I stole a man’s cats because he was beating them

For context: when i lived in my mothers house, cats would come by a lot and she never let them in. So one day a cat did come by and she did let it in, and ever since that she has let cats in the house. Now, i live alone, i don’t have a car but i still let cats in. So, one day while i’m letting cats in and out for a while, a man comes to my door and starts yelling at me. He asked me why the fuck i had his cat. I told him i had no clue it was his cat. I loved cats and i let them inside my house. He told me that he just moved in a couple houses up from mine and that his cat had gotten out of his house so he was looking for it. At first i said it wasn’t his cat but then he showed me pictures of it on his phone and it was his cat. I told him that he could have the cat but that he had to wait outside while i grabbed the cat. <br><br>He agreed and i shut the door and locked it. I grabbed the cat and when i opened the door to hand him the cat, i heard his wife or girlfriend ask him if he got the cat and he said yes. Then she asked “are you gonna beat it for walking out?” And he said “yeah, i’m gonna beat the fuck out it” My heart started racing and i knew i had to get the cat away from him. He told me to hand him the cat and i told him “i changed my mind, you can’t have it” And he told me that i HAD to give him the cat. So i closed the door and locked it, then i texted my dad (who is a cop) i told him the situation and he told me to let the man have the cat because cats are property and i don’t have the right to keep his cat. I told him what the man said and he said that since i didn’t here the man hit the cat and that since i didn’t see the man hit the cat that there was nothing he could do. So i told my dad that what i was about to do was against the law but i was gonna do it anyways. Then i texted my mom and told her the same thing, she said the same thing my dad said. So i told her the same thing i told my dad and i Circle back to the fact that i had locked the man and his wife/gf out of my house. <br><br>They were knocking on the door but i ignored it while i grabbed the two cats and put them in my room. Then i went back to my front door and let the man in. He was mad at me for not giving him the cats sooner but i told him “i told you i changed my mind, i didn’t wanna give you the cats.” He asked me where they were and i asked him “how will you punish them?” He looked at me confused and told me “i’m gonna beat them” I then asked “why?” He told me that they got loose. I told him that they were cats, it was their job to roam and hunt so it was their instincts to roam around. <br>He looked even more confused and asked “what?” I told him “you’re gonna hurt your cats because they did what they are meant to do?” He said “yeah, that’s what i’m gonna do” I then told him “i changed my mind AGAIN! You will not get your cats until you tell me you won’t hurt them” He told me he wouldn’t but i knew that he would so i told him that his word meant nothing. Then i locked him out of my house again. I locked all my doors and windows and put my phone on silent and left it in my room. I closed all my blinds and got a baseball bat and sat it by my door. I locked the cats in my room too so that way the man couldn’t hurt them. i shut my lights off and started playing some music on my ps4. <br><br>I spent the rest of the night and morning sitting by my door. Occasionally looking through the peephole and i could see the man sitting in his truck. At one point his wife/gf came to my door and started banging on it and telling me to open the door. I ignored her until she left. I wanted to go check on the cats but i didn’t want to leave my spot by the door. From 10 pm to 8 am, i sat by my door while i heard the man and his wife/gf outside my house. <br><br>At 8 am i decided to check on the cats. When i opened my door to get food, i was shocked to see the man had left. The cats were fine but i was mad that i had to spend the night sitting by my door scared that the man would KICK my door in and beat me and the cats. I even thought he might have a gun but i was prepared to fight till the end. When i had the cats for a week, i took them to the vet to get them fixed and spayed so they couldn’t have more babies. I had them a month before the man showed up at my door again. He told me that he knew where the cats were and that he had been looking for them but when he saw me he knew the cats were in my house. I didn’t even let him in my house this time. I told him the cats were not his and that he couldn’t hurt cats like that. I loved cats to much to let cats get hurt. I told him cats were like my children and that he was a sick man for hurting them. He told me he would call the police on me for having his cats and i told him “i hope you do, nothing will happen to me. The cops will NOT let you hurt cats” <br><br>That’s when he got pissed and started yelling at me. I told him to keep yelling until he realized it wasn’t gonna get him anywhere. He yelled at me for about a half an hour before he left. Then the police showed up. Circle back to my dad being a cop. I told the cop the whole story of what happened and he agreed with me that the man shouldn’t have his cats. My dad is now the one who holds the cats when the man is looking for them. I can’t tell my dad the cats location but he knows that i have the cats and he will never tell the man where they are. The man has been looking for the cats for a year but he will never find them.