Cat Found Twice Her Size After Going Missing for 14 Months Had Been Living in Pet Food Factory
When a pet goes missing, it is heartbreaking. You are filled with worry and concern for their wellbeing and just hope that they are eating and healthy.
For Clive, a Norwegian forest cat who had been missing for 14 months, it was literally time to feast, according to Bored Panda.
The family cat had disappeared in December 2014, filling his owners Tanya and Jonathan Irons with great despair.
They searched high and low for Clive, even putting up posters in their neighborhood, but nothing brought the cat back.
“He used to be very naughty and liked to go outside a lot,” Tanya Irons said, according to Bored Panda. “We thought somebody must have taken him in as he’s such a lovely cat.”
Now, Clive, being the curious fellow that he was, found a particularly delicious place to hang out. He settled into a pet food factory, which brought him a smorgasbord of food.
While Clive was able to load up on all the pet food he wanted whenever he wanted, it wouldn’t last for long.
When the employees at the pet food factory realized that the cat food was mysteriously going missing, they knew they had to catch the thief.
They set up a trap by leaving a trail of cat treats to a basket suspended over a pressure pad. When the cat food thief stepped on the pressure pad, it would drop the basket on them, trapping them inside.
The trap worked and Clive was caught, much to the surprise of the factory workers.
Clive, luckily, had a microchip, which made it easy to get him back to his rightful owners who only lived a short two miles away.
“I’ve been trying to catch him for weeks when I found out we had a cat living in the warehouse,” Diane Gaskill, production supervisor at Kennelgate Pet Superstore, said.
“I saw him run past me a couple of times and we found droppings. I set a cat trap one weeknight and I found him in the morning. He was hissing and spitting but he knew the game was up.
“We took him to the vets and we were able to get the mobile number of his owner. I rang her straight away — she couldn’t believe it,” Gaskill added.
“It’s amazing,” Colin Lewis, retail director of the factory told Bored Panda. “The warehouse is 20 thousand square foot of pet food. I think there’s been a few holes in some of the boxes. It was a team effort to get the cat, I think everyone had a go over the week before Diane found him.
“We kept finding cat poo and a few people said they saw him, but it took a while to get him. We got the trap from a cat rescue center. It’s a cage — you put some food in it, then when the cat goes in there’s a pressure pad that shuts the door behind it. Clive only ate cat food in the factory, I think he thought he was living in a penthouse.”
Clive was finally reunited with the Irons and much to their surprise; he had packed on more than a few pounds.
Clive was literally twice his size because he had free reign to eat as much cat food as he wanted during his disappearance.
“Clive was nine months old when we lost him — and he was a lot smaller then. When we got him back we were shocked to see how big and fluffy he was,” Tanya Irons said.
“He’s obviously been living the life of Riley in that pet food factory. We heard Clive was a bit smelly when they caught him, but he seems fine now. He definitely recognizes us, he’s just fatter now.
“I think he’s been enjoying himself feasting for the past year. He’s wasn’t a big eater before, but he always had to eat very quickly before his brothers stole it. He was probably glad he didn’t have to compete with them to eat for once.
“He has a huge appetite now though. I’ve had to leave him with a big bucket of food, he just won’t stop eating. We’re not going to put him on a diet though, he’s just a bit rounder but he’s happy,” Irons added.
We are relieved that Clive has been reunited with his family after his disappearing act. While Clive may be a little rounder around the middle, we know that he is loved and was certainly fed well.
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