Eden Animal Rescue staff are used to taking in cats that have been cared for by kind hearted members of the public when a cat has appeared on their doorstep. But a cat that was brought in from Burnbanks at the start of July turned into a really unusual story.
The lady who brought him in had been feeding him for a few months thinking he was a feral cat. But as time went by she realised he was used to people rather than being a feral cat so she decided to hand him in to Eden Animal Rescue. He was put in a box and driven to the Centre at Moorlands Head Farm. Once he was there the staff checked him out and discovered he was chipped.
This meant there was a chance that he could be returned to his proper owners. But the landline number did not work so they tried the mobile number on the registration. The phone rang and at the other end was a very surprised owner. Her first reaction was that it was a practical joke and then the story unwound.
Pyewacket as he was called had disappeared four years earlier when the owner was living at Howtown and despite her best efforts she had failed to find him. Then she moved 150 miles south to a village in Sherwood Forest assuming sadly that she would never see him again.
Now he had reappeared miles away from where he had vanished. She made some arrangements and a few days later she drove up to the Centre outside Penrith and was reunited with her wanderer, who was taken off to his new home in Nottinghamshire. The mystery of course is where he was for the four years and how he came to travel from Howtown to Burnbanks but he was not saying anything!
Centre Manager, Sarah Bean, said “The happy ending underlines the importance of getting your cat chipped. Whilst dogs must be chipped by law getting your cat chipped is a matter for the owner. We chip all the cats rehomed from us but it is important to keep your details up to date so that if they get lost then there is a better chance of returning your cat home.”
But where did his unusual name come? Well after a cat of the 1950’s who won an animal “Oscar” when he starred as Pyewacket alongside Kim Novak and James Stewart in a film called “Bell, Book and Candle” and later became Kim Novak’s pet (allegedly).
