Woman says her cousin stole her cat, posted photos kissing her on Instagram, and then got the whole family involved — but after a second theft, a police visit, and a rushed court fight, she finally got her back
A woman on Reddit said the whole nightmare started when she needed someone to watch her cat, Midge, for one workday. She dropped Midge off with her aunt, uncle, and cousin Tanya, expecting it to be simple. Instead, when she came back eight hours later, Midge was gone. Tanya told her the cat had been home when she left, but the woman’s brother soon sent her a screenshot from Tanya’s Instagram story showing Tanya kissing Midge and acting like the cat was suddenly hers.
The woman wrote that she panicked and drove straight to their house using a spare key she already had. She took Midge back while no one was home. That is when the first family war exploded. Tanya called screaming that the woman had broken in and “stolen” Tanya’s property. Her aunt and uncle backed Tanya, said they would just give the uncle allergy medication so they could keep Midge, and insisted the cat belonged there now. Tanya even told the woman that if she apologized, Tanya “might forgive” her.
Then her mother turned on her too. According to the post, Tanya lied to the mother and claimed the woman abused Midge. Her mother called furious and threatened to disown her if she did not give the cat back. The woman said Tanya also texted her saying the aunt and uncle had permission to come to her apartment and take Midge if they wanted. She was so scared the cat would disappear again that she immediately started trying to protect herself. She called her landlord asking to change the locks, but he refused because her mother’s name was on the lease and her mother would not approve it. She then booked an appointment to get Midge microchipped and ordered a security camera for the apartment.
A few days later, she posted an update saying she had managed to smooth things over with her mother somewhat and got Midge microchipped. But even with the chip in place, the situation got worse. The very next morning, Midge was taken again. The woman called her aunt and uncle, and they laughed at her, telling her to “try” because they could afford a good lawyer. She called police, showed them evidence that Midge was hers, and went with them to the relatives’ house. But when officers asked for the cat back, the family refused and demanded a warrant. The woman wrote that through the open door she could see Tanya standing there holding Midge with what she described as a smug grin. The police told her they could not just force entry and suggested small claims court. She said she had to pull over on the drive home because she was crying so hard.
She then took the fight public in the family group chat. According to her update, that changed the wider family dynamic fast. Her grandmother became furious, wrote the uncle and his household out of the will, and the relatives started lashing out even harder. Tanya kept posting photos of Midge on Instagram claiming the woman had stolen the cat, and Tanya’s friends from school began trying to “cancel” and dox her online. At the same time, the aunt and uncle started calling with “second chances” to hand Midge over before they pressed charges. The woman said she was not as scared of the threats as she was worried about Midge herself.
About a month after the original post, she returned with the ending she had been fighting for. Midge was home. She wrote that she went to court with photos of Midge as a kitten, proof that she had paid the vet bills since Midge was a baby, and proof that she had gotten the cat microchipped in her own name. With that evidence, the judge sided with her. After everything — the stolen cat, the family threats, the social media smear campaign, the police shrugging, and the pressure to just give in — she got Midge back.
