I (21y F) told my roommate (25y F) that keeping her cat (4y M) in a crate is abuse…. Let me back track. So a little over a year ago my roommate brought her cat into our home from her previous living situation. At first there was not issue with the cat he got along well with my cat who was 2 months old at the time. A few months go by without issues, until I brought my elder (15y F) cat into our home. (My family could no longer care for my elder cat so I took her in) within 2-3 weeks my roommates cat peed on my bed (for preference he’s fixed and so are my other cats) mind you I was very upset being that he ruined my $300 mattress topper but I pushed it aside as an accident. A week later he peed on my bed again, but this time there was no topper to protect my mattress so he then ruined a $500 mattress. At this point i assumed it’s not an accident and he’s doing it on purpose. The next week he then got into a fight with my elder cat and injured her. (No we did not take her to the vet, injuries were very minor and were taken care of by myself.) from this point I was very upset with my roommate and her cat, she agreed to remove her cat from the home. A week went by and she ended up not removing him from the home but keeping him locked up in her room. This didn’t last very long and he kept repeating the same behavior and it kept getting worse. He started to pee on almost everything he could find in the house and specifically my room where my cats are including on my carpet ( if ykyk you can’t get cat pee out of carpet). Yesterday evening my roommates cat peed on her beanbag, I told her this should be the last straw and he needs to leave. She told me she doesn’t have the heart to do that to him so she locked him in a dog crate in the garage over night and planned to keep him there because he’s now a “crate cat”. I then told her that’s animal abuse, cats don’t belong in cages. She ended up locking him back in her room, she’s still refusing to get rid of him.

If it were my cats I understand were she’s coming from but it gets to a point where you have to draw the line. I feel very sorry for her cat, she doesn’t buy him toys, scratch pads or treats. She treats him like a dog and barely shows affection towards him. (She does feed him regularly and change his litter but that’s all he gets from her)

I’m leaving it up to you guys am I the asshole or am I overreacting? I feel like I’m going crazy over this cat.

Side note I’ve been a cat momma for 15+ years I’ve had many cats but I’ve never met one that acts like him.