Latest news with #missingcat
BBC News
02-08-2025
- General
- BBC News
Wolverhampton WhatsApp group reunites missing cat with owner
A woman who was reunited with her missing cat after a month has praised her local neighbourhood WhatsApp group for helping her to find Spalve's much-loved, five-year-old, indoor pet Penny "escaped" from her house in Ettingshall, Wolverhampton, on 28 Spalve, 34, said she printed and put up about 100 leaflets in an efforts to find her beloved British Blue shorthair and to urge people to check their sheds and was eventually reunited with Penny after a neighbour in the WhatsApp group chat, which has been helping in the search, told her they had spotted a "grey cat" at a nearby industrial unit. Ms Spalve, who has had Penny since she was a kitten, said she was found by chance after the neighbour heard noises coming from the unit, close to their housing 15 minutes of receiving the neighbour's text on 26 July, Ms Spalve rushed down to the unit and was reunited with Penny - who was safe and well."It was just a relief, I was just crying like a kid when I saw her," she said."It seemed too good, too easy to be true, it felt surreal, we couldn't believe we found her."She's not injured. She was OK but she was very skinny." The WhatsApp group, which has more than 400 members from the housing estate, had been helping Ms Spalve ever since Penny disappeared, with members coming together to put up posters and helping to check potential hiding spaces."We basically did what we could, walked around, spoke to people. We had a few false alarms... but it wasn't her," Ms Spalve explained."The house felt very empty without her."She said she was "grateful" to people in the group for their help and support."Obviously without our WhatsApp group, we wouldn't have known [where Penny was]," she said."Without having the group, we wouldn't have her back." Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
24-07-2025
- BBC News
More than 100 people join County Durham missing cat search
More than 100 volunteers have been looking for a cat who was spotted 200 miles away from home but is still missing, her owner has disappeared from Stoke-on-Trent on 30 March and was later seen in County Durham in mid April. Police are investigating whether she was taken during a reported Leann Chello said the support she had received had been "overwhelming", with people travelling from Chester-le-Street, Washington and as far away as Teesside to help the search."She is my absolute world. I really want her back," she said. Mini was nine-months-old when she went missing and had never been outside on her own, Ms Chello said."I was absolutely devastated," she said."She means more to me than anything in the world."I'm holding out hope that she does come home and we are reunited." Ms Chello posted on social media after being told where the cat might be. One of those helping in the search after seeing the plea, Julie Campbell, said volunteers were out looking for up to six hours at a time, "wandering, and hoping and praying" that Mini would show Campbell said the support had been "phenomenal"."We rallied together and there's quite a lot of us still searching," she said."We're holding out hope that she's still out there somewhere, that someone's seen her and took her in." There has been only one confirmed sighting of Mini in the area. Resident Gina Skinner said she spotted the cat running across Lumley New Road into nearby bushes on 12 Skinner, who had joined the search after finding out about it from social media, said she pulled over and tried to bring Mini out after recognising her from pictures. She said the cat looked at her, but got scared by the traffic and ran away."It was most definitely Mini that ran across the road," she said, adding it was upsetting to have narrowly missed her. Fellow searcher Rene Carr said it had been very frustrating that there had not been any more sightings but volunteers were determined to keep looking."I've walked for miles in the woods," she said."I've at knocked on every house on the edge of the woods. We've left no stone unturned." Staffordshire Police said a man had been charged with burglary with intent to cause damage. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
New York Times
19-07-2025
- New York Times
Pet Owner Flooded With Puzzling Calls About a Lost Cat While Hers Is Safely at Home
Starting in 2024, Natasha Lavoie began getting calls on her cellphone from people who said they had found a missing cat named Torbo. But Ms. Lavoie's cat is named Mauser, and each time a call came, her black cat was where he was supposed to be, in her home in British Columbia, Canada. This went on for a year. Finally, about two weeks ago, she handed the phone to her partner, Jonathan McCurrach, who demanded to know why one man was calling so many times late at night. The man admitted he was calling as a joke: His son had bought a shirt online that advertised a cash reward for a missing cat and listed a telephone number to call. That telephone number was Ms. Lavoie's. Her cellphone would ring in spurts. For days in a row, she'd get multiple calls, even in the middle of the night. Then two weeks would pass without calls. 'At first I was thinking, like, who did I anger?' she said. 'Who posted my number somewhere?' She contacted the American company that sold the shirts, Wisdumb, to find out why and how it chose her phone number. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Woman flooded with calls about nonexistent cat due to a T-shirt
July 18 (UPI) -- A British Columbia woman's phone has been flooded with calls about a missing cat that doesn't exist, and it's all because of a T-shirt. Natasha Lavoie and Jonathan McCurrach said dozens of calls have come in from people claiming to have found their cat, Torbo -- but their cat is named Mauser, and isn't missing. "Sometimes, like six times a day, I'm getting these really random phone calls and people leaving me voicemails saying that they found my cat and they want money for my cat," Lavoie told CBC News. "I'm like, 'My cat's at home in the air conditioning.'" The couple discovered Lavoie's phone number had been printed on a T-shirt sold by company Wisdumb NY. The shirt features a missing cat poster and Lavoie's phone number. A Wisdumb NY representative said the shirt has been pulled from the online store. "The use of a real number within the art created was not intentional," the representative said in an email to CBC News. Lavoie said she does not want to change her phone number as it bears a 604 area code, which is difficult to get. "I've had my number for 20 years," she said. "I don't want to change it. I'll just keep not answering." Lavoie said she would like a "real apology" from the company. "I feel like I deserve a T-shirt after this," Lavoie said. "I think we both do."
CBC
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
B.C. couple dodging dozens of calls about their missing cat — but their cat isn't missing
A B.C. couple is begging people to stop calling them. For over a year, Natasha Lavoie and Jonathan McCurrach have been fielding dozens upon dozens of calls from strangers claiming they've found the couple's cat, Torbo. But they don't have a cat named Torbo. And their cat, Mauser, isn't missing. "Sometimes, like six times a day, I'm getting these really random phone calls and people leaving me voicemails saying that they found my cat and they want money for my cat," Lavoie told CBC's On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko. "I'm like, 'My cat's at home in the air conditioning.'" After many months of trying to figure out why this was happening, McCurrach asked a caller how they got their number. The caller explained the number was listed on a shirt styled to look like a missing cat poster. "Why would you use a real number?" McCurrach asked. CBC News reached out to the company in question — Wisdumb NY — which said the shirt is no longer online. However, on the company's Instagram page, there are photos of missing cat posters with 604 area code numbers attached. "The use of a real number within the art created was not intentional," a customer service representative said in an email to CBC News. Some phone numbers have been set aside in North America for fictional use, all starting with the number 555. As Terry O'Reilly explained in a 2021 episode of Under the Influence, the use of 555 started when TV shows and films started using phone numbers more frequently in their plot lines, and attached to those numbers complaints about prank phone calls. Phone companies reserved 555-0100 through to 555-0199 for fictional use. The Guardian, Netflix was forced to edit a phone number in the series Squid Game after a South Korean woman was deluged with calls in 2021. In 2009, the same thing happened when rapper Soulja Boy featured a U.K. family's phone number in a song. Lavoie said she's hesitant to change her number because it's a 604 area code — which was B.C.'s first area code and nowadays, is hard to get. In May, the province got its sixth area code, 257. "I've had my number for 20 years," she said. "I don't want to change it. I'll just keep not answering." WATCH | Woman bombarded with calls after number listed on shirt: B.C. woman's number listed without permission on American lost cat T-shirt 4 days ago Over the last year, Surrey's Natasha Lavoie has been receiving dozens of calls about people finding her lost cat Torbo. But Lavoie's cat is actually named Mauser, and isn't missing. Lavoie and her partner Jonathan McCurrach investigated and found out that an American fashion brand called Wisdumb had listed her number on a T-shirt depicting a lost cat, without her permission. The couple says the label hasn't been co-operative after they reached out. Some of the calls have been disturbing. In one voicemail they received, a caller claimed they had a snake that "eats free kittens." "When we started actually picking up the calls or responding to the voicemails, I thought it was some attempt at a scam. You hear about scams all the time about missing pets," McCurrach said. He said the calls are coming primarily from the United States, but they have received a couple from Canada. "Half the time, they just cut you off and go like, 'No, I've got your cat. I want the money for the cat.' And I'm like, 'No, there's no money, there's no cat.' And they usually hang up." Lavoie and McCurrach did reach out to the company, which gave them an answer similar to what CBC News received. But McCurrach said he wishes they'd offered a "real apology."
