Good on the UK Metro for picking up on this lawyer story.. we hope Nubbins is ok.
A trial lawyer who vacationed at an Airbnb went home with the neighbor’s cat – and is refusing to return it to its owner ‘without a fight’.
James Wakefield, a 70-year-old litigator in Irvine in Southern California, spent Thanksgiving weekend at a vacation rental home to the north in Sonoma, where he and his family met Nubbins the cat.
Wakefield found Nubbins, missing part of her tail and lip and ‘hungry’, and took her to be a mistreated stray cat. He ended up taking the feline back home with him.
When the Sonoma County Sherriff’s Department demanded that Wakefield return Nubbins, the lawyer wrote in a legal letter back: ‘We were never going to let that cat get put back in the living condition she was in without a fight.’
On the first night of Wakefield’s vacation, Nubbins stayed in the backyard of the Airbnb. Wakefield assumed she belonged to the Airbnb owner, Matthew Knudsen, and asked.
’”She did not belong to anyone. It was a stray cat that showed up in the neighborhood four years ago,”’ Knudsen said, according to Wakefield’s letter from December. ‘Many of the neighbors would feed her. But none of the neighbors allowed her to come into their homes.’
Wakefield’s daughter contacted Knudson, asking if they could take the feline home, to which he responded, ‘It would be awesome if someone adopted her and gave her a good’, according to the lawyer.
Back in Southern California, Wakefield took Nubbins to VCA Los Altos Animal Clinic in Long Beach, where they discovered she was microchipped with Troy Farrell, Knudsen’s neighbor also living on Railroad Avenue.
‘We knew it was possible the cat was chipped. And we assumed that if it was chipped, we could locate her real owner and return it,’ Wakefield wrote. ‘Little did we know the person who caused her to be chipped was a neighbor who got tired of her having kittens in the neighborhood and wanted to neuter her.’
Wakefield alleges Farrell, did not give Nubbins food or water and left her out in the cold on purpose.
But Farrell had a different story.
‘She has so many people who take care of her,’ Farrell told the Sonoma Index-Tribune. ‘She doesn’t want to be an indoor cat. She doesn’t want to be stuck in a house. She just likes to be out and about doing her thing because that’s how she came out.’
Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Ritz contacted Wakefield after a police report was filed.
The Sonoma County District Attorney continues to review the case. If the office decides to file felony charges, Farrell could decide whether he will sue Wakefield in civil court.
Meanwhile, Wakefield remains adamant on fighting to keep Nubbins.
‘I am certain you will continue to do whatever you can to prevail and get the little cat back outside in the neighborhood where she belongs,’ Wakefield wrote. ‘And you can be assured that your 70-year-old cat nappers will do everything in out ability to protect her.’
