Missing cat ‘meows’ down the phone to its owner
A Mother-of-three was reunited with her cat, which had been missing for eight months, after recognising its meow during a phone call.
Rachael Lawrence, of Braintree in Essex, said she “recognised” a meow in the background when she rang the vet to check on her other cat, 11-month-oldtorvi, which was in for a procedure.
The 40-year-old said she asked if it was Torvi meowing but was told, “No, that’s just a stray we had brought in a week ago”. Her older cat, Barnaby, which is almost two years old, went missing last year.
Ms Lawrence said that she rang the vet back “a couple of hours” after first hearing the meow.
“It was just bugging me because I recognised the meow.”
She said she asked if the cat was black and was told yes, then asked if it had a white patch on one of its back feet and was also told yes.
Ms Lawrence brought photos of Barnaby, given the nickname Fatman by his family, when she went to collect Torvi and said she “knew it was him” as soon as they brought it into the room.
“I cried,” she said. “I’m talking snot bubble cries. I was howling. We hadn’t seen him for eight months.”
Ms Lawrence said she video-called her three children, Be, 12, Joshua, 11, and Amalie, seven.
“I just said, ‘Look who I’ve found’,” she said. “They went, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Barney. It’s Fatman!’ They were really happy.”
She added: “He’s back home where he should be. He’s getting on so well.”
Ms Lawrence said Barnaby has “loads of scabs and he’s all skinny and missing fur” – but is “more than happy to be picked up and cuddled”.
She added: “We just need to fatten him up to get him back to Fatman!”
Ms Lawrence said she had paid to have Barnaby chipped before it went missing but “it clearly wasn’t done properly”.