : )

– Kat, South of France, 03/2/2012 14:10

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