Yes, his name is literally 'Toothless'.

TL:DR - my neighbors 'kidnapped' my cat and reported him. He has been living with me but was almost euthanized

PS - To those who will tell me that he should be indoor only, we are toying with the idea and we try it frequently for my mental health. It's a weighted issue, depending on where you live. In the UK, you can't adopt a cat if it doesn't have a garden. In the US, you can't adopt a cat if you will allow it to be outdoor (those are broad/incomplete statements, I know. Please correct me). Different standards where you live, I'm constantly weighing what is best for him physically and emotionally. He lives by the standard of his home country. And I'm doing the best I can.

BACKGROUND: We moved a year ago from a '3rd world country' to a '1st world country' for my medical education. Still learning to navigate the standards here.

I was in clinic seeing patients this morning when I got a call today at 9:30 am that Toothless was at the Humane Society and would be surrendered at 5PM.

I called back very confused. He sleeps with me every night. He didn't come home last night, which is strange. That has only happened 5 times in his life (he is 4 years old), and two of those times were last week and last night.

They told me ‘he has been at the shelter since the 16th’.

WHAT? Who has been sleeping in my bed for the last week?

He was missing for 36 hours last week during a storm. I wandered the neighborhood for probably 6 hours, including the 1-3 AM block. He is trained, he 'sits' 'shakes' 'turns around', pees in the toilet and comes to my whistle. Has his entire life. He ALWAYS comes when I call, but he didn't that night. I thought he was dead in a storm drain. I called the humane society, looked at all the 'lost pet' websites. I checked our neighborhood Listserv. I cried all day between seeing patients, hiding my tears when my preceptors walked into the office.

The next step was to print posters, POST on the listserv, and start going to the shelters in person. That was the plan.....

But then he was home. Missing from one morning until the next evening, then home, snuggling, eating.

~~~I found my baby at 4 weeks on the highway. Literally, he was a tiny black dot on a white stripe in the middle of the highway, I saw him as I passed and pulled over, ran out and got him. I call him my 'trash kitty'. Someone else's trash. My treasure.

When I talked to the rescue service, they said they had picked up 10 black kittens from the freeway that month. It was kitten season, and that country has *feelings* about black babies. I looked everywhere for his mom around. Broken leg, took him home, nursed him back to health. He is a healthy boy now. ~~~~

He is my world. I am his world. We have lived across the world from his home, but we are together. He's a bilingual boy!

Last week really freaked me out. I ordered monitoring collars and lots of new kit for him. But he’s been home since....

This call from the humane society. ‘He has been at the shelter since the 16th’

****I'm so confused. *****

He was missing last week for 36 hours. Are you telling me that the cat that has been sleeping in my bed for the last week, acting exactly like Toothless, is NOT my cat? He has been in a cage for the last week????????????

I got permission and left work 10 minutes early for my lunch break (the social ramifications in the office fell out such that I might not be able to complete this rotation as a result. Obviously, I would fail school before surrendering Toothless. I think I can sort it out with my school and make up the time later).

I went to the shelter on my long lunch break, paid USD 100, prove his vaccine record - they had revaccinated him on my dime, but I still had to prove that I had been taking care of him. Obviously I have. I thought they weren’t going to give him back, they were giving me the 5th degree.

I don't know what to say. I moved him internationally, I pay for a prescription diet for his kidneys, he has regular VET visits, he has everything he needs. I'm a student with NEGATIVE money. He gets whatever he needs. He goes to the doctor before I do. How do I prove that I'm a good mother?

THE TRUTH

At the shelter I asked if he had been in a cage all week and they admitted that he was not at the shelter but with a foster. I left my number to give to the foster. Very thankful someone was watching him. Still confused.

TWILIGHT ZONE: who has been sleeping in my bed?? Who has been eating my cat food and acting like my cat all week, if Toothless has been was some strange family all week????

The ‘foster’ parents texted me and I have pieced together the story.

My neighbors, 50 feet away, have seen him around. He sometimes hides under their porch when it rains - I built him a shelter last fall with carpet, he has a place here when it rains. I was worried because I'm now often gone all day at the hospital, so I wanted him to have a place until I come home. I built him a place from free, recycled wood and carpeting I had left over from building him custom shelves and scratching posts all over our house. Our house is entirely 'catified' #jacksongalaxy. Usually, he pops out of his shelter or out of the trees as soon as he hears me pull up to the house (he loves killing the voles in our yard, which is OK because they ruin the structure of the yard. Sad, but better than birds in my opinion).

The neighbor saw him during the storm, a mere few hours after his PRESCRIPTION DIET/EXPENSIVE breakfast at home. They brought him to the shelter and scanned his chip, which still had his old info - MY BAD! It was complicated to change internationally, so I hadn’t. I did the night he went missing last week, but he was turned in a few hours after being in my care. He hadn't been gone a night when he was turned over to the shelter.

It's a MASSIVE slip for me. Obviously, I should have changed his chip as soon as we moved, it was just pretty complicated and I figured I would do it if he went missing, which I did. #worstcatmom.

The people (50 feet from our house) that turned him in then took him as a foster. He is loving, sweet, healthy. A perfect boy. The love him! But he didn’t like being in their ‘foster’ home, so he was ‘mostly outside’, always begging to leave when he was in their house. (honestly probably hearing me calling for him and trying to leave)

All last week he was coming home to me all day, sleeping with me. I didn't know there was a problem. It freaked me out that he was gone for 36 hours last week, so I was ordering everything to 'up my game', with GPS collars and everything. His new kit hasn't arrived yet.

*********I got a call this morning - last chance to save my baby....my baby who sleeps with me every night (save 2 in the last 8 days), my baby who is in my lap purrrrrring right now.***

For the last week, my baby was technically in the system as an abandoned cat, ready to be euthanized, but still living with me.

I can’t make sense of today.

#catmom #USA #studentlife #worstmom

#whatalittleshit

My sweet boy. He only has 3 full legs, his left back stump shown in the first photo. Couldn’t be more perfect since the dragon is missing the left side of his tail.

Look at that face!

this is toothless

(Her name is Gorilla cuz she’s got thumbs)

We originally thought he was girl so his name went from Freya to Mr Freya 😂

We originally thought he was girl so his name went from Freya to Mr Freya 😂

Im a rescue kitty on a long road to recovery. Dont laugh at me. In my prime i ran the streets of detroit and was top cat in my neighborhood. Now im a house nagger getting cared for by masta wandy out here in the sticks. Masta built my own room and has revived me back from death. I got shot by a pellet and its still inside me. My full story is in my bio.

he’s super cute, silly, and has a bent tail! i love him so much :’)

So happy I found this sub lmao