Do I steal my office cat?
I need advice -
Long story short I have been working at my company for 2.5 years, it is a small family owned business run by wife and husband and their son. they have an office cat which they leave every night and weekend alone; their reasoning? Because she’s allergic.
Since I’ve started there they told me they took his mother in and he was born in the office ; they have raised him from a kitten and cleared his eye infection. His mother went missing when tried to take her in for haircut (she escaped from kennel).
Now the cat left without his mom (I’ll call him P) has been left without his mother for 5 years (he’s 6 years old) he literally lives in the office and spends two thirds of his life alone.
I asked them why don’t they get him a friend or rehome him so he isn’t so lonely, they have every excuse under the sun.
They say he “doesn’t do well with other cats” because they tried to move him for a month trial at their sons acreage with farm cats where he was basically dumped into a group of cats with no slow introduction , of course he was defensive and scared.
So now he is back at the office, I’ve offered to take him or at least let me do a trial on weekends since I already have two cats, they are not open to it. I’ve suggested them getting a female cat or kitten since he was with his mom originally he was bonded to her.
They visit him maybe one time a weekend, but I feel so so so sad for him. He’s lonely and gets interaction 8 hours of the day, the rest left alone. Yes they meet the minimum requirements adequate food water shelter. But it’s not much life when a cat spends two thirds alone.
I play with him before work and on my breaks but after over 2 years I want
To leave this company and it’s hard to work for people who treat their animals like
This.
I have so much empathy and love for cats and it’s weighing on my so much emotionally I don’t want to work here anymore but I don’t want to leave P.
I have a key to my
Office and I try to visit him every so often on weekends but hard now since I moved to opposite side of city
So Reddit , what would you do? Would you steal him and take him home ? They have no security cameras, there is only a few people in office with keys so I’m scared of legal repercussions but I’m at the point where I’m so bonded to P I don’t know what to do and his situation weighs on me every single day. To the point where I’ve cried on Friday afternoons on drive home because I want to take him home so bad.
Any advice appreciated.
Posted Aug 14, 2026, 10:15 PM UTC