Three-legged Mansfield cat mistaken for being abandoned while it waits for owners to come home

However the owner of the mischievous moggy who “bolted out of the house” on Prospect Street, Mansfield, on Monday, March 12, said he was just waiting for them to come home.

Smudge the cat was found sitting on a baby car seat in the rain two doors down from his home and was mistaken for being abandoned as he had not moved for three hours.

Neil Briggs, 56, his owner said Smudge lost his leg after he was either ‘hit by a car or a cricket bat’ while he was out six-years-ago, according to his vet.

Smudge who did not have a microchip when he was ‘found’ by the RSPCA is now fully chipped.

He was sent to the RSPCA Radcliffe Animal Centre.

Neil said he and his wife “feared the worse” when he did not come home, he said: “He never usually goes out and if he does he usually finds shelter.”

They were reunited after the RSPCA knocked on doors asking if anyone recognised him.

Inspector Keith Ellis said when they found the cat: “The cat was very lethargic and not very lively, I think he was possibly disorientated, which is why he hadn’t moved."

Smudge has now been returned home.