My neighbour's cat

Moving into a rental property while we were looking for a new house to buy, I found in the backyard what I believed to be a very sick stray cat. Its coat was all matted; it walked with a limp and was incredibly thin and frail.

Feeling sorry for the cat, I looked for a tag in the hope that I would be able to return it to its owner. While looking, I found it had open and weeping sores on its body. I treated the animal as kindly as I could and offered it some food — the cat ate all that it was offered voraciously.

We already had enough cats, so keeping it and nursing it back to health was out of the question. Deep down, I realised that I would have to take it down to the local shelter, as it was just too cruel to keep letting it suffer so.

I retrieved my cat cage and put the poor animal inside and drove down to our local animal shelter, knowing that it was unlikely that anyone else would take on such a sick animal.

A month later we received our neighbour’s mail so I went next door and knocked on their door to pass on the mail. The neighbour thanked me and informed me that she was quite upset because her cat had gone missing and asked if we had seen it. She went on to inform me that her cat was so old its coat was permanently matted and it walked with a limp. As she continued to describe what her cat looked like, I was quite horrified and ashamed to realise what I had done.