Beloved cat went missing. Bob’s owner is suing Tacoma animal shelter that adopted him out

For more than three years, Kelly DeKett has owned a black and gray tabby with a white underbelly.

His name is Bob. He’s an outdoor cat with a black mark under his chin and kinked tail. During cold and rainy winter months, he resides inside DeKett’s home in Spanaway that she shares with her elderly mother, who’s bonded with the feline. He enjoys roaming outside, walking along a fence and visiting neighbors for free handouts, according to DeKett.

On Oct. 1, Bob didn’t come home for dinner. After a nearly two-week search, DeKett found him. Now, she wonders if she’ll ever get him back.

Bob had been stolen, taken to an animal shelter and soon after adopted by a new family when no one claimed him, according to a lawsuit filed by DeKett last month in an effort to retrieve the cat.

DeKett, 52, sued The Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County, seeking a court order to return Bob. She accused the shelter of acting negligently and standing in the way of her attempt to recover her stolen property.

“I don’t care about paying the filing fee,” she said in an interview. “This is a family member that somebody took.”

In a statement, shelter spokesperson Lauren Green declined to address the suit’s allegations.

“While we are not able to comment on the specifics of any lawsuit, our focus remains on providing compassionate care for every animal who comes through the doors of our open-admission shelter, and to those in need of support in our community,” Green said.

The lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 25 in Pierce County Superior Court, said that by the time that DeKett learned Bob had been at the shelter, it was too late: The cat had already gone off with a new family.

DeKett blamed the shelter for failing to recognize that Bob appeared well cared for, unlike a typical stray, and accused it of inaccurately describing Bob on its website, causing her to dismiss the missing pet as her own while searching for him. She also criticized the shelter for declining to provide her with the contact information of the adoptive family. Instead, the shelter had tried unsuccessfully, as of Thursday, to reach the family to see if they would be willing to return the cat, according to DeKett.

“I want to get him back because he was unlawfully taken,” she said.

Local laws

One of the biggest challenges to Bob’s safe return was that he didn’t have an identification tag nor was he micro-chipped — two measures that animal organizations strongly advise to protect lost pets. DeKett told The News Tribune that she didn’t think she needed those protections because Bob was well-known in her neighborhood.

“Obviously, prevention is best,” animal law attorney Adam Karp said in an interview.

Karp, who practices law in Washington and other states and has both sued and represented shelters, said that missing animals are treated as lost property. There are so-called reciprocal burdens: Owners must search for their property and a finder must search for an owner, including by contacting animal control or a local animal shelter if the owner cannot be located.

Local governments and shelters will seek identifying features, such as microchips and license tags, but if there’s no information, “then what are they supposed to do?” Karp said.

Both the city of Tacoma and Pierce County have contracts with The Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County. The local governments, like others, set their own rules regarding lost pets, including how long they’re held if impounded.

In Tacoma, if animals in the custody of animal control aren’t picked up within 48 hours after notice to an owner, they’ll be placed for adoption by The Humane Society, according to the city. The 48-hour holding period exists in unincorporated Pierce County, too, county code shows.

The holding period also applies to the shelter, according to Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Sgt. Darren Moss.

Redeeming a dog might cost an owner as much as $25, in addition to boarding fees, if it’s the animal’s first impound within a year period, city and county codes show. The cost is slightly less for cats and slightly more for livestock.

In Tacoma, dogs and cats may not be redeemed unless properly licensed, according to city code. Animals not redeemed in the city or county could be euthanized, the codes say. The Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County doesn’t euthanize animals because they have been at the shelter too long or because space is limited, according to its policy. Euthanasia is only considered for terminally ill and dangerous animals, the policy states.

Animal organizations suggest starting an immediate search for lost pets. American Humane, an animal welfare organization, advises checking with local shelters every day, including by visiting in person.

The organization also suggests calling local animal control; scouring local neighborhood groups on Nextdoor and Facebook; putting up “lost pet” signs; and placing ads in local newspapers.

Searching for Bob

DeKett, who has no attorney and is representing herself in her case, alleged that a person took Bob to the shelter and reported him as a stray despite knowing that he belonged to her.

About two weeks before Bob went missing, a woman had come to DeKett’s door and expressed concern about the cat and later sent a text message that noted he was at the woman’s house all the time, according to the lawsuit. After DeKett replied to the woman at her door that Bob was fine and to leave him be, “(the woman) became irritated, stated she feeds him too and left,” the suit said.

DeKett believes the woman later delivered Bob to the shelter out of spite, but DeKett said she didn’t realize what had occurred until nearly two weeks after her cat was gone. The woman is also named as a defendant in DeKett’s legal complaint against the local Humane Society and referred to as Jane Doe.

The immediate search for Bob led DeKett to check the shelter’s website on or about Oct. 2, according to the lawsuit. She found a grainy photograph posted of a cat that looked like him but the written description didn’t match him: The cat’s sex was listed as unknown and its color as brown and white.

DeKett kept looking, the suit said.

It wasn’t until about Oct. 13, or 12 days after Bob went missing, that a person reached out who had come across a Facebook post that DeKett made about her missing cat. The person said they had seen Bob at the shelter, and they sent pictures of a cat to DeKett that confirmed it had been him, according to the suit.

DeKett contacted the shelter, provided evidence of rightful ownership and requested Bob’s immediate return, the suit said. The shelter purportedly told her that he had been adopted within 36 hours of his surrender.

If accurate, the holding period would be less than the 48 hours established by Pierce County law.

DeKett, who said she filed a report still pending with the Sheriff’s Department that was similar to the allegations in the lawsuit, accused the shelter of declining to provide the adoptive family’s contact information and wrongfully allowing the family to retain her personal property.

“The Plaintiff is in immediate need of the property because each day that goes (by) that Bob is not at home Plaintiff’s elderly mother’s anguish increases,” a court record related to the lawsuit reads. “She is broken-hearted and misses her best friend.”

A shelter doesn’t have a duty to disclose new owners unless a plaintiff can convince a court that they would win their case and then that information becomes relevant, according to Karp. If it’s proven that an animal was fraudulently delivered to a shelter, it could be an avenue for voiding the transfer of an animal, he said. A shelter might face liability if it didn’t follow local law or exercise due diligence, he added, including making reasonable efforts to reunite an animal with its owner.

If a shelter has to go back to an adoptive family after that family has taken custody of an animal, it could make for a thorny situation.

“It can become a big fiasco where everybody feels kind of wronged,” Karp said.