A COUPLE who feared their cat had been run over and killed realised they had cremated the wrong one when she turned up days later.
Michael Deegan and wife Sarah were told missing nine-year-old Marshall had been hit by a car.
Michael, 42, dashed to an industrial estate to identify the mog and said the ginger stripes and white foot convinced him it was Marshall.
He broke the bad news to daughter Eliza, 12, and paid £180 to cremate the cat.
But four days later the family were told Marshall had turned up at the home they had recently moved from.
The family are now keeping an eye out for anyone missing a similar cat and have kept the ashes just in case.
Michael, of Corby, Northants, said: “I’ll never live it down but looking back it’s funny and a relief that our cat is alive.
“My father-in-law thinks it should be a Specsavers advert.
“The cat had similar markings but it wasn’t the easiest to look at so we assumed it was ours.
“We told our daughter and she was devastated.
“It was bit of a shock when I went to the old house because she came running like nothing had happened.”
Relieved Eliza has since nicknamed her “Jesus cat” for her miracle-like return.
Mum Sarah, 44, posted about the “emotional rollercoaster” experience on TikTok and it has been viewed more than 450,000 times.
She explained how Marshall could not get used to her family’s new home so kept returning to the old house until she went missing at the end of October.
Marshall has now settled in to the new house.
