TIFU by stealing my neighbors pregnant cat to get it spayed
Two days ago, I had an appointment with the vet to get all 3 of our cats spayed/neutered. One female (Carol) and two males. They're all outside pets and the female has had 4 litters and was in heat again, so we decided it was time to cut her ladybits out. First thing in the morning, I go outside to gather them up, but of course, only one of them is in our yard. My 10yo daughter and I started walking the block to find the others and we see a Siamese cat jump out of a bush and take off running. Next we see Carol pop her head out of the bush. Great, we found her! She walks right up to us and we head back home. I set her in the pet carrier next to the other males and she's hissing and growling and overall not stoked to be next to them (who happen to be from a previous litter). It's not unusual for her when she's pregnant or in heat...no biggie. Off we go!
About 2 o'clock that afternoon, while I'm at work, we have someone at the door asking if we've seen their cat. (I'm listening on the doorbell app on my phone) They describe her as a little black and white cat with a pink collar with rhinestones. Sounds just like our cat.....weird. She showed my daughter a picture and she says it looks just like our cat too. Hmmm....even weirder. Since she's an outside pet, it's not unusual for her to be gone for days at a time, so maybe she hangs out at these people's house? Who knows?
It's night time now and my wife (who works night shift) send me a screenshot of our local lost pets FB group. It's our neighbor still looking for the cat. She posted a picture and sure enough, it's Carol. Or at least I'm pretty sure it is. So now I start thinking, "did I seriously grab the wrong cat?!" What are the odds that we have an identical cat 3 houses down? No way. Not a chance! She looks like Carol, meows like Carol, had the same collar and behaves like Carol.
It's Carol.... I'm positive.
Morning comes and it's time to pick up the cats. Just to be sure, I pay extra close attention, looking over every detail of her behavior and fur pattern. I see nothing weird except that she really wanted out of our backyard. She's fresh out of surgery so jumping the fence wasn't gonna happen, but she tried to squeeze under the gap in the fence. She's been here for 3 years, she knows she can't do that. Maybe she's still loopy from the anaesthesia?
As I keep watching, I notice another small detail. Carol's collar was missing some rhinestones. This one wasn't. I suddenly realize this might possibly be a pretty big fuck up. This might not be Carol. I messaged the neighbor and tell her that we MIGHT have been sharing a cat for the last year. She says she's seen Carol at our house when her cat was at home. Shit.
I take imposter Carol over to their house to see what happens and she darted inside so damn fast, like she's only ever lived inside that house. The neighbor explained to me that she got the cat a year ago as a kitten. A tiny baby kitten. Our Carol was old enough to be popping out kittens a year ago. Nail in the coffin, I guess. Luckily they were planning on having her spayed soon, but she was pregnant and they wanted to wait until after she had this litter.
What are the odds of having an identical cat 3 houses down? Turns out that those odds were better than I thought.
TL;DR - Our neighbors have a cat that's identical to ours. I mistakenly took it to the vet to get spayed, thinking it was our cat.