A Moral Dilema (Sort Of)

I'm glad to finally have a story worthy of the blog.

My mom found a "cat trapped in an abandoned car" this morning on the way in to Fred Meyer. When she comes out, she sees that the cat is still there. The windows are all rolled up so the cat can't have fresh air. She calls the police to come check it out. Around noon my mom takes me with her to go save the cat. We arrive at the Fred Meyer parking lot and it doesn't take long for me to realize the context: A homeless mom and her daughter Emma (water color painting found in trunk with name Emma written on it) came up from California (California license plate) in the car that they are living in (they have all their possessions jammed into the car). My mom's plan is to break into the car, take the cat, and find it a good home. The trunk is tightly packed and is tied down because it cannot close. I unpack the trunk enough to push the back of the back seat down so that I can unlock the door. When we have the door unlocked, I tell her to hold on so that we can discuss the ethics of this.

"If you see a man living on a quilt downtown with his dog, would you tell him you're taking his dog?"
"Well, no."
"What if the man were sleeping? Would you take his dog away to find it a good home?"
"No."

Of course, these circumstances are different. The cat is well fed and has a litter box. But on the other hand, Fred Meyers has been paging for the car- it will eventually be towed if the owners do not return soon enough (so why not rescue the cat?). I figure that they will return that night so I don't see that happening. If the cat is suffocating in the heat of an airless car, why not take it? I want to open the door ajar for air and then tape it in place so that it won't open further. I figure we should leave a note saying that we're willing to take the cat off the family's hands and if that's not agreeable, at least leave the windows down a bit in the future. That doesn't sit well with my mom, but she reluctantly agrees and goes in to buy duct tape. I remain to pet this adorable cat, who's sitting atop a cat bed and looks longingly outside but can't figure out how to jump all the way down. My mom returns, looks at the cat, and can't bear to leave this cat imprisoned in this car all day and she resolves to take the cat. So we leave a new note explaining that we feared for the cat's life, will provide it with a very good home, but if you want it back, here's our number and we'll return it. I don't think this is a good idea. My mom calls my dad on the way home and he explains why this is a bad idea (breaking in and stealing). Upon arriving home, my mom agrees to my initial idea of leaving the cat in the car and leaving a note to the family. So we go back to Fred Meyer and put the cat back in. If we can relocate the pet for them, they'll call us.

In hindsight taking the cat would have been a horrible decision. What would stop the owners from claiming they had valuable possessions in the car and are gone now? Homelessness is not a proud experience- taking their cat would have increased this sense of powerlessness and crushed the family. I guess this only makes sense a moral dilema given my mom's uncanny love of cats and her tradition of rescuing strays.