If it is not her cat, I don't think it is abandonment, nor can she be
held responsible. Seems a little silly to me to be blaming her. I would
jst see if I could find a no kill shelter.

That poor unnamed cat has sure been through a lot.

You posted this same messae to alt.cats.  Here is a copy of the response I
posted there:

This is *not* the same story you told before.  In your original description,
you said the college student called in response to your "missing cat"
posters, insisted on bringing the cat to you instead of you coming to her
home/apartment, and the *large* cat *escaped* from her arms because she got
out of her car with the unrestrained cat in her arms while the motor was
still running.  At that time, you still thought the cat was yours later but
it later turned out not to be the same cat.  From your own description, she
did not "release" the cat at your apartment complex, and she did not have
any experience with cats.  You also called her "stupid," among other things.

At that point, several of us expressed concern for the other cat, which was
now itself a "missing" cat.  I suggested that you post fliers in the
neighborhood where the cat was originally caught so the owners would know
where to look and mentioned (in two messages, I believe) that this meant
there was now another lost cat in an unfamiliar area with owners who would
not know where to look.  I further suggested that you call the girl and ask
her to do it if you did not know where she lived (and it seemed reasonable
to me that she might not have wanted to tell a stranger where she lived).

Did you post these notices and/or ask the girl to do the same thing?  Did
you take out any newspaper ads or contact animal welfare services for help?
It doesn't sound like it.  In my opinion, *both* you and the girl share
moral responsibility.  You are older, you are the one with some familiarity
with cats, and you are the one who incorrectly identified the cat as your
own (from a verbal description and even after seeing it escape from the
girl).  Therefore, I would place primary blame on you.  Why don't you take
action and try to identify the owners instead of expecting the girl to pick
up a cat when she obviously doesn't know the first thing about handling one?

MaryL

I'm glad to herar that the "wrong cat" has been recaptured, now I hope you
can follow through with finding his slave(s). If you have the phone number
of the girl who thought he was yours and brought him to your complex
originally, you can probably find out where she lives - and hence where the
cat was found, before he ended up in your area - by going to
http://www.theultimates.com/white and scrolling down the page to where you
see the Reverse lookup options. There are two places to enter telephone
numbers and check where they are located.

Once you find the answer you need, then you can advertise in that area that
you found this cat. It may help if you post his picture. Find the local vet
and post there. Find the PetsMart, feed stores, groceries, libraries, weekly
papers, whatever.

Good luck!

Your computer clock is one month fast.

Please fix it.

--
 -john
           wide-open at throttle dot info

~~~~~~~~
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries
of life: music and cats."  -Albert Schweitzer
~~~~~~~~