Cat returns home after family believe they cremated him

‘We cremated someone else’s cat,’ says owner Rachel Fitzsimons

Frankie appeared ‘frail and hungry’ when he returned (file image) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A family were shocked when the cat they believed they had cremated returned home as if nothing had happened.

Frankie, a 16-year-old tabby, failed to return home in Warrington, Cheshire, on 19 May.

His owners launched a search and spotted a dead cat on the M6 motorway that looked similar a few days later.

Highways England was able to retrieve the animal and gave it to the family to be cremated.

But Frankie returned home a few days later.

His owner, Rachel Fitzsimons, told the BBC: “Then he came back, frail and hungry but alive.

“So we cremated someone else’s cat.”

When Frankie reappeared, her son, Remy, seven, said: “It’s a miracle. We thought he had died.”

Earlier this year, nearly 100 cats survived a house fire in a town outside Rochester, New York.

The Lollypop Farm shelter had been told as many as 70 cats lived in the home when it caught fire, but its workers rescued 97 cats.

In February, a pet cat in Australia’s Queensland was dubbed a “four-legged hero” after it died fighting a venomous snake to protect young children.

The animal, Arthur, was following the two children when a highly venomous eastern brown snake slithered right up to them.

Arthur immediately jumped on the snake to protect the children but died the next day from the snake’s venomous bite.