Family searches for tabby owner after accidentally burying wrong cat

It was an aptly gloomy night when a Canterbury family buried their pet cat in their garden.

They’d found the feline on the side of the busy rural road they live on in West Melton, west of Christchurch. It had likely been hit by a car.

As the rain fell down, they wiped away tears in the dark and said their goodbyes to their beloved Yellow Cat.

Suddenly the poignant moment was interrupted by the piercing meow of Yellow Cat, who came sauntering over to see what all the fuss was about.

It was a mixture of confusion, joy and sadness as it dawned on them that the cat they had just buried was not Yellow Cat.

Belle Wallace-Cochrane said her family was still not sure whose cat was now buried in their garden, but she was eager to find its owner.

“My neighbour sent me a message on Tuesday to say she wanted to talk to me and when I called her, she said she saw what looked like our cat on the side of the road and told me where to go look,” she said.

Outside in the dark she found the cat, a large ginger tabby just like Yellow Cat. She was devastated. It was the family’s third cat that had been hit by a vehicle in the six years they had lived there.

Wallace-Cochrane’s husband and their 13-year-old son collected the cat from the road, put it in a shoebox and found a suitable spot in the garden to bury it.

“The next moment my son came into the house laughing saying Yellow Cat was back. I thought he was telling a joke, but then my husband confirmed that Yellow Cat had turned up,” Wallace-Cochrane said.

It was “a strange mixture of feelings” to realise their cat was alive and well, but that someone else had lost their pet – and it was now buried in their yard.

Wallace-Cochrane said in retrospect, she realised the cat they buried didn’t have a collar around its neck, while Yellow Cat did have one, but in the moment that had not crossed her mind.

“It looked exactly like our cat – it even had a little fuller stomach like our cat.”

She put a post on the West Melton community Facebook page explaining what had happened and asked anyone who knew who the cat belonged to, to reach out. So far no-one had come forward to claim ownership of the cat.

Wallace-Cochrane said someone suggested they dig up the cat to have it scanned at the local vet for a microchip, but she decided not to do so.

“If the owner of the cat contacts us and requests us to un-bury the cat, I will. But I am not going to do that now.”

In the meantime, she was grateful Yellow Cat was all right.

“It was so sweet. That night Yellow Cat came into our bed and put his cheek up to mine giving this loud purr as if to say, ‘all’s well’.”