Cats are resourceful creatures. We know that to be true. But were we also all aware that they could do things like find and bring home their own meals without assistance on the daily? A black cat in Lancashire has stolen 15 packets of food in less than a week, dragging them home one by one. And the mystery of where they’re coming from is confusing cat lovers all around the world, according to the BBC.
The cat, named Murtagh and known as Murt, first brought a stolen food pouch into the house on Wednesday, according to owner Meaghan Robertson. More have kept arriving by the day. The brand is different from what Murt is fed at home, and Robertson said she still can’t find the source. She posted about the thefts on a local Facebook group to warn neighbors and offer to reimburse whoever was losing the food, and she has knocked on doors asking if anyone is missing cat food, with no luck.
Murt drops each stolen pouch by a bowl at home and waits for someone to open it for him. What baffles Robertson the most is that the cat has no reason to do it. She said Murt is very well fed, eating up to four times a day, which makes the spree completely out of character. She described him as not the sharpest animal, joking that his two brain cells are fighting for first place and that there’s “nothing going on in there.”
The posts have since drawn thousands of likes and comments from people across the world, many saying Murt’s escapades brightened their day. Robertson said the appeal seems to come from how shameless the cat is about it, and that well-wishers have even mailed the family cat food. She said the whole thing has gone nuts, called it the funniest thing ever to happen to her, and said she is glad it makes people happy.
Who Is Murt the Cat?
The family adopted Murt from the charity Cats Protection after their previous cat died. Robertson, who moved from the United States to Glasgow about 20 years ago before settling in Ormskirk with her partner and young son around 2020, said she fell for the cat’s face the moment she saw his listing, which showed off his huge nose. They named him Murtagh after the character Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser from the historical fantasy series Outlander.
His full name gets used when he is in trouble, which Robertson said is often. She said he hears “Murtagh Fitzgibbons” a lot, given how much mischief he finds. The theft spree, out of character as it is, fits a cat who has a reputation at home for getting into things.
Why Murt’s Food Source is Still a Mystery
The main puzzle is that nobody in the neighborhood has come forward as the victim. Despite the Facebook appeal and door-knocking, Robertson has not found anyone missing the food, and the different brand rules out that Murt is simply carrying his own pouches back and forth. The pouches keep appearing while their origin stays unknown.
Murt has also proven surprisingly hard to tail (pun intended). Robertson said the family tried to follow him one morning to trace the food, and he evaded them, slipping through a fence and getting away, and that he seems to know when he is being watched. She has resisted suggestions to fit him with a body-worn camera to crack the case. For such a ridiculous, not-very-clever creature, she said, he has this down.