Sold! The hammer comes down on sellers who abandon animals

A PET cat has boosted the price offered for a Melbourne home by $140,000, but a cat was also the clincher in a real estate “purr-chase” on the Sunshine Coast.

Belle Property agent Theodora Demos took in Fat Cat, aka Fattie, when she was left behind after a Sunshine Beach house was sold. Contributed photo.

A PET cat has boosted the price offered for a Melbourne house by $140,000 but many vendors are apparently prepared to leave them behind for nothing.

A Sunshine Coast animal rescue worker said she had lost count of the cats that had been abandoned when homes had been sold or vacated.

A Melbourne home passed in $2.06 million at auction fetched an extra $140,000 when the vendors agreed to throw the cat in to the sale.

But Julie Penlington, of 4 Paws Animal Rescue, said cats were regularly left behind by departing vendors and tenants.

"Ten years I've been doing 4 Paws and the number of animals we've had calls about that have been left behind," she said.

Ms Penlington said people did not seem to invest in cats and have the same loyalty to them as they did dogs.

"Cats really get the raw deal in animal welfare," she said.

"Every week, I would have at least 10 people wanting to surrender cats to us."

Michael Beatty, of the RSPCA, said it could be difficult to prove that a cat had been abandoned.

However, he urged anyone with concerns about an animal's welfare to report the matter so it could be investigated.

Noosa real estate agent Theodora Demos, of Belle Property, took in a cat that had been left behind after the sale of a house at Sunshine Beach.

"I went across the road to the vet surgery and asked to borrow a cat cage and got her into that and took her home."

Fat Cat, or Fattie as she is known, is still with her 10 years later and lives a comfortable life in the apartment Theodora shares with her partner and fellow agent, David Garwood.

 

Originally published as Sold! The hammer comes down on sellers who abandon animals