This story is wild. So, in 2017, a Portland man named Joshua Smith was leaving an addiction recovery meeting when he saw a stray tabby cat in the parking lot and took the cat home. The cat was starving and had a swollen eye. Joshua named the cat Frank and loved him very much. Then, two years later in 2019, his landlord went into his apartment without notifying Joshua, which is illegal, and abducted Frank the cat. There was allegedly a no pets policy, though Joshua’s attorney says he couldn’t find any such policy or property rule in writing. The landlord claims he had his girlfriend drop Frank off at a shelter, where they checked his microchip and he was reunited with his previous owners (I do not buy this, I have to say). A neighbor saw Frank being abducted and told Joshua about it. So Joshua took the landlord to court, and won a hell of a payout, $1.375 million. Good. Kidnapping somebody’s pet is a demented thing to do, regardless of any “lease violations.”
An Oregon man’s dogged search for the truth has left him nearly $1.4 million richer.
Joshua Smith was forlorn when his feline sidekick, Frank, mysteriously disappeared.
But Smith sported a Cheshire cat smile this week after a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury deliberated less than two hours before awarding him $1.375 million for the loss of his 3-year-old tabby, oregonlive.com reported.
Smith had previously sued, claiming his landlord had “catnapped” the furball.
“The jury’s message should be loud and clear to landlords,” said purr-suasive attorney Michael Fuller, who won the case. “You need to respect the rights of tenants, especially when it comes to pets.”
The rags to riches tale began when Smith, 41, encountered the apparent alley cat on the street in 2017 and welcomed him into the humble room he rented at a drug recovery group home in Portland, court records show.
Smith returned home on April 29, 2019, and found Frank had mysteriously vanished. He sued his landlord, Devon Andrade, and the recovery house business, Pinestreet LLC, days later, the outlet reported.
As the fur flew in court, landlord Andrade fessed up that he filched Frank, saying it was a violation of Smith’s lease to have a pet, the media report said. The heartless landlord owned up and said he got his girlfriend to drop Frank off at a local shelter.
“It turned out that the people on the jury were also animal lovers,” said Fuller.
While Smith won beaucoup bucks in court, he didn’t get Frank back. Veterinarians found a microchip in the cat and returned him to his original owner.
I couldn’t find more info about the case besides this article from four years ago here. Basically Joshua’s argument was that he was devastated by the loss of Frank the cat and was originally suing his landlord for $250K for emotional distress and violating entry laws. I’m guessing that the remaining amount is punitive damages that will go the state. Pets are great across the board but I think they can be so supportive for people in addiction recovery. Joshua says in that article linked above, “He was the only thing that loved me at the time. Girlfriends come and go. Friends come and go. Frank’s been the one constant in my life.” And even if Frank had previous owners, he clearly loved Joshua a great deal.
Cats choose their people. When I was in high school, there was a cat in my best friends’ neighborhood who had essentially been abandoned by his owners once they got a dog. Bruce was a giant, fluffy, friendly orange tabby who was always wandering down the street looking for attention. I would always pet him, and my friend’s family started feeding him on their patio. One day as I was leaving my friend’s house, Bruce just jumped into my open car door and sat on the passenger seat. I knew what that meant. I drove home with him and took him inside. I just told my mom, “this is our cat now. We have been chosen.” (She understood. She knows that’s what cats do.) Bruce was our boy from that point forward. Frank the cat chose to be Joshua’s companion, and it’s enraging that his landlord would just abduct the cat instead of having a conversation with him about violating the lease or trying to work out an agreement with pet rent or something. I really hope that Frank is okay and that his previous owners love him as much as Joshua did.
evidence photos via PageSix
So terrible abducting Frank. I[‘m glad he’s been compensated but that money will never replace Frank.
But he stole the cat from the original owner in the first place? How do we know the actual owner wasn’t devastated and crying when their cat just vanished (because this guy just saw a cat he liked the look of, and decided to help himself to it)?
He stole someone else’s cat and then the cat got stolen from him, and returned to the rightful owner. Karma.
By all reports, the cat was living on the street and not in good health. He didn’t steal a cat from someone knowingly. I’ll say,, our cat, known as the Queen of Eveything, is a stray we took into our home. She came into our life during sub zero temperatures. -14 degrees. We called the police department, animal shelters and vet clinics. She was starving and yet, had the energy to jump onto my lap and purr. I said to my husband, this is a tricky situation. The day of, I called our vet saying, we have this stray, that looks malnourished what do we do? I’ll bring her in fo shots& things, but we want her owner to be found. No one reported a cat of her description being missing. The landlord illegally entered Frank’s owners home. And then whisked Frank away without permission.
And he never got his cat back? Wtf!
WTF! I don’t think I could cope if this happened to me. I’d need to be sectioned (or jailed)
Very, VERY happy to read kitty and dad were reunited and a nice big fat payout awarded to them
100% cats choose their people. We have 3. I feed them all and do kitty litter, vets appointments etc. But my one big tabby boy will only sleep on my girlfriend. He is besotted with her. Even tho it’s me that’s fed him for 9 years
The 2 gingers are all mine though 🐈🧡🐈
The previous owners obviously wanted him back. He could have gotten lost through no fault of theirs. They may have raised him from a kitten and been very attached. I’m sure they loved him also and someone picking him up off the street with no attempt to find out if he was missing was traumatic for them. Not excusing the landlord’s actions by any means. But someone who finds a stray should make an attempt to find if there is an owner who is desperately searching before becoming attached. If not, THEN keep the cat. If so, there are plenty of cats who are in need of a home waiting in shelters and rescues.
Same, Equality. Frank (or whatever his name is) was chipped for a reason. The vet should have scanned him on his first visit (this is protocol where I live) to make sure that Frank is as free to be owned by Joshua in the first place!
That said, what the landlord did was unconscionable! If pets are legally not allowed, that has to be in the lease. Next, you need to let your tenant know when you choose to visit and you can’t walk in on the property. This guy deserves to pay a steep price for being a terrible landlord and horrible human being. (I do find the money awarded too much though.)
I hope Joshua is able to be the cat dad to other wonderful felines and I hope he’s doing okay. The money can’t take Frank’s place, but it will help for finding a decent place and new feline family members.
@equality, while you raise good points about trying to find a stray’s previous owners, I’m going to give this guy a huge pass on that one.
The Frank was found on the street, in awful health, in a populated area, looking every bit like a cat who had been abandoned for a while. And the guy was in an emotionally vulnerable situation just coming through rehab, living in a drug addiction recovery home piecing his life together. Having the mental wherewithal to consider a long starving, sick cat found in a parking lot actually might have had a home elsewhere, to think through the steps of how he could possible explore if that was the case, to actually bring the cat somewhere … I can see why he just never got to that point. (If anything, one of the counselors, assistants in that halfway house could have guided him through it.
I have a hard time hearing a story of a stray cat and a former addict, both on shaky ground, found each other and saved each other, and then both eventually got happy endings, and faulting the guy for giving that stray cat a home, love, care and nursing him back to health. The landlord and his girlfriend are the only bad guys here.
I completely agree. Frank needed help. Joshua helped him. Joshua needed help. Frank helped him. I hope whoever has him now appreciates him just as much. I also hope the LL is reduced to eating ramen for a while!
one thing… please do not just default to taking animals to animal control, especially cats. look into rescues first!
especially for cats, who are more challenging to adopt out than dogs are. the rescue organizations give them the best chances.
in either case, they will be checked for a chip and there is a time period when the owner can reclaim them, but with a rescue they are better cared for and will be kept safe for much longer if the owner can’t be found right away.
a rescue might have even been able to connect Joshua to whoever the chip was registered to, allowing them to reach out to Joshua and at least thank him for helping Frank out. my hope and prayer to the kitty gods is that whoever has Frank now will see this story and recognize him from the photos and Joshua will at least be able to visit him.
kitty love is special. BOO HISSSSS to the landlord! pay up, MF! some people only feel things in the wallet.
Agree 💯 with this. Hope the original owners are properly grateful to be reunited with this baby and will take better precautions to keep him safely indoors in the future. Hugs to Joshua & Frank.
Agreed!
In Oregon it can cost money to drop animals off at shelters.
Paying the shelter to take an animal sounds incredibly counterproductive!
However, if you decide to take a pet, you need to properly care for it. In many EU countries you already need to register and chip your cat, get a passport and vaccinations. This will also be the case were I live. When you bring the cat to the vet, the vet must check if the cat has a chip, and if so, if the cat is missing. It sounds like Joshua either didn’t go to the vet or the vet didn’t check the cat properly here in the first place.
You can’t purchase cat collars that will strangle a cat anymore—if the cat gets stuck on a bush or whatever, the collar needs to be able to come off. That’s part of why people need to chip and register their animals.
Exactly, and we only have the word of a shady drug addict that he “had” to steal the cat because it was in poor condition, and that he nursed the cat back to health.
Clearly he never took the cat to a vet, because if he had, the chip would have been found and his theft would have been discovered.
Here in the UK where it’s the norm for cats to free roam, we occasionally have problems with people stealing perfectly healthy cats because they wrongly believe the cats to be strays. My local vet has a woman who brings in 2-3 “strays” a week, the vet just rolls their eyes and gives the cat back to the owner.
Glad he found a bit of justice. I hope he has someone helping him to manage this money.
I know that this sounds unhinged, but if anyone knowingly stole or hurt either of my two pups, I’d end up in prison. I am so happy for him getting this settlement but also so sad that he’s lost his precious Frank due to his asshole landlord.
It doesn’t sound unhinged to me.
My first thought was that if this happened to me, I’d never get the $ as I’d get a jail sentence instead.
Not saying that would be the right or smart thing to do, but especially if they took my cat and I was unable to get them back? I’d be out of my mind with grief. (I’m very attached to my pets)
This is beyond disgusting and the money will never be enough, and what a coward asking his gf to drop it off. What a twat separately loved ones and their family! Disgusting!
Everyone understood why John Wick lost it – don’t mess with people’s pets!
@Helonearth Literally. If someone stole my cat I would lose my sh!t on them.
Joshua says in that article linked above, “He was the only thing that loved me at the time. Girlfriends come and go. Friends come and go. Frank’s been the one constant in my life.” And even if Frank had previous owners, he clearly loved Joshua a great deal.
–Ok, crying right now. I got “chosen” too by a large tabby Maine Coon that someone dumped in my neighborhood many years ago. I loved that cat. He looked like a cat, acted like a dog and chirped like a bird. Still miss him.
“this is our cat now. We have been chosen.” – I love this 😂
When I was visiting my grandma at her assisted living facility a few weeks ago someone had just discovered a litter of young kittens on the property and three of the nurses/aides each picked one and adopted them on the spot. I was like “the cat distribution system at work.”
I got all of my beloved cats off the street. They came to me. One sat in my lap and hung with me. One was a super young kitty that kept showing up when we BBQ’d. Each time we took both to the vet for full physicals and chip checks. Neither had chips, both were in Good health and FIV neg and no one came looking for them or put posts out for them. I think the chip check is as much as you can do if you are inclined to do it.
So you stole someone else’s cat and your mom just went along with it??
She said he had been abandoned.
My husband and I currently rent and two years ago adopted his grandmother’s cat after she had to go into a care home. If my landlords ever came into my house and took him I wouldn’t sue, I would unleash what can only be described as John Wick level of vengeance upon them. And get my cat back.
I’m now picturing @Penguin at the center of a real life version of ‘Keanu’.
People are so weird about the “stealing someone’s cat” as if cats always belong to someone and can’t just be feral/alley/abandoned whatever. And back in the day cats didn’t have chips. Hell, even today a lot of cats don’t have chips. If my cats somehow got out, the BEST possible outcome aside from being reunited with me would be to end up with someone as caring and kind as this guy. FAR better than many of the alternatives…
Yes, cats can be feral, but they aren’t usually friendly with humans when they are. It requires trapping and gentling down (if possible) to handle. And, back in the day, people could (and still could) also canvas the neighborhood and put up fliers. Today, there is even on-line canvassing. It’s just courtesy to me to try to prevent someone else going through the bereavement I would if somebody took in my lost animal.
That must be one docile cat! To let a stranger pick it up and remove it from its home! But then again that docileness is probably also how its owner was able to bring it home from the street. I am literally afraid to try to pick up a cat that has been living in the street. I’ll feed one all day long, but homeless cats have to face off with LOTS of other animals, and as such they are usually on guard and can whoop a humans ass if they choose.
Now my little dog, NO ONE can pick up my dog if he doesn’t want them to. He is the squirmiest, most slippery little dog
…..it’s like he’s made of Teflon…….
What the landlord did was unconscionable. At the same time, if the cat WAS chipped he had probably gotten out/lost somehow and his original owners missed him. Most (not all) people who chip their animals do care about them.
I just feel so badly for the man and I am glad he got some justice, even if it will never make up for losing his friend.
This is such a sad story for Joshua, Frank and Frank’s original parents.
I won’t fault Joshua for not looking for a microchip. He is not in a mental space to comprehend this.
Our shelters are overrun. If you find a cat or dog there is a waiting list of six months to put the animal in the shelter. Most of the shelters in my area are refusing dogs and cats. If they do take the animals it is to euthanize. The No Kill shelter I support is now euthanizing due to overpopulation, lack of staff and vets. It is heartbreaking. No, I don’t blame Josh at all for not looking for a microchip.
I am a rescuer. I have a microchip reader in my home. My husband and I getting request daily to foster. We can’t do it at the moment.