Barney ignores 5km rule to take 100km trip to Durrus

A BURMESE cat - named after Captain Barnacle from the children’s TV series The Octonauts – certainly lived up to his name  when he ended up in Durrus, almost 100kms from his home in Douglas in Cork city recently.

For Barney’s owner, Emily O’Donoghue and her family, it was the ‘purrfect’ ending to what had been a ‘catastrophic’ few weeks after the two-year-old male cat disappeared from their home.

Thankfully they were finally re-united with Barney last week.

Emily said she and her husband and two daughters were devastated when Barney went missing over three weeks ago.

‘We blitzed the area with posters and we were out every day asking people if they had seen him. We also posted it on the Munster Lost and Found Pet helpline Facebook page  and people were so great in sharing our posts and thinking of us,’ Emily told The Southern Star.

‘We had a guy from West Cork in the house who was fixing the boiler and when there was no sign of Barney, I asked him to check his van to see if our cat was there. We thought he might have got under the chassis or maybe snuck into the van.’

Now, it seems that may have been exactly what happened. Because, almost three weeks later, a vet from Bantry contacted her to say they had Barney in their surgery.

‘A Dutch couple, Duco and Lilly La Riviére in Durrus found him on their windowsill and they took him to the Warner vet clinic in Bantry who then rang me because I had Barney microchipped.’

Despite losing nearly a kilo in weight and looking shook, Barney survived his adventures in West Cork.

Emily even had to tell the story to a garda when she was stopped last week at a checkpoint on the way home after collecting him in Bantry.

‘We are just thrilled to have Barney back in our home again. It’s a lovely ending in what are tough times for everyone and we thank everyone for helping us find him.’

Emily’s key advice to pet owners is to always microchip their pets and to keep the faith and never give up hope if your pet is lost or stolen.

Emily’s other Burmese cat, Melly, wasn’t too fussed about Barney’s return from West Cork and may have been enjoying all the attention on her own just a little too much.