Molly has been found after going missing from a Christchurch cattery.
Beccijanes Cattery, and its owner Rebecca MacPherson, came under fire after two cat owners returned from their Christmas holidays to discover it lost their cats.
Chris Clemett left his two cats, Molly and Pepper, at Beccijanes Cattery in Bryndwr on December 27, costing about $350.
When he returned on January 7, Clemett and cattery staff were unable to find Molly.
“I found the first one [Pepper] easily and then when I went looking for the second one I said to her, ‘where’s the second cat?’ She points to the cage and she says ‘it’s in there’. I said, ‘no, that’s a short-haired cat, ours is quite fluffy and a lot smaller’.”
Clemett said they searched for up to an hour when the owner began to blame a person with bipolar disorder for swapping the cats around and Molly’s disappearance.
And then, on Monday night, Clemett got the call he’d been waiting almost 20 days for.
A man living on Witbrock Cres, Burnside, about a 40-minute walk from Beccijanes, called saying he was “99 per cent sure” he had found Molly.
“We shot up there to have a look and the moment my wife saw her she was over the moon, it was definitely our cat.
Customers say Beccijanes cattery in Christchurch lost their pets.
“The moment my wife picked our cat up she started purring and has pretty much not stopped since. We got her home, gave her some food and she pretty much just followed my wife around the house.”
Molly was “really, really skinny”, nervous and a bit jumpy. Clemett said would be taking her to the vet on Tuesday.
The past few weeks had been “stressful” for his family, he said.
“It’s not a matter of the cattery losing the cats, because sometimes mistakes do happen, but for the cattery to lose two cats and not know when they went missing or anything, I just can’t get my head around it.”
Clemett has lodged a claim with the Disputes Tribunal.
Clemett said he had received a few “random” text messages from MacPherson, who was blaming a former neighbour for the cats being stolen.
“According to her, the guy’s been going in and changing her cats around and stealing her cats . . . doing all sorts of weird stuff.
“She has no idea, I think she’s just trying to blame everybody else.”
When Stuff visited Beccijanes last week, a woman said to “get the hell off my property you f…… mongrel”. She did not reply to requests for comment via email or text.