quarrel | The Cat and the Quandary (Reply)

A couple of weeks ago, my elderly next-door neighbor had to unexpectedly vacate his apartment due to a sudden bout of poor health. Once maintenance refurbished the place, a married couple with a young daughter moved in. Shortly thereafter, I was met on my sidewalk after work by a very friendly, never-before-seen, dark, thin tabby cat with no collar. It was too social and well-groomed to be a stray. She tried for all the world to follow me into my apartment, which my own cat would simply not have tolerated.

Suspecting, but not knowing, it was the new neighbors', I left a note taped to their door asking if it was theirs and leaving my name and apartment number. Though the note, and the cat, had disappeared within an hour, I received no response.

While calling the apartment office on an unrelated maintenance issue, I inquired upon the matter. I was told that my new neighbors had not mentioned anything about any pets while drawing up their lease and had not paid a pet security deposit. If it was their cat, they were not only guilty of lying about it, they were also violating the complex's "indoor pets only" policy by letting it roam free.

Since then, I have learned for a fact that the cat is my new neighbors', and now I'm not quite sure what to do. The only right move makes me an asshole. This cat has no I.D. and no flea collar. In all likelihood it's going to get beat up or run over or catch a bad infestation in short order.

I'm going to try diplomacy first, but I've dealt with humans before. I'm not hopeful.