No place like home
After 10 years, Terrie Mitchell, 34, from Sheffield, gave up on seeing her cat again…
I worried Chloe had been run over
Ahouse isn’t a home without a cat.
At least that’s what I told my husband Matthew, 35, trying to convince him that we needed one.
I felt that even with our daughter Jessica, then four and our son Owen, one, our home just wasn’t complete.
So in 2011, Sassy and Mr Blue moved in, two furry friends to complete our family.
Even then, there was one other cat I often thought about – Chloe.
I’d bought her when I was 21 and still living at home with my mum Jean and my sister Keeley.
She was an affectionate little ball of fluff, and she loved exploring the outdoors.
Then, when she was a year old, she came home one day with her eye hanging out from its socket by a bloody string. Horrific! Racing her to the vet, we were told that she’d probably been shot by an air rifle.
But sadly, her eye couldn’t be saved from the damage.
Chloe recovered, but she became more timid.
‘She’s a home bird from now on,’ Mum said.
So, when I moved in with Matthew in 2004, Chloe stayed with Mum.
I was sad to leave her, but it made sense. I knew she’d be safe at Mum’s. And it’s not like I didn’t see her regularly – I’d pop in to see Chloe and Mum on most days after work.
Tragically, eight months after I moved out, Mum was diagnosed with cancer.
And just three months later, in November 2005, she passed away. Keeley and I were devastated. To make matters worse, a few months later, Chloe disappeared.
‘She was missing Mum so much,’ Keeley sobbed, as we walked the streets calling her name, knocking on doors and putting up posters.
Horrible thoughts were racing through my mind.
Had Chloe gone looking for Mum and been run over?
Weeks passed without any news.
Eventually, we had to sell Mum’s house and move on.
Still, all these years later, I often wondered what happened to Chloe.
Then, in October 2016, a photo of a black cat appeared on a Sheffield Facebook page. I stared at the photo
in disbelief.
‘That’s Chloe!’ I cried, calling Jessica, now 10, and Owen, six, to come over.
‘My cat that vanished all those years ago… that’s her!’
I’d last seen Chloe long before the kids were born.
My heart thumped as I read the Facebook post.
Chloe had been living rough on an allotment.
‘Mum had one of those allotments,’ I said to Matthew. ‘They’re five minutes away from her old house.’
Excited and confused, I messaged Andrea, who’d posted the picture. That’s my cat from 11 years ago, I typed.
Then I grabbed my old photo albums from the loft.
‘There’s Chloe!’ I told the kids, pointing at a picture of her as a tiny little black kitten.
That evening, I spoke to Andrea over the phone.
She told me that Chloe was living in a wheelie bin someone had filled with carpet and cushions and was being fed.
But with winter coming, they wanted to find her a warm home.
Apparently, Chloe had been living at the allotments for the past six years! Had she gone there looking for Mum? I’d never know. All that mattered now was getting Chloe home. ‘I’ll bring her round to yours,’ Andrea said. At Pets At Home, I stocked up on cushions, bowls and a fancy radiator bed for Chloe. ‘She loves these catnip drops,’ I remembered, adding them to my basket. I wanted our reunion to go well because I knew how much finding Chloe after all this time would have meant to Mum. And, when she arrived at our house and I saw her little face peering through the bars of the cat carrier, I was transported a decade back in time. But Chloe shot behind the sofa and refused to budge. ‘Maybe I should put on some Clinique Happy,’ I said.
I used to drench myself in the stuff back then…
And within two minutes of spraying on the perfume, Chloe was purring on my lap!
‘There’s so much lost time to make up for,’ I told the kids So now we all spoil Chloe rotten. She’s an old lady now – 14-yearsold – but she’s living out her retirement in style.
After all she’s been through, she deserves the good life.