Photo: Stefanie Whitley and Efrain Leandry
Lily the cat’s clever thinking helped her return home after she went missing for four days.
According to the 8-year-old cat’s owner Stefanie Whitley, the feline disappeared after a move to a new home on New York’s Long Island.
“It felt like forever when she was missing,” Whitley told PEOPLE.
She and her family welcomed Lily just over a year ago and quickly fell in love with the “sour patch kid” cat.
“When she wants love, she wants it. And when she doesn’t, don’t touch her,” Whitley explained of the pet’s personality.
In the days following Lily’s disappearance, Whitley drove around the neighborhood searching for the cat and calling out her name.
Stefanie Whitley and Efrain Leandry
“She’s kind of like a dog. She responds to her name, you call her, she comes,” Lily’s mom said.
After four days of looking for Lily with no results, Whitley and her family started to worry the pet would never return. It was at that moment that Lily found her way back home.
“The notification popped up, and it was Lily’s face. She reached up to touch the camera and yelled,” Whitley said of the unforgettable moment.
Somehow, Lily had found her way back to the new house, and Whitley’s Ring camera footage shows that the feline was clever enough to jump up and activate the doorbell camera once she reached her front door. In case her family missed the message, Lily started meowing after arriving home in a way that sounded like she was calling for her “mom.”
“It sounded like she was mimicking my kids saying ‘mom,'” Whitley said of the cat’s calls.
“You could tell the difference from a regular meow,” she added.
Whitley said she and her family started laughing and racing to the door when they saw Lilly’s notification, and when they reached the front of the house and welcomed the cat back, Lily bolted inside.
“I don’t know what she experienced or what she came in contact with, but she looked like she was ready to be home,” Whitley said.
Lily’s owner is confident that the pet knows how the doorbell camera works because the feline has continued to use it since her return.
“She comes back the same exact way. She hops up on the railing in front of the camera and starts meowing for me,” Whitley said of how Lily ends her outdoor visits to the front steps.
The pet parent hopes her story inspires those missing animals not to give up hope and advises that animal lovers should consider getting a doorbell camera as an extra tool to keep outdoor pets safe.
source: people.com
