Mom Broke Her Promise And Gave My Cat Away And I Don’t Know How To Get Him Back.

Location: Southern California

This is kind of a last resort post, I have no idea where to proceed with this. (This is also my first post here, so I apologize if this breaks any rules.)

So basically, I (20F) live with my grandma and after I moved out in April (for my own safety) my mom said she would take care of my cat until my grandma agreed to let me take him. Then she got mad due to a financial dispute with my aunt (that I got dragged into) and told me I had until September 2nd to come pick him up, but she found out I was “talking crap” about her to my sister and on August 29th she told me she gave my cat to one of her friends (she can’t use money to hurt me anymore so she used my cat instead).

Eventually she did say she regretted doing that, and supposedly she’s been trying to get into contact with her friend (who initially agreed to give him back if she paid her $100 for the grooming services) but then she started ghosting her and apparently my mom hasn’t heard from her in weeks.

I wanted to file a lawsuit against her to get my cat back but I know next to nothing about her. Her phone number’s dead, I can’t find any socials with her name, and my mom claims that she doesn’t know her address (only the city she lives in)

I’m trying to keep faith that I’ll get my cat back but I feel like I’m stuck in a waiting game just sitting around hoping my mom will be able to get in touch with her friend and the more time passes the more I start to lose hope of ever getting him back.

I’m just heart broken because all I want is my cat, he’s been my best friend and biggest comfort for the past nine years and I can’t even get through writing this post without crying. I don’t want to believe that he’s gone but it’s nearly been a whole month and I don’t even know if there’s anything I can do about it. He isn’t microchipped and I have no medical records, all I have is pictures and social media posts where my mom admits to him being a birthday present to me which I hope proves he’s still my legal property. I’m only working part time so I don’t have any money to afford a lawyer or a private investigator or whatever, but I don’t want to give up on my cat.

I guess my question is how do I even go about this in court, if there’s anything I can do?