Cat reunited with owner after animal shelter mishap

CONROE, TX (KTRK) -- There was a happy ending to a nerve racking 24 hours for Shaniqua Brown and her cat.

"They still don't know how there was a mix-up, which I don't understand," said Brown, after realizing she brought the wrong cat home this week.

She brought her cat, Pepper, into the Montgomery County Animal Shelter to be spayed but was sent home with someone else's pet.

"She might have been scared and frightened and that just really worried me," said Brown.

Brown had plenty of questions for director Charles Jackson.

"I want to know you performed the right procedure on my cat," she said.

Jackson met with her and said the mix-up was pure human error.

"Normally, when we give an animal out, we scan it for a microchip and check the microchip with a paperwork and clearly that didn't happen this time. The cats look similar, but not the same, we gave the cats to the wrong person," said Jackson.

Pepper seems okay, but Brown says her experience serves as a warning to others.

"Be careful and pay attention to your animal. Make sure they're doing everything they're supposed to be doing," she added.