Redditor’s Girlfriend Stole And Abandoned Cat After Argument

Studies have shown that when people who have pets are victims of domestic abuse, the pets often become victims too.

A Redditor says her beloved cat, Midnight, is missing after her girlfriend stole the innocent kitty and dropped her off on a random road on Friday as a revenge tactic for an argument the couple had the night before.

Midnight is still missing. Midnight’s owner, using a burner account called Throwaway29374639, updated concerned Redditors and said she was putting up flyers, setting up humane traps and looking in the area where her girlfriend claims she abandoned the cat as she was en route to work.

For her part, the Redditor says her girlfriend admitted what she did and “said she just had a moment of rage, but I just can’t even look at her right now. I kicked her out of my apartment and have been crying in my room for the last few hours. I feel so lost without my cat.”

In the thread, which attracted more than 1,400 comments and tens of thousands of views, many people advised her to report her (now presumably ex) girlfriend to the police, as well as to change the locks to her home and any passwords the two might have shared on various accounts.

We’ve talked before about the strange phenomenon of people who take their anger out on the pets of their partners or ex-partners. Studies have found that men are more likely to do so, and they’re much more likely to target cats than dogs because they see cats as an extension of femininity. In cases where domestic abuse is expanded to include a dog or a cat, the abusers view the pets as proxies for their victims.

But as recent stories have indicated, women sometimes take their anger out on pets as well.

anonymous woman browsing smartphone while sitting on bed near cute cat
When woman are abused by their partners, their pets are often abused as well because they’re seen as proxies for the victims. Credit: Sam Lion/Pexels

Regardless, studies show that the pets of domestic abuse victims are likely to suffer at the hands of their owners’ abusers, and statistics show women who check into domestic violence shelters report their pets were also abused in the majority of cases. Some studies found more than 80 percent of pets who belong to domestic violence victims also become victims.

Women who worry about what will happen to their pets are less likely to leave their abusers and seek temporarily relief at shelters. As a result, some shelters also make arrangements for the pets of abuse victims, giving them safe shelter and taking another worry off the minds of their caretakers.

The links between pet abuse and domestic abuse are in addition to the well-established link between harming animals and “graduating” to harming humans, illustrated most recently by the documented history of feline abuse by the shooters allegedly responsible for massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

Top image via Pexels and depicts a random cat, not the victim’s cat.

18 thoughts on “Redditor’s Girlfriend Stole And Abandoned Cat After Argument”

  1. Such a terribly cruel thing to do! The ex really knows how to punish her girlfriend by harming the cat. Hopefully the redditor will find her Midnight alive and well. (I could to say a lot more about the person who
    abandoned the cat but would have to use extreme profanity.)

    Liked by 4 people

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  4. Sincerely hope she gets her beloved Midnight safely home very soon. The person who abandoned kitty should be reported for willful abuse and cruelty of Midnight, and hopefully prosecuted.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. Unfortunately I don’t know which state Midnight’s human lives in, but hopefully it’s one with decent animal welfare laws and not a situation where the law treats it as the same as stealing someone’s microwave, like I wrote in another post. A lot of states still treat pets as property for legal purposes.

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    2. The weirdest thing about it, at least to me, is that she seemed to think there was a path to reconciliation after she did that. Obviously she didn’t know her partner as well as she thought she did if she really believed she could steal her partner’s cat, abandon the poor kitty on a road and be forgiven.

      Unfortunately most states still classify pets as property and assign value to the lives of pets as fungible commodities, not as living beings with whom we form sentimental attachments, so depending on the Redditor’s state, the law might treat the incident as tantamount to stealing a small TV or a microwave.

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      1. Weird, indeed. On both points. As you say the law doesn’t take animal mistreatment seriously. Even though the link to crimes against humans is well known and documented.

        Liked by 3 people

      2. The classification of animals as “things” and property needs to change. Anti-cruelty laws tend to be weak and rarely enforced to the full extent.

        Liked by 3 people

  6. HHHHMMMMM an THE werd HUMANE comess from THE werd Hu’man Buddy an Big Buddy??
    Pawthetick woman who catnapped Midnite an then dumped him! Shee shuud bee charged an then banned from EFURR havin a 4legged or even a Budgie!
    Pleese let us an all yore Followerss know when Midnite iss found OKay?
    😦 BellaDharma an 😦 BellaSita Mum

    Liked by 2 people

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  8. Pingback: FurryGate: Rogan, Boebert, Greene Drag Cats Into Politics With Claims Of Litter Boxes In Schools – Pain In The Bud

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