Cat Mistakenly Given Away By Shelter Back Home Again With Family

HAMPTON BAYS, NY — Lily, a cat that was mistakenly given up for adoption by an animal shelter, was returned home to her grateful family Friday.

"Lily made it home today!" Megan Fitzgerald wrote on Facebook. "We are happy she’s home. She’s been through a lot so she needs to get comfortable again. The kids have been taking turns watching over her and tending to her. She’ll be running the house in no time!"

Her family, Fitzgerald told Patch, has been through a whirlwind of emotions during the past two weeks. "It’s a relief and a great feeling to have her back," she said. "She’s the one who technically adopted us from the beginning and we hope she’s happy to be back, also."

Megan Fitzgerald said she, her husband Nick, and her children Brody, Aubree, Joey, and Holly, were devastated when they thought Lily, a stray feral cat that showed up in their yard last year, was given away by the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, without their knowledge or consent.

But on Thursday, after turning to social media with her heartfelt plea for Lily's return, the shelter called to say the cat would be brought home Friday. "I feel amazing! I am most thankful to the community around us that went to battle with us," Fitzgerald said. "I really feel like the little guy had a win for once. It's not just our win — it's everyone's win. I got off the phone with them and just started crying."

When asked how Lily got separated from her family, Fitzgerald explained that last summer, a cat started showing up under their shed. "We started feeding her and gave her a name. It took several months to gain her trust."

Eventually, Lily began coming up closer to eat at the house. "We bought her a heated cat house when it started getting colder out. On Christmas Day, she started letting us pet her. Then she started coming inside the house for periods of time when it was time to eat, to be loved on, and be fed," Fitzgerald said.

This spring, Lily got pregnant and Fitzgerald said she began feeding the "hungry mama" more.

"I even made her bone broth for added nutrients," she said. "And then one day we woke up and she had given birth to five adorable kittens in the heated cat house we bought her."

Fitzgerald said she was referred to the SASE's feral cat coordinator, who organizes the trap, neuter, release program.

They were given a carrier and put Lily inside, with the kittens in a warm box; the cats were brought to the shelter — with Fitzgerald waiting for the day when Lily would be returned home.

"One day I found Lily up for adoption on their website," Fitzgerald said.

Despite the fact that Fitzgerald was told that she'd given permission to give up Lily for adoption, "that never happened," she said. What followed was a series of calls and appointments that Fitzgerald said were canceled — and still, Lily was never returned home.

Lily was even posted and listed as up for adoption in an SASE publication, she said. Fitzgerald said she was made to feel that SASE did "not trust" her family to keep Lily indoors, and that she was "lied" to and told that she'd given permission to release the cat, which, she said, was untrue.

This week, she posted on Facebook: "My kids want their cat back. My husband and I want our cat back. We were never given a chance. They never communicated with us."

The only reason she sent Lily to SASE, Fitzgerald said, was to do what was in the best interest of the kittens. "To have their mom there to feed them and take care of them, so they could grow up strong and then be adopted. And now we're being punished," she wrote this week. "It took us months to get her to used to us."

On Wednesday, Fitzeral said: "We as a family feel completely railroaded over. We are a family who loved and cared for that cat."

Had they known what would happen, they would have kept and raised the kittens themselves, Fitzgerald said.

Their entire family adores Lily, Fitzgerald said: "She is such a loving cat. I was a dog person before Lily came into our lives — and she turned me into a cat person. She was so gentle with my one-year-old. And she was just so patient and kind. She would sit there for hours wanting us to pet her. My daughter meowed before she started saying anything else because of Lily. We got to know her and her us. She trusted us. So much so that I was able to even trap her in the first place because she came indoors to eat."

And when the kittens were born, Fitzgerald said her kids got experience that miracle. "They even named them," she said.

After Lily and the kittens were gone, every day, the children looked for their pets. "My kids would beg me to see the cat, to see the kittens. They'd ask, 'When is Lily coming home?' Because every day her empty cat house sits on our back table. And we will probably never get her back," she said Wednesday.

But on Friday, the Fitzgerald's will see their beloved cat come home.

The SASE called to apologize Thursday, Fitzgerald said.

A representative from the SASE told Fitzgerald that the organization would review its policies and procedures moving forward. "I hope that this doesn't happen to anyone again," Fitzgerald said.

Speaking with Patch, the SASE said: "We apologize for the confusion on our end. We'd love to correct situations like this in the future."

The problem, SASE said, was a miscommunication.

What happened, SASE said, "was never our intention. We help a lot of families with cats from their yards. We were trying to do a good thing. We're going to work to iron things out. We are going to look at our procedures."

Normally when they receive feral cats from people, they don't want them back, SASE said.

Also, SASE said, the organization will work with the Fitzgeralds, who have promised to keep Lily as an indoor cat, to acclimate Lily, who has now lived in the shelter as well as a new home. "We'll help Lily get used to her old life," SASE said.

And, SASE said, they will try and give some of Lily's kittens to the family that adopted her, "so everyone can be happy. We didn't want to upset anyone — and we're trying to remedy that."

"Overall, it's a happy ending," SASE said.