Family stunned when their pet cat turns up two days after thinking they had buried its remains

A grieving family were stunned when their pet cat turned up two days after they buried what they believed were its remains.

The Robinson family’s 18-month-old cat Willow disappeared after it went out at night during heavy storms.

Willow vanished on February 26 at the height of the combined impact of the Beast from the East and Storm Emma.

The family searched for the oriental tabby for ten days and plastered their neighbourhood with posters featuring pictures of their beloved pet.

Their worst fears were realised when they discovered the remains of a dead cat on a busy road outside their house on March 8.

Jonny and Caterina Robinson broke the news to their sons Josh, seven, and four-year-old Buddy, and they held a touching memorial service and buried Willow in their garden.

But two days later, the family were gobsmacked when Willow turned up at their home in Hope under Dinmore, Herefordshire.

The family think they accidentally buried another cat which had identical markings to Willow.

Caterina, 35, who runs a health care company with Jonny, 32, said: “Jonny was absolutely distraught when we lost Willow, he was absolutely devastated.

“I hadn’t seen him cry for a long time.

“Josh said he was really, really upset – the kids had to have a day off school.

“Jonny went looking on the road and he found the lump of fur.

“It resembled a cat on the road and took it to the vet.

“I was trying to be positive saying, ‘that’s not him, that’s not our cat.’

“Jonny couldn’t sleep that night, he went calling for Willow and then scraped what was off the road.

“I kept saying that’s probably not him, I wanted to buoy him up.

“Because it had been run over, the vet said it’s probably a cat and has the same markings as Willow but he couldn’t scan it.

“We just assumed it was. The fact our cat hadn’t come home and the body of the cat was outside our house, you put two and two together.

“After we buried him my husband was so upset, he said, ‘I need you to keep hoping it wasn’t the cat’.

“I thought I’ll just play along with it just to cheer him up.

“Josh kept leaving food out just in case and then one day we noticed it had been eaten.

“Jonny went outside to the coal shed and came running back inside holding Willow.

“It’s amazing but we obviously have someone else’s cat buried in our garden. We can at least say that they had a nice burial.”