NYC Woman Wins Bizarre Legal Custody Battle With a Friend—Over a Cat

In 2025, it’s definitely understandable that people treat their pets more like children — this very publication deploys the use of “pet parent” in place of “owner.” So, it’s no shock to anyone on staff here that people are starting to work out custody agreements of their cats or dogs when they split up. But that’s usually in the context of a romantic relationship.

Aliya Zaydullina, a New York City woman currently based in Florida, just threw a new one our way. On July 11, she won a two-year-long legal custody battle with a former friend over her cat, Liza. A NYC judged ruled in Zaydullina’s favor and granted her full custody of Liza, though as of Wednesday Zaydullina told The Independent she did not have her kitty back home with her yet.

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So, how did this happen? Well, apparently, Zaydullina, asked her friend Maria Senichkina to watch Liza for a few in 2022 while the former visited her sick mother in Russia (this turned into seven months). Per The Independent, Senichkina was under the impression that if she agreed to watch the cat for this long period of time, Liza would become her cat. Zaydullina reportedly states that she asked for the original pet-sitting time period to be extended; she never agreed to giving Liza away.

Senichkina gave a statement to Gothamist, stating that she would never have agreed to the seven-month time period that Zaydullina eventually asked for: “I would never have agreed to be a temporary sitter for seven months. One month, sure. But seven months, and hundreds of dollars and hours invested [...] it was clearly not a temporary favor.” She told Gothamist that this large sum of money included veterinary bills.

In the end, the judge who ruled in the case, Manhattan Civil Court Judge Wendy Li, said that her decision came down to the issue of Liza’s wellbeing.

“While there is no doubt that [Senichkina] and the cat have formed an incredibly strong connection with each other in the past two and a half years, this court must acknowledge that [Zaydullina] shared at least a similar connection with the cat for the 10 years prior,” Li wrote in the ruling. She recommended an arrangement similar to that which divorced parents might agree to.

She wrote that the two parties should “arrange a way for [Senichkina] to remain a part of the cat’s life in some capacity.” She also added that Zaydullina would be required to reimburse Senichkina for Liza’s care between the agreed-upon pet-sitting period of September 2022 to May 2023.

“I am open to reestablishing the connection if we reestablish some sort of trust and communication,” Zaydullina told The Independent, who also reported that Senichkina is hoping to appeal the court decision. Zaydullina’s response to that? “I don’t know if I’m surprised, but I don’t know why she’s doing that,” Zaydullina said, adding that she adopted her at a shelter in 2013 “for just $60.”

So, stay tuned... this drama may have left the courts, but it might not be over yet.