The Black Vault

I watched an interesting case on Judge Judy, where a man who owned the cat was held responsible for vet bills on the little dog, for over $4000. A Lady was walking her dog on a leash, his home was about 4 houses away. When passing the cat and dog got into a fight, they claimed the cat attacked the dog, putting his eye out. Dog was on a long extension leash. The dog was a about the size of the cat, and very cute. They clammed the cat just attacked the dog, he claimed the dog was aggressive with the dog. I really did feel for the dog. I thought the cat owner was not legally responsible, as tragic as it was.

I always thought cats are under an exception called "The right to eminent domain", meaning they were free to be outside cats and roam. The trend in most all cat adoption organizations is only to adopt to indoor only homes. Outdoor cats have many perils, and only the city shelters will adopt out to outdoor cat families.

Have the laws changed in states now where you are responsible for cats just like dogs now? I still am very surprised by the verdict. All our cats are strictly indoor cats. Would your homeowners pay for this kind of liability claim?

My cat is always trying to sneak out of the house and sometimes is successful. If there just happened to be a little dog on a leash I doubt she would attack it. But in the event that she did and caused sever damage then... i guess I would have to be held responsible. Never thought about it though. I guess I should do a better job not letting her out of the house.

We did have a cat when I was a kid in Buffalo, who was a pretty nasty cat, and he would go outside on winter nights. He must have found another house to hold up in because I couldn't imagine surviving a bad night in winter. We moved to California and he and the dog came too. He was such a tough cat, he actually did chase after a German Shepard on our street.

I agree if the dog was on a leash she said it was locked, but those extensions reel out 25 feet, so I think the dog did confront the cat. Judge Judy is a really a small dog person, so I wondered it her legal judgement on this was out of her dog lover side, and not the legal side.