Moggy mourner helps to give the purrfect send off at burial site

A feline funeral crasher is helping to give people the purrfect send off.

Eight-year-old ginger tomcat Paddy has attended more than 100 ceremonies at the Co-op Funeralcare’s Mayfields Woodlands Burial Site in Wirral, Merseyside.

The mourning moggy takes part in the services, sitting himself on the front row or leading the coffin down the aisle.

He is also known to sit beside people in the burial ground to offer comfort.

Paddy, who was rescued from a farm as an unwanted kitten, lives close to the site in Eastham.

Carole Paton, funeral arranger for the Co-op at Mayfields, said: “Paddy is such a special cat.

“He genuinely seems to have a sixth sense for when a funeral is about to take place, and will turn up just before to pay his respects. If the family then ask for him to stay, we allow him to attend.”

Ms Paton said the curious cat had mastered impeccable timing, appearing outside the window during one service just as the eulogy mentioned the deceased’s love of cats.

She added: “Once when arranging a funeral with a client for her partner, it turned out the client had always wanted a ginger cat, but her partner had never agreed.

“Then in strolled Paddy, lightening the mood as if he was a sign from the beyond.”

Paddy’s owners Christina Jones and Stuart Hague first discovered his funeral attendance after he went missing three years ago and they issued an appeal to find him.

The couple said: “It didn’t surprise us at all. He absolutely loves people and is so well known in the local community that he just wants to share his attention and time with those who are in need.

“When his day job has finished he comes back home and takes up his prime spots in our home for lots of his own fuss and attention.”