When the sound echoed through the bedroom, I knew immediately that Mr. Jeremy Beard had not returned home.
It was May 17, 2022, and Liz was awakened by an alarm just after 7:00 am. After scratching her pillow, it had been over 3 hours since she woke up being held as usual.
“He has a routine of crawling into bed and cuddling, and in the summer he wakes me up by scratching my pillow at 3:30. He wakes me up,” Liz said of her and partner Charlie’s beloved black man. told 9Honey about Mr. Beard, the white cat.
“He didn’t wake me up that morning. The alarm woke me up. Charlie was still in bed.”
For 9-year-old Mr. Beard, being out all night was out of character. He was a creature of habit and had never disappeared like this before.
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He was usually a sensible cat who made his presence known in the couple’s garden and looked after around the busy streets of his native Greater Manchester area of England.
However, Mr. Beard and his owner did not know that they would not see each other again for more than 165 days, or five months.
To make matters worse, Liz and Charlie have a big event at a local golf club after realizing Mr. Beard is missing early in the morning. With a long day waiting, it was impossible to drop everything to look for him.
They were hosting a tournament, and Liz, the captain of the ladies’ club, was expected to give a speech.
“There were about three days of particularly rapid water with constant ringing of young people and older teens.”
Later that night, after the tournament, the couple hit the streets in search of Mr. Beard. It was the beginning of a daily pilgrimage, handing out flyers in the area with missing posters.
“We went for a walk every night. All summer long, six to eight weeks,” Charlie told 9Honey.
Liz also contacted the missing cat group’s Facebook page, local pages, and organizations to conduct searches online.
Many sightings were reported, and the couple quickly tracked it down, hoping it was Mr. Beard.
The couple quickly won £500, or over $800. Then the calls started.
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“There was about three days of a particularly turbulent period, with young people—older teens—ringing incessantly—every few minutes,” Liz says.
“‘I got your cat,’ they’ll say. ‘I cut off the leg, and I’m going to have a barbecue.'”
Sensing Liz’s turmoil, Charlie quietly interjects. It’s better not to talk too much about these calls. The trauma is still raw.
“We’ve also received a lot of lovely messages from all the pet owners. In fact, we’ve met and connected with so many people,” Charlie says.
“Even Mad Cat Aunt cared about him.”
There have been many conspiracy theories as to what happened during Mr. Beard’s disappearance, from victims of cat naps to unimaginable car accidents.
In August 2022, three months after he went missing, Britain experienced its first heat wave in three months. Temperatures peaked at a record 40.3°C.
At this point, the couple felt that Mr. Beard wouldn’t have survived the heat. Allowing such thoughts was another heartbreaking blow in their search.
By the end of September, Liz had collected her cat food and donated it to a local cat rescue.
“I sobbed that morning,” she says.
A few weeks later, Charlie talks about canceling his pet insurance. A week before Mr. Beard went missing, she had renewed her insurance policy.
“At five months, I said, ‘I think I should cancel now,'” says Liz.
“I canceled online and got the check in the mail. But for some reason I couldn’t bank the check. It just didn’t work,” adds Charlie.
It was late October when Liz said she decided to go to the mailbox to drop off a friend’s birthday card and go for a walk to find Mr. Beard.
Something told her that she was going to meet him. she didn’t. But when she got home while she was cleaning up around her house, a message popped up on her smartwatch.
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She thought it might be a message from Charlie, who had traveled to London to see a friend.
“I looked at my phone and there was a picture of a cat,” recalls Liz.
“Then I got a call from another number and she said, ‘My name is Jane. You gave me a leaflet when I was walking my dog in May. I was just on the bus and I flipped through Facebook and saw a post about your cat.”
Jane encouraged Liz to check out her Facebook page. About a month ago she got a call from a woman who said she found a “stray cat” in her garden. She was reaching out her hand to see if anyone had missed him.
The cat was Mr. Beard, and Liz was sure of it. He was found about two kilometers from the couple’s home, across from a busy highway and roundabout.
“There were a lot of comments on the post, and someone posted, ‘Have you scanned him?’ Her response was, ‘No, I don’t know how to do that.'” says Liz.
“In the meantime, my comment has not been received. I contacted the admin and asked if this person who owns my cat could receive a message.”
Liz then sent the woman a direct message, and about 45 minutes later she replied, asking for proof that the cat was hers.
“I bombarded her with hundreds of pictures. It got to the point where she replied, ‘He’s obviously yours,'” Liz says.
“Meanwhile, I called Charlie and said ‘he’s alive’…we went straight there. I gave him a treat and we took him home.” came back.”
After returning home, the couple kept Mr. Beard indoors for two weeks so that he could rediscover his chosen territory.
“Since then, he’s been a little prince,” says Liz.
Beard has been living with Liz and Charlie since 2017.
He originally lived a few streets away, but at the time sought solace in a stranger’s garage.
The couple tracked down his original owner and offered to return him. attached.
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