A neighbor who I don't personally know (not even the name) left behind their cat and my landlord assumed ownership. Before it was abandoned, I was interested with the cat too but my landlord assumed ownership right away since he found it first when abandoned. I have gotten so attached to the cat and the cat would go to me and sometimes would spend a few nights in my room, clearly the cat is in need for care and attention and is quite hurt from what its previous owners did.

How can I legally adopt the cat? I miss the cat terribly especially that the teenage daughter of my landlord finds the pet cute and locks her up so that she won't spend the night with other people.. She even left the cat locked up alone even if it wants to go out, it's an indoor/outdoor cat before, and I saw a glance of it when I picked up my mails in their mailbox that it was not happy to be locked up inside and left alone, it looked scared and unhappy...

Please, any advice is appreciated. Can my landlord (or any other stranger just claim a cat to be their own after abandoned)? I am worried sick about the cat since my landlord has had 2 other cats and a few that were left most of the time outdoors and tend to neglect after his daughters got bored with them or if the cats get sick or not cute anymore.


I seriously have the means to take very good care of the cat and give it a nice home. I am moving as well because of this.. It just hurts me so much to see the cat locked up like that and be left alone with proper attention. I work from home so if I am the new owner I'd definitely try to have the cat indoors but provide the cat the much needed attention, plenty of play time and care.. It doesn't matter whether the cat is cute or not to me, it's just that I feel that the landlord is not the best owner to be claiming this cat who obviously needs to be combed everyday (fur matting, looked like a Main Coon). The cat would go to me before when it was able to to also drink from the water fountain, demand food (i give her grain-free wet food that she likes), and I'd like to bring her to the vet for general checkup and buy her pet insurance..

I would just go talk to the landlord and ask him if you can adopt the cat and why you want it.
He may or may not give you the cat.
Legally its his cat right now as its his house and property.
But have a talk with him first and see what happens.

Yeah, you're all correct. Thank you. Sometimes, it's better to just have "friends" listen over through my rant before I can come up a plan of action on my own. Update: I've searched for the agent of the foreclosed house and was in contact with her an hour after writing this. She said my landlord started feeding the cat when it wandered off to our premises, and the cat was not his to claim. She'll give my message and phone number to the previous cat owners and hopefully I'll hear from them soon and with good news. Wish me luck! There's still hope (though small) for the cat to be in a good home, mine! Yes, Finders keepers that's what I'm afraid of, and certainly I don't want to leave this apartment with some grudges and burn bridges with my current landlord (he's going to be my reference too for future rental applications) and his daughters so I'll try to seek any legal mean possible first before I resort to drastic measures lol talking to him is NOT an option coz he's pretty much firm i