What a bizarre thread this has turned into.
I'm confident that if someone broke into my house to retrieve a cat, the police certainly wouldn't see it as a waste of their time if I demanded they were arrested for it and I'm with the chap above, if someone did do this I wouldn't hesitate to call the police. I don't care if they offered to pay for the damage. And yes, I'm an animal person.
There's at least one specific crime to cover this, breaking and entering, possibly trespass too. And then they had to convince you all that a)They had good cause and b) They've not nicked anything/**** into your underwear drawer. It's one of the craziest things I've heard of on here.
Imagine coming home to find someone in your house cooing "here kitty kitty" under your bed? You'd own 'em, bomber style.