Owner assumes cat is out on a walk—then police knock at the door
The owner of an adventurous cat who regularly takes trips around the neighborhood was shocked when police showed up at her door with her pet in tow.
And even stranger was later being tagged in a post on Facebook that showed her cat in the back of a police car.
Carly Thomson, 32, is the owner of Maine Coon cat, Cleo, who has become a bit of a local celebrity in her hometown of Halstead, England, with Thomson telling Newsweek she's the "most famous cat."
Cleo even has a dedicated Facebook page, Adventures of Cleo, where locals share photos from when they've seen the long-haired cat out and about.
On February 10, the local cops got involved. Essex Police, Braintree District, took Cleo for a ride in their police car and brought her home to Thomson's house.
They shared a photo of Cleo to their page, saying their patrol "took an unexpected turn yesterday when the famous Cleo the Cat from Halstead decided to jump into our police car to escape the rain."
Sharing a photo of Cleo making herself at home in the back seat of the squad car, they wrote the pet was "sharpening her claws on the seats, grooming herself on the parcel shelf, and covering our officers in fluff while making biscuits on their laps."
They added: "It looks like Cleo enjoyed her little adventure with us, and we were more than happy to have her company!"
It had a big reaction on Facebook, racking up over 9,000 likes as one user wrote: "These are the police posts I like to see," and another called it "community policing at its best."
One aptly labeled it "paw patrol," while another joked: "It's Cleo's police car, clearly. You're just borrowing it!"
Thomson herself commented too, writing: "Oh Cleo. This is my cat, thank you for bringing her home. She was in all night and slept like a baby and is back out on her adventures this morning!"
Thomson told Newsweek she was shocked when she received a knock on the door from police.
"They obviously scanned her microchip and actually brought her home," she said. "I thought she was hurt. I thought something had happened. You don't get the police bringing cats home because they jumped in their car!
"It was a very surreal moment for me. I was quite taken aback by it—I thought I was in trouble."
Wild as the interaction was, Thomson "thought that was it," and Cleo, who spends her time both inside the home and outdoors, "stayed in all night and slept in my daughter's bed."
"Until the next day, when I saw a Facebook post someone had tagged me in."
In the UK, it's common for cats to be allowed to roam outside. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) does not recommend keeping a cat that is used to going outdoors as an indoor-only cat, except for health reasons.
In contrast, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) urges owners to keep their cats indoors, due to the risks outside.
Thomson said: "Obviously everyone in Halstead knows me and knows Cleo is my cat. I'm even thinking of writing a children's book about Cleo, because it's blown up so much.
"It's madness, my phone is blowing up. I was on the radio, it's gone mad! She's a very famous cat," she said.
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