Airbnb guests kidnap cat, refuse to give it back

The Wakefields claim the Nubbins was found outside the BnB in freezing temperatures. Photo / Getty Images

A California cat owner is in a flap after BnB guests abducted his pet cat.

Now the family who had been lodging in the Sonoma County property have refused to return the animal, alleging it was being neglected.

Nubbins, a tortoiseshell moggy, left the holiday house with the guests. In a remarkable three-page letter to Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, house guest James Wakefield said he had assumed the cat was a stray after encountering it outside the flat on Railroad Ave.

Wakefield, 70, describing the cat as "hungry, thirsty and cold".

In spite of this protest, Wakefield was ordered to return the animal to its legal owner Troy Farrell, a neighbour of the BnB listing.

Wakefield said he was "never going to let that cat get put back in the living condition she was in without a fight"

In the letter to Sheriff Mark Essick dated 21 December, Wakefield explained that the cat had appeared during a family trip to Sonoma for the November Thanksgiving Holiday. The cat had been discovered by Wakefield's son curled up outside, sleeping on a garden chair during near freezing temperatures overnight.

Wakefield alleged the cat showed signs of mistreatment, missing her upper lip and parts of her tail.

Having taken Nubbins to a vet for a check up, it was revealed that the animal had been microchipped and was the property of Troy Farrell.

Farrell, who has denied claims that the animal was neglected, contacted local media with images of Nubbins as proof of his dutiful care of the cat.

"She has so many people who take care of her," he told Sonoma News. "She doesn't want to be an indoor cat. She doesn't want to be stuck in a house. She just likes to be out and about doing her thing because that's how she came out."

In his response Wakefield objected to being called a "thief" and maintained that the cat was not being taken care of.

"You can be assured that your seventy-year-old catnappers will do everything in our ability to protect her," Wakefield signed off the letter.

It is understood that Nubbins the cat is still in the care of Wakefield, 740km away in Irvine South California.