The article said they told him he'd have to wait a day, which implies to me that they did have his cat, but idk especially when it says he failed to get the cat back

On the one hand, a day is not very long, nor worth murdering or threatening someone over. But on the other, if this happened to me, I would be unimaginably angry, and afraid, and worried for my cat. She would be so fucking terrified and I would hate having to prolong that terror for some arbitrary, bullshit reason. I would have an endless amount of "fuck you's" for anyone forcing me to wait if I knew they had her. I'd be so afraid they would like send her to be euthanized by mistake, or she'd get sick from being in cramped, shitty conditions :C