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A Scottish cat from the Shetland Isles has reappeared at her family’s home after an absence of 11 years.
Lynne Peart got an unexpected surprise recently when her 16 year old cat Molly, who’d been missing since 2003, turned up back at home. Molly is back living with her family in the rural village of Gulberwick in the Shetland Isles, despite a less than warm welcome from the Pearts’ other cat.
Ms. Peart told the Daily Mail:
“I think she’s been living feral as her fur was very thick and matted when she came back. But she’s fat enough. She’s looked after herself in her years away. The vet actually said she looks younger than her 16 years.”
“We got her as a baby with her brother Oscar. She was always the more feral cat.”
“She would go out and stay away for a few days, but then come back. So when she went missing at first we thought she would just come back when she was ready.”
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In the original report on the story,Ms. Peart told the local news outlet The Shetland Times:
“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.
“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.”
“I was just getting packed [for a trip one day last week] and I had just gone out to the car to look for something 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 definitely her.”
“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.”
“It’s a bit of a dream-like feeling to be honest.”
“She [Sally, the family’s other cat, who was adopted after Molly disappeared] 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.
“[Sally] is 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.”
The petmom summed things up for the Daily Mail, saying;
“I like to think that she’s come back to spend her twilight years with us. But she’s very independent and everything’s on her terms.
“I sometimes look at her and think I just can’t believe she’s actually home. I don’t think we’ll ever fully know what she’s been up to the past ten years or so.”
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