A dad was mortified to discover he had devastated his family and spent £180 cremating someone else’s cat – when theirs turned up days later.
Michael Deegan was messaged by a local to say that missing nine-year-old Marshall could have been hit by a car so he rushed to an industrial estate to identify her. The upset 42-year-old says the body’s ginger stripes and white foot convinced him it was their pet so he took the body home and broke the sad news to daughter Eliza, 12.
However, four days after having him cremated, on November 16, the owner of their old house that they had moved out of three weeks earlier messaged to say they thought their cat had turned up. Dad-of-two Michael visited his old house half a mile away still adamant that it wouldn’t be Marshall but as soon as he got there his missing cat ran towards him.
Mourning pet owner left mortified after accidentally cremating the wrong cat
Nine-year-old moggy Marshall and Poppy, seven
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Kennedy News and Media)
The message informing the family that their cat had been hit by a car
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Kennedy News and Media)
The IT worker admits he felt more embarrassed than emotional but Eliza was so relieved when she returned home from school to find her cat alive and well. She has since nicknamed her “Jesus cat” for her miracle-like return and Michael has been mocked for his blunder – with his father-in-law joking it would make a great Specsavers advert.
His wife Sarah, 44, posted about the “emotional rollercoaster” experience on TikTok and it has since been viewed more than 450,000 times. It explains how Marshall couldn’t get used to her family’s new home so kept returning to the old house until she went missing at the end of October.
The family are keeping an eye out for anyone missing a cat who looks like Marshall and have kept the unknown cat’s ashes just in case. Michael, from Corby, Northamptonshire, said: “I’ll never be able to live it down but looking back it’s funny and it’s a relief that our cat is alive.
Marshall went missing and his family thought he was dead
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“My father-in-law thinks it should be a Specsavers advert and it’s a bit of a joke at the minute. When someone messaged to say they think our cat’s been in an accident it was upsetting and we knew our daughter would be heartbroken.
“I got out of bed to have a look and the cat had similar markings to ours but it wasn’t the easiest to look at so we assumed it was our cat. Her black and ginger stripes looked the same and her foot is a completely different colour to the rest of her. I still can’t see the difference.
“We told our daughter three days later and she was devastated. After Marshall had been picked up for cremation we got a message from the people who had moved into our old house saying they think she’s just walked in. I was adamant it wasn’t her because I’d seen her dead but then when I went around, there she was.
“It was a bit of a shock because she came running over like nothing had happened but I wasn’t emotional because it was more funny and embarrassing. We told Eliza when she came home from school and she was relieved. Marshall is her first pet so she was over the moon.
Marshall turned up at the family’s old home days later
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“We’ve got the other cat’s ashes in a bag in the house and we don’t really know what to do with them. We’ve been checking to see if anyone reports a cat missing, but there’s been nothing yet so we’re wondering if it was a stray.”
Michael says the pair had kept Marshall and their other cat Poppy, seven, inside for almost two weeks so they acclimated to their new home, but it didn’t work. The relieved family kept Marshall inside for another two weeks after her return and now she’s used to it.
Sarah’s TikTok video has almost 40,000 likes and more than 1,300 comments. One commented: “Reading this was an emotional roller-coaster.”
A second said: “Your kind act was rewarded in the best way possible. What you did for that fur baby was the kindest thing I’ve ever heard. Even if you don’t find her owner, she will be forever yours.” A third said: “This made me feel a myriad of emotions. At least you gave a random cat a respectful and decent ending.”