Dealing with fostered bunny's previous owner - REALLY need advice

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Love your rabbit
Advertise with us
Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Moonpix

Moonpix

Active Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2013
Messages
25
Reaction score
20
Location
Ontario, Canada
Hi everyone,

My husband and I are having a really tough night, and I thought I'd look on here to see if anyone had any suggestions or helpful hints.

Mouse's former owner has just contacted us to say that she suddenly wants shared custody on certain weekends.

This is completely out of the blue to us, as this was definitely not part of our agreement when we took full custody of him a little over a year ago (after fostering him for 9 months). It was set out in a verbal agreement that we would take full care of him - emotional and financial. Worse still, she's claiming that this was always part of her agreement and that she might contact legal aid; we find this incredibly hard to believe as she fully stated that he was ours on several occasions.

As you can imagine, he is our world, and we are both incredibly upset by this turn of events, and are wondering if anyone has any idea of what we can do.

Please help.

Thank you everyone, in advance.
 
I would not let her. While there are some occasions where you might let the former owner see or visit the rabbit (possibly even pet sit), but this does not seem like a good situation for you.
After almost 2 years and she suddenly wants to spend time with the rabbit, it just seems odd. He is yours. I really doubt legal aid would be able to do much. Without a signed contract, it is her word against yours. If you have previous correspondences, that can give some proof as they her saying he is your rabbit.
He is your rabbit now and I would not lead her on in any way. You could offer some photos, but don't let her visit and definitely don't let her take him with her.
 
Can you describe how you ended up with him a bit more? Shared custody of a rabbit sounds like a really stressful environment for him. Does either of you have proof of ownership like adoption paperwork or microchipping records or vet records?
 
Moonpix said:
Hi everyone,

My husband and I are having a really tough night, and I thought I'd look on here to see if anyone had any suggestions or helpful hints.

Mouse's former owner has just contacted us to say that she suddenly wants shared custody on certain weekends.

This is completely out of the blue to us, as this was definitely not part of our agreement when we took full custody of him a little over a year ago (after fostering him for 9 months). It was set out in a verbal agreement that we would take full care of him - emotional and financial. Worse still, she's claiming that this was always part of her agreement and that she might contact legal aid; we find this incredibly hard to believe as she fully stated that he was ours on several occasions.

As you can imagine, he is our world, and we are both incredibly upset by this turn of events, and are wondering if anyone has any idea of what we can do.

Please help.

Thank you everyone, in advance.
Click to expand...

I work with a rescue.. and have fostered animals before. There is no way
that any of this would stand up in court because our Rescue has dealt with stuff like this before with an animal I brought to the rescue from a friend of a friend. She wanted the animal back etc.. it's difficult for these people to prove anything that is written in air I have found out.

When she surrendered the rabbit did she have to sign any paperwork for the surrender? Our rescue makes all owners do this ( I say our rescue, but I am not the owner... I work with it and help and foster, etc.. and have helped place, foster, bring in animals that have been surrendered, etc) but even if they do not, the fact that you have had custody of this animal for the past 9 plus months should stand up as proof that she had not had any interaction or activity in the life of this animal.

We've had to explain the terms of the surrender and I would suggest you do this in writing or email so there is more than AIR in case she does try something stupid on X date when animal X was surrendered to you for fostering for X time was this, and after this date you took full ownership of the animal and none of the agreements included X or Y. After that I would not have any more contact. It seems like this X owner has some mental problems.
This is almost like the friend of a friend situation where it was the kids birthday and wanted the animal back for that date , and the anniversary of X and etc etc... NO.. We laid out what the terms of the fostering and adoption was in writing and then after that, that was it. Most people that threaten
legal aid for things like this never get anywhere and if they have to go to legal aid instead of a lawyer they don't have the funds to continue this to a court date or the amount of the animal is under the legal limits at least here in Maryland /Virginia we have found that to be the case.. this is what has happened in my experience... so we've had something similar happen and that is how we handled it and never spoke with the previous owner again, we totally cut them out. If they were not responsible enough to take care of the animal in the first place, why do they want it back for X day or Y day now? It does not make sense..

Vanessa
 
Korr_and_Sophie said:
I would not let her. While there are some occasions where you might let the former owner see or visit the rabbit (possibly even pet sit), but this does not seem like a good situation for you.
After almost 2 years and she suddenly wants to spend time with the rabbit, it just seems odd. He is yours. I really doubt legal aid would be able to do much. Without a signed contract, it is her word against yours. If you have previous correspondences, that can give some proof as they her saying he is your rabbit.
He is your rabbit now and I would not lead her on in any way. You could offer some photos, but don't let her visit and definitely don't let her take him with her.
Click to expand...

I second that... and like I said in my post legal aid would probably laugh off a custody case on a rabbit.
 
Christina, she purchased him at a pet store as a baby, so I'm assuming there wouldn't be many records there. As for written documentation, it was a verbal agreement. As for vet bills though, we have tonnes of those, as he has been neutered since we got full custody of him, and he underwent a few health issued related to his previous diet.

She left the country to travel for what was supposed to be a few months, but ended up being a little over a year. During that time, he bounced around 4 homes before coming to stay with us for the final 8 months of the trip. When she came home, we had her over to discuss the possibility of us retaining him permanently, as he had done so well in our care - we potty trained him and we socialized him (he was an incredibly aggressive 3 year old who had not been neutered). My husband works from home, so it was beneficial for Mouse to have a parent with him all day, and because of this, they have established a very close bond.

When we got together to discuss his permanent custody, she agreed that it was best for him to stay with us. There was no mention of "shared custody" as we realise how cruel that can be to an animal, especially a rabbit.

This was a little over a year ago now. Since then, we have decided to have him neutered on the advice of several vets, and we have him fully house trained. He has flourished under our care, and it's night and day since when we first met him.
 
In that case I agree that I just wouldn't let her see him. It's good that you have vet records proving you've been caring for him if it comes down to that.
 
As mentioned before, it's all about paperwork and receipts. She has none, and you have all the vet records. Rest easy, she doesn't have a leg to stand on.
 
Moonpix said:
Christina, she purchased him at a pet store as a baby, so I'm assuming there wouldn't be many records there. As for written documentation, it was a verbal agreement. As for vet bills though, we have tonnes of those, as he has been neutered since we got full custody of him, and he underwent a few health issued related to his previous diet.

She left the country to travel for what was supposed to be a few months, but ended up being a little over a year. During that time, he bounced around 4 homes before coming to stay with us for the final 8 months of the trip. When she came home, we had her over to discuss the possibility of us retaining him permanently, as he had done so well in our care - we potty trained him and we socialized him (he was an incredibly aggressive 3 year old who had not been neutered). My husband works from home, so it was beneficial for Mouse to have a parent with him all day, and because of this, they have established a very close bond.

When we got together to discuss his permanent custody, she agreed that it was best for him to stay with us. There was no mention of "shared custody" as we realise how cruel that can be to an animal, especially a rabbit.

This was a little over a year ago now. Since then, we have decided to have him neutered on the advice of several vets, and we have him fully house trained. He has flourished under our care, and it's night and day since when we first met him.
Click to expand...

I would not worry I mean there was 4 other fosters as well... and a rabbit is not some kid that understands coming and going from one house to another. I wonder what is wrong with this person.. oh well.. anyway.. it sounds to me like she is trying to pull a fast one with you guys. Stand your ground and don't worry. I would just cut off all contact with this woman. She doesn't sound like a very positive individual.

BTW, is the little Holland Lop/Mini Lop in the photos Mouse? What a cutie!

Vanessa
 
Tell them not to contact you again as they are harassing you x
 
Given that you've got lots of vet bills to prove he's yours and she's got nothing, I can't see her getting anywhere by trying to pursue legal action (though that's probably a bluff anyway). I think the bigger concern here is that she could insist on harassing your family if/when you tell her "no" (which I firmly believe you should - this sounds like drama waiting to happen and for all you know, she could disappear after getting her hands on him for what was only supposed to be a weekend). It's definitely a good idea to start keeping notes on how and when she attempts to contact you, etc. - that way if you ever feel like it would be in your best interests to get a restraining order, you'll have some sort of records showing how her behavior escalated over time.

I'm so sorry you're having to go through all of this! It's awfully unreasonable to show up after so much time and demand to get involved in the life of a pet you willingly surrendered :(.
 
Yeah, like the others have said, I would not worry too much. You have records, photos, etc. There's isn't a whole lot that "legal aid" can do.

Just don't talk to her about the rabbit, don't let her see him, I honestly would not even send her pictures. It's very odd for this just to pop up out of the blue.
 
I just want to thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for the outpouring of support. You've helped put my husband and myself at ease, and I'm guessing I need not explain how far from at ease we were when I first posted.

We don't have children, so Mouse is our family, and we would go to the ends of the earth for him, and it's great to know that there are good people like all of you out there offering support.

Thank you all!
 
Moonpix said:
Vanessa, that is him in the photos. Thank you so much! I'll pass along the compliment to him ;)
Click to expand...

Awww.. he is adorable... I need to get him to give Lady some nice bunny lessons! :O

Yes, he looks precious and I can see why you would have been upset in giving him back to that individual. No worries... he's your little boy now and give him a few nose rubs for me!

Vanessa
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top