A pet owner was left stunned after ‘her’ cat walked into her house just hours after she buried him.
Karen Turner, 50, discovered the body of a black cat on the side of the road the day after her beloved cat Sammy went missing.
As the moggy had four white hairs on his chest – similar to Sammy – she presumed the cat was hers and then took the body to her father John’s house in Radford Semele, Warwickshire.
Karen Turner, 50, buried what she thought was her cat, Sammy, after finding one very similar to hers on the side of the road
Mrs Turner decided to have Sammy buried at her father’s home because she feared her Jack Russell terrier Alfie might dig up the grave in her own garden.
She and her father created some rockery over the grave and marked it with a wooden cross bearing the epitaph: ‘Sammy. Loved by All’.
But several hours later, her cat walked through her kitchen door at her home in Bishop’s Itchington.
Recalling the moment she found what she thought was Sammy by the roadside, Karen said: ‘I was devastated.
‘The previous night was the first time in six years, since he was a kitten, that Sam had not come home.
‘Now I knew why and it broke my heart.
‘When I first turned that little body over and saw the white chest, I just knew it was my Sammy and my heart skipped a beat or two.
‘But I was on a lovely housing estate and had to keep myself together, so I couldn’t go bursting into tears.
‘By the time I got home I was numb, and I didn’t really know what to do.
‘Then I thought of my dad, John. He’s very kind and sensitive and I knew that if I lost it and broke down it would upset him terribly.
‘So I just kept my emotions in check and we did our best to make a nice resting place for Sam with a quiet ceremony.’
John added: ‘I knew how much Karen adored Sammy so we had a quiet little ceremony, a few snuffles and tears and a final goodbye.’
Mrs Turner said: ‘Back home I was really down, but managed to keep on top of things and kept myself busy.
‘I was also worrying about David [her husband] coming home and having to tell him the news because he’s as daft about animals as I am.
‘So when he came in the door I just fell to pieces and blubbed away for ages.’
The unthinkable then happened when Karen heard a scratching at the kitchen door – and in walked Sammy behind their other cat Jack.
She said: ‘I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I was almost hysterical and found myself scolding Sam like he was a naughty little boy.
‘I was saying to him: ‘You are supposed to be dead. Where the heck have you been?’
‘It’s a real shock when suddenly you see your dear, departed pet come strolling back from the dead. It all seemed so unreal and crazy when he followed Jack through the flap.
But Sammy later walked back into her house after being missing for a day. Mrs Turner discovered she had buried a different cat instead
‘I thought I was dreaming and imagining it, so I yelled for Dave. The look on his face too – he was so happy to see Sammy fit and well.’
To track down the owner, she scanned the village’s Facebook community site for three days until a post appeared reading: ‘Has anyone seen a beloved black cat missing for four days….owner terribly upset.’
Pensioner Lister De Lara Taylor, who lives in the same village, was missing nine-year-old Maurice, and so Mrs Turner had to break the news to her on the phone.
She said: ‘My dad said she would be welcome to visit and see the lovely little shrine we’d made for her pet.’
Following the request of Mrs De Lara Taylor, Mrs Turner agreed to have Maurice exhumed from her father’s garden by John so he could be cremated along with all of Mrs De Lara Taylor’s previous pet cats.
John said: ‘It was a very strange experience. I wrapped the little creature in a shroud and we returned it to its home and owner.’
Mrs De Lara Taylor admitted she was grateful for the send-off given to Maurice, but was happy to have found him.
She said: ‘I was so sad, but when Karen told me the lengths they had gone to, giving my lovely boy such a decent sent off, I was extremely moved by their kindness.
‘I gave Karen and her father my most heartfelt thanks.
‘Now Maurice is with all his friends, all my other pets, and I am so grateful.’