Missing cat returns home and rings video doorbell, NY family says. ‘We all gasped’
After going missing for a few days, a clever New York feline returned home and politely rang the video doorbell.
The 8-year-old cat named Lilly disappeared from owner Stefanie Whitley’s Long Island home four days earlier, producing panic throughout the household, according to Newsweek.
The family had recently moved to a new neighborhood, and wanted to keep Lilly indoors, allowing her time to adapt to the new environment, according to the Daily Voice.
“Lilly always comes home,” Whitley told the Voice. “She’s a very smart cat. She responds to her name. You call her, she comes. I’ve never felt like she would not come home. But this particular time felt different.”
However, she returned Aug. 14, according to the news outlet.
A surprising sound came late that night, the family received an alert around 10 p.m., according to Patch.
“We all looked at each other, like, ‘Who’s at our house at this time of night?’,” Whitley told the outlet.
The family’s Ring doorbell, connected to their TV screen, suddenly displayed Lilly’s gray face, and captured her meowing, seemingly requesting to be let in, according to the outlet.
Upon seeing the feline’s familiar face, they all “gasped,” according to PIX11. “We were laughing. We were emotional. We were crying. It was a great moment,” Whitley told the outlet.
“I don’t know how she found us, but she definitely knows what the Ring camera is,” Whitley told PIX11. “Every time the notification goes off, she’ll look toward the door. She knows what she’s doing.”
Ring rolled out its first video doorbell in 2014 and since then, multiple animals appear to have learned how to operate them, including a Pennsylvania golden retriever and a dog in North Carolina.
Even a bear in South Carolina seems to have understood the civilized way of requesting entry. Captured on a doorbell camera, it can be seen pawing at a home’s doorbell and, after receiving no response, the creature sauntered away, according to a video shared by CNN.
This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 2:32 PM with the headline "Missing cat returns home and rings video doorbell, NY family says. ‘We all gasped’."