Lady who spent 4 days looking for her cat horrified when she finds her

A woman has admitted her shock and sadness after a four-day search for her missing cat ended in horrifying circumstances. 

Charlie Harris took to TikTok to recount her heartbreaking tale – and slam her neighbours over her grim discovery. “This is a public service announcement, which I never thought I would have to make,” she declared at the beginning of her video. “Even if you hate animals, this is not okay.”

After issuing a “trigger warning” due to the nature of her story, Charlie continued: “I genuinely cannot believe that someone would do this and then lie to my face for four days, watching me make myself ill, torturing myself. This situation would have been devastating either way, but it could have been made a loss less traumatic and she could have saved four days of pain.”

Charlie revealed that five weeks ago, she found her cat in her neighbour’s black bin. “I was in shock and denial for a while,” she confessed. “I had two cats and four dogs – they are my babies. They are the reason I get up in the morning – they’re my purpose in life.”

The animal lover went on to explain that she has lived in her property “peacefully” for around a decade, but that all changed after Bellatrix went missing. “Don’t ask me how, but I knew she was no longer with us – but I still searched every day,” Charlie continued, sharing a snap of ‘missing’ poster attached to a lamppost in her clip. 

“Obviously I went round the neighbours’ houses and asked them to look in the sheds, garages,” Charlie recounted. “I went to one lady’s house and gave her my leaflet, looked her in her eyes and said, ‘Have you seen my cat?’ She said, ‘Sorry and no’, but I knew she was lying – I could tell from her whole demeanour.”

Charlie, who trusted her instincts owing to her degree in psychology, visited the lady again four days later – but again she said she hadn’t seen Bellatrix and explained that once had a cat that went missing too. At this point Charlie said she told her partner that they had to go and look in the lady’s bin, only to be told by him that she was “crazy”. 

With bin collection day approaching, however, and with her partner away, Charlie summoned the help of a friend who owned a “sniffer dog” to investigate. “I gave him [the dog] Bellatrix’s bed [to sniff] and he literally took us to the neighbour’s bin. I immediately knew, and there was my cat in a black bin bag covered up by other bin bags on top of her ready to go to the landfill the next day.”

However, after a “calm confrontation” in which Charlie reiterated the effort she had gone through to try and find Bellatrix, she said her neighbour continued to “lie to my face”. She ranted: “How can somebody do that? Even after I got my cat out of the bin that she treated like trash, she almost took away any closure for me – and she took away Bellatrix’s dignity.”

Charlie closed by telling her followers she had been forced to show her other pets what had happened as “they understand death” and been searching for Bellatrix too. Meanwhile, her neighbour was yet to apologise some five weeks on. “The police came, but unfortunately they said due to the laws in the UK, cats are free roaming animals and are classed as property, therefore I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Met with an outpouring of sympathy, one TikTok user asked: “Have you considered taking out a civil claim against her? Maybe talk to Citizens Advice about what you can do.” Charlie replied: “Yes this is what I am thinking, it’s just I don’t have the funds to take her to court. But I’m definitely going to speak to them.”

Another person fumed: “This made me sick to my stomach. I’m so tired of the cat hate, they’re literally our little family members! The law needs to change, I’m so sorry this happened to you.” A third added: “Some people are just evil. I’m sorry for your loss. Another reason my cat baby will never be let outside to roam.”

Whilst a fourth said: “So sorry for your loss, this is horrific! I’m in total shock of how anyone could do such a thing its heartbreaking.” Charlie closed by revealing: “I’m in the process of moving to protect my other babies and Luna will be staying in. At the new house we will have a catio and lots of stimulation for her. She’s not safe here.”