Cat returns after decade

When Lynne Peart’s cat Molly dis­appeared from her Gulberwick home a decade ago, she thought she had seen the last of her feline friend.

But now the wayward pet has made a surprise return – more than 10 years after she was last seen.

The unexpected reunion happen­ed last week when the mother of two was preparing to head south to Aberdeen.

Her delighted owner is pleased as punch to finally have her back. She had long given up Molly for dead, even though the wandering cat was in the habit of vanishing for spells.

As a kitten she had to be coaxed out from an old drainpipe. On a later occasion she went walk-about for seven months.

Mrs Peart said: “We got her and her brother in June 1998. She was always a peerie bit of a wanderer. The longest she had gone before was seven months.

“She was actually going down to the beach houses. The lady there kent she was our cat. Margaret would always phone and say ‘I’ve seen Molly today’. We kent she was never far away, but she was just out hunting.

“She [Molly] came home after seven months. She came back a peerie start and then she went again and never came back.”

And that, as they say, was that. Except that Mrs Peart thought she had spied Molly just two weeks before their eventual reunion, but had immediatley dismissed the notion.

“It was funny because I’d said to Anthony my husband a couple of weeks before, ‘you’re never going to believe this but I think I’ve just seen Molly’. We just did our sums and said, no, she’d be 16.”

Come last week, however, there was no mistaking the missing moggy when she turned up out of the blue.

“I was just getting packed and I had just gone out to the car to look for something,” Mrs Peart said. “And I had to nip into the town to get something for my pal in Aber­deen who I was biding with.

“Our other cat was on the balcony of our house and she was very obviously looking at something.

“This cat ran out from under our car and I thought, nah, yun just looks like Molly again. So I followed it down to the end of the road and I shouted and she turned and miawed at me. I was brawly stunned to say the least. It was definately her.”

Mrs Peart described Molly as a “ginger tabby, with a light ginger ring around her belly, and a really black-ringed tail”.

She said: “If it was just a normal black cat you would wonder, but there’s no mistaking her.

“I managed to get Molly to come and speak to me. Once she actually smelled me and got used to me reaching out to her she would let me clap her. I got her picked up and carried into the garden, and I got her fed.

“Mam pulled up in the car and she was stunned to say the least.”

Unfortunately the delighted cat-lover only had half an hour to get reaquainted with her long-lost friend, before heading off south to accompany her mother on a hospital trip.

So, after such a long absence, how does Mrs Peart feel about let­ting Molly out of her sight?

“I’m not just too happy. She’s been in and out the whole week. She was out yesterday before I came home. Our flights had been delayed yesterday. I’d come home and she wasn’t here. And Anthony said ‘she’ll come – don’t worry, she will come.

“And then she came at about half six, quarter to seven. And I just felt delighted. It’s a bit of a dream-like feeling to be honest.”

Molly’s appearance has allowed her to become re-introduced to the eldest of the Pearts’ two sons, Arron, although 10-year-old Bryan had not even been born when Molly last went walkabout.

Not everyone is too happy to see Molly, however. Sally, the Pearts’ present feline companion, considers herself to be worthy alone of the family’s affections, and has had ner nose put well out of joint by this sudden imposter who has unexpect­edly come into her territory.

Mrs Peart said: “She [Sally] is not very happy at all. It’s not a new kitten where she’s obviously the boss. She doesn’t ken that Molly stayed here 10 years ago.

“She’s really not very happy. But I’m going to speak to the vet tomor­row to see what I can do to try and socialise them a bit more.”

Whichever way that turns out, there is no mistaking that Molly, the wandering cat, has made her mark
in the world, and has finally come home.