Woman takes cat to PetSmart Hotel. Then they give her cat to the wrong family—who ends up losing her: ‘The lack of empathy is concerning’

A PetSmart in Mount Prospect, Illinois, accidentally switched two boarded cats in their care, leading to one pet going missing for nearly four days. 

@wayn3sw0r1d and their family dropped off their cat, Delilah, before a big vacation. When they returned to Mount Prospect to pick up the pet, they received the wrong cat inside a kennel. Incredibly confused, they took the cat back to PetSmart and then found out that another family had received their cat two days earlier. 

When @wayn3sw0r1d and her family went to ask the other family for their cat back, the family said they “did not know where she was.” They also did not let @wayn3sw0r1d or her mother search the property to find Deliliah. 

Since then, the family has found their pet. But it took an intense, two-day search to locate Deliliah and bring her safely home. @Wayn3sw0r1d posted to her platform multiple times, with one video getting 727,000 views within the span of three days.

Many viewers have called out PetSmart for not actively assisting @wayn3sw0r1d with the search efforts. To many, the corporate pet store simply did not care that the cat was lost. Likewise, the couple from Evanston who originally found Deliliah actively rejected all attempts to let the family search for their cat, and extended the search for days despite conscientious efforts to reduce the issue. 

So, what exactly happened to Deliliah during that time? How was she found? Does PetSmart’s pet hotel have a notorious reputation for more than just this event?

Delilah goes missing while the family is still on their trip 

According to @wayn3sw0r1d, another family got Deliliah from PetSmart two days prior to the family discovering the mix-up. An elderly couple living between Evanston and Skokie had picked up what they thought was “their” cat inside a carrier. Taking it home, they released the cat and let it roam without ever realizing it was the wrong animal. 

Two days later, when @wayn3sw0r1d and their family went to pick up their pet, they almost immediately realized that it wasn’t their cat. They went to PetSmart to notify them that they had the wrong pet. PetSmart then provided them with information to go find their cat themselves, but the store made no actual efforts to assist. Instead, the family got the police involved, as pets are technically property. 

The elderly couple allegedly did not “care” for their cat. They only had it, based on @wayn3sw0r1d’s account, because their child who owned the cat died unexpectedly. The situation is tragic, but as @wayn3sw0r1d recounted, “they’re not cat people.” 

For that reason, they did not let @wayn3sw0r1d and her family search inside their home for their pet. They let the family know that Deliliah “might have” escaped, but they had no way of knowing for sure. 

This seemingly stunned @wayn3sw0r1d, as their lack of care made it so that the family could not find Deliliah and bring her home. In her original video, she asked for help while describing Deliliah’s general features, something that she hoped would turn into leads. 

PetSmart commented, “Hi there! We want to look into this right away. A member of our Pet Advocate team will be reaching out to you directly.” But, after direct contact, it appears as though they stopped responding to @wayn3sw0r1d for some time.

Gradual updates trickle in—Deliliah remains missing

Eventually, @wayn3sw0r1d posted a few updates regarding the situation. She let her audience know that the police were considering the situation an “accident” on Dec. 31, so there were no criminal charges to file. 

On Dec. 31, though, @wayn3sw0r1d posted an update that let her audience know they would be able to search the house. Apparently, the couple received a “threatening” text message from a random number letting them know that they needed to let the family search the home for Deliliah. They also had a family member reach out to them and urge them to allow the family to search for their cat. 

“This has been a completely infuriating situation and obviously not the way we would handle things,” @wayn3sw0r1d said regarding the threatening text message. “Do not do that. That is not okay… That is not helpful.”

Despite this, @wayn3sw0r1d had a “gut feeling” that the cat was in their house. 

@wayn3sw0r1d Full storytime coming soon. Comment questions, I’ll do my best to address them! #lostcat#petsmart#finddelilah#fyp#foryou ♬ original sound – wayn3sw0r1d

The family finds Deliliah

After searching the elderly couple’s house, @wayn3sw0r1d’s mother found Deliliah. Within five minutes of arriving, the cat poked her head out to look at her. That’s partially because they used a small beeping device that they trained Deliliah to respond to at home. 

@wayn3sw0r1d thanked the TikTok community for donating equipment to them and assisting with the search. According to her, Delilah had not eaten for multiple days. In total, Delilah had been there for four days. The family had been searching for her for two. 

PetSmart offered to pay for Deliliah’s vet services, considering the mix-up, but commenters urged the family not to take anything from the company, at least if they want to sue them later. They did, however, take $500 offered to them by the company, giving it to the family member who urged the couple to let them search for Deliliah. 

“We offered it to the family member who helped convince the couple to let my mom in the house. She really had an impact on my mom,” @wayn3sw0r1d said. 

TikTok had very little sympathy for the elderly couple, who, despite allowing the family to search the home, seemingly extended the process. As some commenters stated, “Imagine if they just let you look on day one… this would’ve been all avoided.” 

The Mary Sue reached out to PetSmart and @wayn3sw0r1d for comment.

Update Jan. 6, 2025:

In a comment to the Mary Sue, @wayn3sw0r1d clarified multiple key points, including how her family felt in the aftermath of losing Deliliah.

“I was trying to keep the videos informative and entertaining to keep as many eyes on the situation as possible,” @wayn3sw0r1d said. “At home, we were a mess, alternating between breaking down in hopelessness and finding a little more energy to keep looking for Delilah. It was SO cold, less than 20 degrees outside. We could barely stand to stay out there for 30 min at a time all bundled up, couldn’t imagine how frozen her toe beans would have been.”

Multiple PetSmart employees assisted with trying to find Deliliah, including a member of the “Pet Advocate” team, who @wayn3sw0r1d considered the company’s legal counsel. @wayn3sw0r1d also emphasized that she doesn’t place blame on the family that accidentally received their cat. 

As @wayn3sw0r1d stated, “This couple certainly made the situation worse, but they were victims of PetSmart’s negligence as well. They didn’t ask to get wrapped up in all of this, nor did they ask to have a cat in the first place. They handled everything poorly, but they were not harboring our cat maliciously. They were allowing us to search the yard and set Delilah’s supplies around, but didn’t want us in their home. They never realized they had the wrong cat and genuinely believed she wasn’t in the house. I still carry quite a bit of anger towards them, especially since they won’t even apologize after being wrong, but PetSmart should hold the brunt of the blame.”

She finished her comment by mentioning the family’s remaining worries in the situation. In the chaos of the situation, they hadn’t had an opportunity to truly consider how PetSmart was caring for Deliliah, who had special care instructions and food she needed during her stay at the PetSmart hotel.

Now that they’ve finally received Deliliah again, they’ve been able to ask whether PetSmart actually fed her the food she needed. 

“We still do not know how or when this mix-up happened. Molly eats special food [because] of her health issues, and we are curious if their supplies were mixed up as well. It could have caused a much bigger problem at PetSmart for a cat to receive the wrong medication or a cat to not receive their required medication. We have no information about the details of what occurred inside PetSmart at this time; however, I have requested body cam footage from that evening,” @wayn3sw0r1d said. 

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