A man’s jaw dropping story of mistaken identity has gone viral, after his family buried what they believed to be their dead cat.
Revealing the unbelievable story on Twitter, comedian Eric Schmidt shared a series snapshots of a group text between himself, his father and sister.
Breaking the news to his children about the family pet, Eric’s father wrote: “I’ve got some bad news. Kitty has been missing since last night.
“When your mom drove the neighborhood just now, she found her in the street near the house.
“Your mom is pretty emotional so please reach out when you can and offer your support.”
But the situation took a turn for the worst just two hours later when they realised all was not quite what it seemed.
Following condolences from both children, the father sent another unbelievable message.
He said: “Well your not going to believe this. After a beautiful burial service and words of remembrance from yours truly we walked back in the house to begin our post-Kitty life. Out of habit I looked out the back window and guess who was staring back at me?
“You guessed it. We buried someone else’s cat. I guess it’s true – cats do have nine lives. Thanks for your kind words. All is better now.”
Having spoken to her grieving mother just hours earlier, Eric’s sister couldn’t believe the news.
She wrote back: “Is this for real?!” only to be sent a photo of the perfectly healthy family pet in her mum’s arms.
Adding insult to injury, the father writes back: “Oh, and BTW, I dug up the carcass and took it to our vet and it didn’t have a chip in it. Because it’s a rabbit. DO NOT tell the world about this.”
More than 35,000 people retweeted the conversation on Twitter, with many questioning its truthfulness.
One person wrote: “Listen… I don’t want to be rude in any way, but HOW TF does that ending happen?”
Another said: “Lmao this is either one hell of a story or some beautiful trolling by them.”
But Eric maintains the story was true.
One person wrote: “Props to your mom for taking the mystery carcass to the vet in case another family was looking for their pet.”
Eric replied: “Thank you for saying that. She’s very thoughtful.”
He then added: “The vet wanted $50 to get rid of the dead rabbit. My mom said ‘nah, I’ll just toss it in the hole I already dug in the backyard.’ A much less ceremonial second burying.”