She Just Found Out That Her Mom And Stepdad Secretly Put Down Her Cat And Replaced It With Another Identical Feline, And She’s Heartbroken
This 18-year-old woman has a 15-year-old cat named Maya. She’s aware that Maya is elderly, but her health is great, and she’s an incredibly happy cat.
Her father found Maya when she was just a small kitten, all alone in the street. And he brought her home and fed her formula, and they kept her ever since.
Some of the first memories she has from her childhood are of her father teaching her how to be gentle and handle Maya with care.
When she was 5-years-old, her father was in a tragic car accident and passed away.
Understandably, her immense grief was difficult to cope with, and Maya was her emotional support pet throughout this painful time in her life.
Because her mother had to work long hours, Maya was the only loved one in her life who was by her side on a regular basis.
One year after her father’s passing, her mother started a relationship with a man named Tim. Her mother married Tim when she was 7 years old, and she was unhappy about this.
Tim is kind and never tried to convince her to view him as a father figure, but this was obviously a huge adjustment for her, especially at such a young age and only a couple of years after a traumatic loss.
When Tim joined their family, he had full-time custody of his two daughters from a previous relationship, and at the time, his daughters were 1 and 2.
Photo 176478302 © Maksims Grigorjevs – Dreamstime.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual cat
Unfortunately, when their families came together, this transition was made even more difficult because Maya despised her stepsisters.
“It’s not their fault, though. They were just babies who didn’t know how to treat animals gently. They’d pull her tail and then start crying when she hissed. Luckily, she never bit or scratched them,” she said.
Upon reflection, she acknowledged that she could have demonstrated to her stepsisters how they should be gentle with Maya, but she was only 7 during this time. Plus, she was furious that her mother had gotten married to Tim in the first place.
Every time her stepsisters were too aggressive with Maya, she’d scream at them, and her mom would scream at her in turn, and it was just a vicious cycle.
Maya also despised Tim. This confused her because Tim treated Maya well, so she had no clue why she didn’t like him.
Whenever Tim was a foot away from May, she’d hiss at him, and, in response, her stepsisters would start crying.
This was a lot for her to deal with as a young child. Several months after she had been living with Tim and her stepsisters, she went to visit her grandparents for a week while her mother and Tim stayed home.
“When I got back, Maya seemed different. Not in a bad way, but her mannerisms seemed different, and she wasn’t as affectionate as before. I told my mom about it, but she just brushed me off and said Maya was probably just sick or something. Time passed, and eventually, Maya seemed to get more affectionate. Some of her habits were still different, but my 7-year-old mind didn’t really read too deeply into the whole thing,” she explained.
She also noticed that Maya was much nicer to Tim and her stepsisters. But she assumed that Maya must have grown accustomed to them.
However, a few days ago, she learned what really happened. During a birthday barbecue, their family was together hanging out, and her mother and Tim were incredibly intoxicated and started going on and on about weird things.
Her mother was talking about how she felt like all cats have similar personalities. Then, her mother pointed to Maya, who was sitting inside the house, and exclaimed, “‘See! She’s basically the same as the original one. She never even noticed after all these years.'”
Maya is a black cat with green eyes. When she questioned what her mother was talking about, her mother, in her drunken state, told her the truth of what happened when she was younger.
Her mother claimed that when she was young, she and Tim found out that the original Maya was sick with cancer.
Supposedly, when they learned this news, it was too late for them to try to see if treatment would be effective.
She and Tim were concerned that she would be devastated about Maya’s health declining, especially considering the fact that she was coping with her father’s death.
While she was away visiting her grandparents, Tim and her mother had the original Maya put down. The very same day, they saw a nice cat that looked absolutely identical to Maya, and they brought this cat home.
“I got furious and demanded to know why she had lied for 10-plus years. Then, Tim popped in and began laughing,” she shared.
“He said the second Maya was much more pleasant, and they should’ve just gotten rid of the original sooner.”
“After that, I ran inside crying. I asked my mom for the vet paperwork to prove the original Maya was put down due to cancer. She couldn’t do it. I snooped around her files and saw the truth. Original May was never sick. The papers say they put her down because of ‘extreme aggression.'”
Maya was never very aggressive at all, and she wasn’t even that bad around her stepsisters when they were very young.
Obviously, her heart is shattered. Her mother told her that she was being “dramatic.”
While she still adores the cat her mother and Tim got to replace Maya, it doesn’t make any of this any better or make her feel any less crushed.
Now, she’s giving her mother and Tim the silent treatment, and they think she’s being a jerk, pointing out that she shouldn’t be so hurt over something that happened years ago.
What advice would you give her?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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