Canterbury woman discovers she’s buried the wrong cat, asks public for help

Yellow Cat has returned from the dead after a Canterbury family accidentally buried the wrong cat. Photo / Supplied

A family was shocked to discover they buried the wrong cat after their beloved tabby wandered in soon after a hasty burial, leaving the owners wondering whose cat they just lowered into the ground.

The mother has made a plea on social media asking if anybody knows who owns the dead cat her family mistook for their own.

Belle Wallace-Cochrane, of West Melton, near Christchurch, said she was putting her son to bed last Tuesday when her neighbour called her with devastating news.

“She says, ‘I think I saw your cat on the side of the road.’

“I live on a country road, so traffic is fast and I figured she must have been hit by a car.”

Wallace-Cochrane walked outside in the cold and dark with rain pouring down to find a ginger tabby lying dead on the side of the road.

She immediately thought it was their pet, Yellow Cat.

The Wallace-Cochrane family's pet, Yellow Cat. Belle Wallace-Cochrane buried a cat she thought was Yellow Cat, only for the ginger tabby to turn up. Now the family want to know whose pet they buried. Photo / Supplied

She checked the cat’s head, looked at its face and determined quickly it was their pet.

“I didn’t pick it up, because that’s gross, but I went inside and told my husband and said ‘You need to go and get the cat’.”

Her husband and their third child, Lucas, collected the dead cat and placed it in a box.

An informal funeral was held in the rain as a hole was dug and the box was buried on their property.

Wallace-Cochrane was inside when she heard Lucas run inside with news from the grave.

“He came running in and yelled, ‘Yellow Cat is alive!’. I said he must be joking – he’s always telling jokes.”

As it turned out, Yellow Cat had made a last-minute cameo as the backyard funeral wrapped up, possibly wondering what all the fuss was about.

Belle Wallace-Cochrane and son Lucas with Yellow Cat.

“My husband came inside and said, ‘Nah, that’s someone else’s [buried] cat.”

Now, Wallace-Cochrane’s family faces the task of finding out whose pet they have buried in their backyard.

She is not keen to dig up the box without someone stepping forward.

Taking to social media, she asked if anybody had lost a cat that matched the same description.

“I was relieved, we’ve had a few cats buried,” said Wallace-Cochrane.

“The ladies I work with were laughing about it and suggested it was a common thing, but it’s the first time we’ve experienced anything like this.”