A WANDERING cat has been embraced by the people of North Swindon.

Three-year-old moggy Mallet has caused quite the stir in recent months and owner Kelly Jane Richman says she has been amazed at the kindness of others. 

The 34-year-old mum of three from Abbey Meads said: “He was always been quite a homeboy and until recently he’s been the one that liked to be in the house snuggled up somewhere.

“But six months ago Mallet went missing, he hadn’t been home all day. I thought it was really strange, but then I saw a post on the Abbey Meads Community Facebook page and lo and behold there was a picture of him in in the house of a lady who lived round the corner.

“Her little girl goes to a childminder across the road, I think he accidentally got in her car as he likes to sit in the footwells and followed her home, and that was it – he got a taste for adventure.”

One of Mallet's latest jaunts took him to Haydonleigh School, where he interrupted a road safety session being held by Wiltshire Police. Officers used their car to return him to Kelly.

She added: “Last week I had to go and pick him up from two people’s houses. He’s also been to Abbey Meads pub twice, where I’ve found him playing with children in the garden. 

“People actually love him. He’s a lucky cat. I picked him up from a lady’s house and she had three young children who adored him. She sent me photographs of her children cuddling him.

“Wherever he goes and whoever he meets he seems to be loved and fed and well looked after, the community are so supportive and he always manages to find his way home"
Kelly explained fate had played a part in Mallet coming into her life in the first place.

She said: “We’ve not always lived in Swindon, in our old address we had this stray cat give birth to kittens on our back doorstep and then one day she just didn’t come back.

“So I had these three little babies living in my garden and decided they need a loving home and someone to look after them. So I kept them and called them Mallet, Norman and Denzel. 

“It’s like they were given to us by fate and they’ve been with me ever since and came with us when we moved to North Swindon a year ago.”