I hired Stephanie Farris Amatori to safely drive a 1 1/2 year-old male cat from San Francisco to a cat sactuary located in Parlier, CA. The arrangement was for her to pick up Edward Thursday morning, March 04, 2010, and safely drive him to the sanctuary. I provided her with directions and paid her $230 cash. I also gave her all of Edward's personal documents to hand deliver to the people at the sanctuary.
Note: The sanctuary is NOT a shelter. It is 6 acres of land and a LIFETIME sanctuary for felines. In order for Edward to live there, I am obligated to pay $30 a month for the rest of his life. I absolutely refused to take him to a shelter or risk giving him away to a complete stranger. At the sanctuary, he would be safe and free to roam and interact with other cats for the rest of his life.

I waited all Thursday morning for Stephanie's call to let me know that Edward arrived safely. I never heard from her. I called and left messages on her cell phone, but she didn't return my calls. I emailed her and got no response. Finally, at around 5:30 pm, I received an email from her that said "i hope you don't mind, but I'm going to keep him." In shock and scared, I immediately called her and emailed her to find out what was hoing on. I contacted the sanctuary and was told that she never even drove to the sanctuary or called them to let them know what she was doing.

My concern is for Edward's well-being. I do not personally know Stephanie. I simply hired her for her driving service on Craigslist. Even if she wants to adopt Edward, she needs to talk to me first. I need a written contract, something in writing, that says that she will take full responsibility for Edward's life, and NEVER surrender him to a shelter, sell him to a laboratory, or give him away to anyone.

The whole point of him going to the sanctuary was for him to NEVER have to experience being in a shelter again. I don't even care about the $230 I paid her. I just want to know where he is and would like to keep in touch with him.

What she did was wrong. It is the equivalent of fraud and/or kidnapping. Why couldn't she talk to me first and why hasn't she returned any of my calls or emails? Also, the next day I went on Craigslist to find her ads, but it said that they had all been deleted by the author.

It's Tuesday and I still haven't heard a from her.

I am posting this complaint on the internet so that she never does this to anyone ever again! It's just wrong. If she really cares about Edward, she would've contacted me first. Instead, she just vanished like a kidnapper.

I just hope that he is safe and not hurt in anyway.

I've contacted Craigslist, the police, and the FBI.