Lost Cat Found After 15 Months - What's The Right Decision?

[yinyang]

I know all you animal lovers on here always give some good advice and I could really use some now. Sorry, this is going to be a long one .

Basically, 15 months ago our cat Nibbler, who was 2 at the time, went out one Saturday evening and never came back. We contacted vets, cat and dog home, everywhere we could think of and had dozens of posters up but she just seemed to have vanished. Obviously we were all heartbroken, especially my girls and the worst part was never knowing if she was alive or dead.

Last May a black and white stray turned up in our estate and though it wasn't Nibbler so many people remembered seeing our posters that we would get phone calls or knocks at the door every day from people telling us they'd found our cat. After a couple of weeks we decided that fate had brought us this new cat and adopted it obviously we had him checked for a micro chip and tried to trace the owners. He was happy to stay with us, got in fine with Yin and Yang and So Shadow is very much part ofour family now.

This morning my husband got a call from the vet to Say a family brought in te cat they found and took in 6 months ago and it's Nibbler. It goes without saying that I'm delighted and my first instinct was to get the details and go and get her straight away but I'm trying to decide what is best for everybody involved.

A part of me thinks that if Nibbler is with a family that love her and she's happy there it would be best to leave her - even typing that makes me start crying again. Like I said, the 3 cats we have now are settled well together and bringing Nibbler back into the mix would upset them all.the final straw is that we are moving house in less than 2 weeks so that's going to be an upheaval for te cats already and we would be bringing Nibbler Back to a house that's totally unfamiliar to her.

I really don't know what to do or what we're going to tell the children. Are we horrible people for thinking about leaving her? Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

[yinyang]

Hi, thanks to all those who have replied while I've been away.
Boxtops, I was hoping you'd see this. I remember following the story of Rover and being so pleased when he came home, it renewed my hope that Nibbler might do the same.

We've talked to the girls and although there were a lot of tears - from all of us- they agree that leaving Nibbler where she is is the best thing for all cats. We talked about how upset we'd be if someone took Shadow off us now because we think of him as our cat. Think we just have to trust that the Universe has put all the black and white cats where they are supposed to be.

We'll contact the vet tomorrow and ask her to let the other family know.

Thank you for all the feedback, everybody. Think I need a large glass of wine tonight.

[Lynniam26]

Honesty with your children is best. Might I suggest you use your experience re taking in Shadow, that Shadow is happy with your family and how they would feel if shadows last family came forward and Shadow had to leave. Just thinking this would relate well to you trying to explain why Nibbles should be left with the new family......should you decide to leave him/her be.

[Lynniam26]

Oops, just seen your last post there, well done and good luck

[boxtops]

That was a year and a half ago, lynniam - I do hope that all yinyang's cats are happy, wherever they are!