Meet Ted, the cat both alive and dead (Picture: Picture: Peter Barron/KTD Media)
A woman who found out her beloved pet cat had drowned while she was on holiday was stunned when a neighbour said he came back home.
Nicci Knight, from Newby, North Yorkshire, was on holiday in Turkey when her neighbours told her cat Ted had drowned in their pond.
Heartbroken, she arranged for a funeral and cremation to take place while they remained in Turkey.
But four days after Ted was brought home in an urn, the cat sauntered back into the family home.
Nicci told BBC: ‘I had to break the news to my husband and our four children and we were all absolutely devastated because Ted is a huge personality and a beloved member of the family.’
The cat sitter called her after Ted walked back in through the catflap – and Nicci couldn’t believe her eyes.
Nicci Knight found the urn said ‘Not Dead Ted’ (Picture: Peter Barron/KTD Media
The cremation certificate doesn’t actually have a name written on it (Picture: Peter Barron/KTD Media
Your guess as to whose paw print this is is as good as ours (Picture: Peter Barron/KTD Media
She added: ‘I had to get her to FaceTime me live so that I could see that Ted was actually alive.’
The question remained – who’s cat had Nicci paid £130 to have cremated?
She picked up the urn after returning to the UK, and found Heavenly Pets Crematorium had labeled it ‘Not Dead Ted’.
Vicki Crallan, the director of the crematorium, told the BBC the situation was bittersweet, as a family somewhere is likely missing their own pet.
She explained: ‘So we do think it’s actually a stray cat, possibly a farm cat. We are peaceful with the knowledge that we’ve given it a good send-off.’
Even as Ted has managed to hold on to one of his many nine lives, he’s seemingly oblivious to his stroke of good luck.
Nicci laughed: ‘He’s completely oblivious. We still see him wandering over the road towards the neighbour’s garden so we have to go and retrieve him because, you know, we don’t actually want him going into the pond.’
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