[TGE-mail] CAVEAT FOR PET OWNERS (I think)

[ageorgian at aol.com]

I'm glad to hear that you got Lily back, and hope that she recovers completely from her adventure.  Thanks for telling the whole story. . .there are so many scams around.  My husband and I are convinced that there is a "scam school" in operation as we have noticed that we will hear the same story from several individuals for a while, then another story will make the rounds.  For example  "my child needs a prescription filled and I don't have any money", "My car broke down and I need $27.38 to get the part I need from Auto Zone up the street ", "I need cab fare to go collect money that someone owes me; I'll pay you back as soon as I get back" , and the oldest one of all "I ran out of gas and need some money to fill this can". I swear that I have heard very similar versions of these stories at least 3 times (the prescription one at least 10 times!), and as soon as we offer to accompany them to wherever they need to go or offer them gasoline or mechanical assistance, of course t
 hey disappear.  I'm guessing that "I found your injured pet and took it to the vet and you owe me $30" is this year's version.
 
Let's all keep vigilant and continue to communicate.
 
Sheila
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Bookscoming at aol.com
To: tgena at lists.more.net
Cc: Bookscoming at aol.com
Sent: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 7:05 PM
Subject: [TGE-mail] CAVEAT FOR PET OWNERS (I think)


 
First I want to thank everyone who offered any kind of help in finding my cat Lily; I truly appreciate your kindnesses. Second, I'm happy to report that Lily is back as of this afternoon, Day 5. What I'm not happy about is the way she was found, and it occurs to me that this could indicate some kind of low-level scam that might affect others. I'm more than a little embarrassed to share the details, as they make me out to be mentally challenged; I should surely have known better. But in hope that this will spare even one other pet owner, here I go:
 
The phone rang early this afternoon and a young-sounding female voice asked if I had a cat named Lily. After five days I was nearly delirious to hear that this young lady and her husband had my cat and seemed to be taking good care of her. But here are  the facts of the situation, and I still acted clueless at every turn:
 
1. Lily has two ID tags: an "AVID" micro-chip tag with a number to call if she is found; and a silver St. Francis medal with her name and my phone number on the back.
 
2. The finders claimed they took her to a vet because she seemed to have been hit by a car. Yet she came back to me without a scratch. But if her "injuries" were so minor, why didn't they just call one of the numbers on her tags? (Obvious answer: then they would have had to depend on the kindness of the owner for a reward rather than spell out the precise amount they wanted.) Also they showed up without a receipt from the vet. 
 
3.  I asked these folks if they could possibly bring her over, as I'm not allowed to drive, and they readily agreed, saying they were only a couple of blocks away. Well, it was dislike at first sight. For one thing, the woman looked considerably older than she had sounded, and she wasn't smiling. Second, she was carrying Lily with her head and body wrapped in 4-5 thicknesses of blankets, as if she had turned feral again...
 
...and indeed she had, for a while. These people had not treated her well at all. 
 
And what did I do? They had mentioned a $30 vet bill. I gave them a check for $50.  
 
But wait--there's more (blush). On the phone, I had asked how to make out the check. The woman said, "Better make it out to my husband, 'cause he has all the ID."  The name?  "John Johnson."
 
Right.
 
Anyone who's still reading may be happy to hear that I came to my senses shortly thereafter and stopped payment on the check. But Lily has been showing signs of something not good. She was ravenously hungry at first, and ate so much so fast that she vomited--then did the same thing again (she who has never upchucked in my sight). She's still very much under the weather.
 
It breaks my heart to keep an animal indoors all the time when the outdoors is so accessible...but I'm seriously considering it. Meanwhile, if this humiliating confession of mine can prevent something similar from happening to another pet and owner, I will not have blushed in vain.
 
All best,
Maggie I'm-not-usually-this-gullible Mangan
29xx Pennsylvania 
_______________________________________________
Tgena mailing list
Tgena at lists.more.net
http://lists.more.net/mailman/listinfo/tgena
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.more.net/archives/tgena/attachments/20070211/4593af19/attachment.htm