A cat surprised its owners by climbing through the cat flap, days after it was supposed to be cremated.
Nicci Knight, from Newby, North Yorkshire, was on holiday with her husband, Maaz, and their four children in Turkey when her neighbours told her that her cat, Ted, had been found drowned in their pond.
The family were relaxing by the pool at the Dalaman resort when the message reached Nicci’s mobile phone via the video doorbell camera that her beloved pet was dead.
His neighbors, who were caring for the cat while the family was on vacation, even held up five-year-old Ted’s distinctive black-and-white body on camera as proof of his untimely death.
Talking with BBC NewsNicci said: “I had to break the news to my husband and our four children and we were all absolutely devastated, because Ted is such a great personality and a much-loved member of the family.”
Nicci Knight, from Newby, North Yorkshire, was on holiday with her husband, Maaz, and their four children in Turkey when her neighbours told her her cat, Ted, (pictured) had been found drowned in their pond.
After getting over the initial shock, Nicci quickly arranged for Heavenly Pets Crematorium to pick up the body and cremate it, as she did not want to burden her neighbor with Ted’s body.
Four days later, however, Ted surprised cat sitters by walking through their home’s cat door.
The neighbor had to make another harrowing, yet bittersweet, phone call to the family in Türkiye.
Nicci said: “I didn’t believe it at first, I had to have him FaceTime me live so I could see that Ted was actually alive.”
She added: “I paid £130 to have someone else’s cat cremated.” When she later went to collect the other cat’s ashes, she saw the box had a label on it reading “Ted is not dead.”
Nicci went to the pet crematorium only to be presented with a keepsake bag that included the unknown cat’s ashes, a framed paw print, nose prints, a small jar with a hair sample, a condolence card, a packet of forget-me-not seeds, and an official cremation certificate.
The family has been unable to locate the owner of the dead cat and believe it must have been a cat from a local farm, but no one has yet claimed its ashes.
The family is thrilled to have Ted back and said they have been through “a rollercoaster of emotions.”
After getting over the initial shock, Nicci quickly arranged for Heavenly Pets Crematorium to pick up the body and cremate it, as she did not want to burden her neighbor with Ted’s body.
The crematorium later confirmed it would donate the cremation money to a local cat rescue center.
Meanwhile, Ted enjoys life at home and is oblivious to the family’s emotional turmoil.
However, this is not the first time this has happened. In 2021, another family was shocked when their cat miraculously returned home after believing it had been cremated.
Rachel Fitzsimons, 40, from Stretton, Cheshire, and her family were devastated when their 16-year-old pet cat, Frankie, failed to return home on May 19.
She searched for the cat with her husband, John, and their children, Thea, 10, and Remy, seven, and eventually spotted a dead cat on the side of the highway that they thought might be the cat.
Rachel organised a cremation to help give her sons ‘closure’, but the family was left in shock when Frankie returned home unharmed 22 days after he went missing.
Rachel said: ‘We drove past it a few times, obviously at speed, but the cat looked just like Frankie.
The framed paw print that Heavenly Pets Crematorium prepared for the family of the unknown cat
“My husband also managed to take a photo, but the cat was badly injured and difficult to identify.”
After giving a description of the cat, which was a fluffy tabby with a white belly, the Highways Agency went looking for the body – and the dead cat was a match.
She added: “They couldn’t microchip him because he was decapitated. We live very close to the motorway so it seemed likely that it was our cat.”
“We went to pick up the body and of course we didn’t look at it because it was too distressing.”
Rachel paid for a cremation, believing it would help give her children a chance to grieve. She said: ‘Remy used to sleep with Frankie in his bed every night so he was distraught when she went missing. He cried and cried.
“When we received the ashes, Remy placed them next to his bed. We all cried for several days.”
But 22 days after Frankie first went missing, he miraculously returned from the dead, as if nothing had happened.
Rachel says: ”My husband heard a meow outside and then I heard him scream. We all ran out and there was Frankie!