A beloved pet cat has been found safe and well after a shattered vet mistakenly released the feline to the wrong family before it vanished.
The desperate search for Tara the tortoiseshell cat was launched in Sydney‘s eastern suburbs in July with pet detectives called in to help track down the beloved animal.
Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed the ordeal was sparked when the world famous Bondi Junction Veterinary Hospital mixed up Tara with another tortoiseshell cat called Lara at the clinic.
The cat had been missing for weeks but in an update shared to Facebook on Monday night it was revealed Tara has now been located.
The hunt in Sydney’s east for missing cat Tara was successful (pictured with owner Katie Matthews)
Tara was found and trapped on Monday after she had been missing for weeks (pictured)
The tortoiseshell feline who ran away is doing well after she was found and trapped on Monday night (pictured)
The bizarre episode happened when Tara was handed to the grandmother of the family which owned Lara.
They didn’t realise it was the wrong cat and let her out into the back garden when the family returned home and Tara, unfamiliar with her surroundings, managed to escape.
Her owners Katie Matthews and her partner Bernardo Matuck, were both overseas in separate countries visiting sick relatives but were distraught to hear their beloved cat had run away.
Mr Matuck posted on Monday night about the ‘awesome news’ and thanked everyone who helped in the search effort for the furry runaway.
While Ms Matthews was overjoyed saying she was ‘So happy to announce that our little baby Tara has been found!!!!
‘Thank you so much Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives her collar is hanging off her neck… she is so thin lots of happy tears so excited to pick her up soon,’ she said.
One friend replied: ‘That is just amazing!!! Enjoy all the snuggles now you are reunited!! What a resilient and brave little cat’.
One of Tara owners was ecstatic to hear that their pet had been found safe (pictured)
The vet hospital has hired a pet detective to help in the frantic search for Tara
Friends of the couple of people who had simply heard the story were delighted to hear the cat is back home
Anne-Marie from Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives – hired by the Bondi Junction Vet Hospital – found Tara on Monday.
‘I’m standing on the street in Bondi Beach where Tara the now internationally famous cat went missing when their was an accidental mix up,’ she said in a video shared online.
‘A few days after that the vets hired me and my team to try and find Tara. We had a robot going through the drains, posters up all of which were approved by the vets.’
‘Today the trail cam went off and photos were coming in of Tara and she now been found safe.’
She was reunited with a tearful Ms Matthews on Monday night.
Anne-Marie from Arthur & Co. Pet Detectives found Tara on Monday (pictured)
She was then promptly reunited with her owner Ms Matthews (pictured)
Vet hospital owner Dr Julia Crawford admitted last month the mistake was caused by human error – but insisted protocols are in place.
The clinic and staff were the target of community backlash since the bungle.
The vets took to Facebook to shoulder responsibility and ask that negative comments not be directed towards that family of Lara the other cat which picked up the wrong pet.
‘The grandma who inadvertently collected Tara (instead of Lara) did NOT intentionally let Tara outside,’ the clinic said.
‘Ideally, no cat should be let outside immediately after returning home from a stay away from home, and that was the sentiments behind the words typed in the frantic message sent to Tara’s owners.
Katie told Daily Mail Australia she and her partner Bernardo Matuck were beside themselves over their fur baby’s disappearance (pictured all together)
Dr Crawford said there were policies and steps in place to ensure a mix up like this does not happen but they were unfortunately not followed when the pets were released.
‘It was a single mistake made by someone who in that moment wasn’t thinking about what they were doing,’ she said.
‘Similar cats next to each other. Everything is labelled, everything’s in the right place, and it was a human error.
The other cat Lara was released shortly after Tara went missing and has already settled back into life at home.
Bondi Junction Veterinary Hospital’s Dr Julia Crawford (left) was heartbroken over the bungle caused by human error which led to Tara running away
The other cat Lara (pictured) has returned home to her owner in Bondi
Ms Matthews, who describes Tara as the light of her and her partner’s life, spoke to Daily Mail Australia in July describing how worried she was.
‘Tara always boards with BJVH when we go away and we trusted them because they personally know Tara. She gets all of her check-ups and injections there.
‘She just had her flu jab and one of the vets told us not to worry about Tara boarding as she will get so many cuddles because she is well known and loved by staff there.
‘At the end of the day… they were the only people that were responsible for Tara and they failed her and us.
‘She is such a gentle caring soul… we feel beside ourselves. She isn’t a street cat… she is a garden girl and she has no idea how to fend for herself.’
Ms Matthews thanked the community for their outpouring of support but also added that she ‘does not condone any anger toward vet staff’.
And said that she doesn’t blame the elderly lady who collected Tara saying she could have just run outside when she got home and opened the carry case.
The search ramped up after the couple’s pleas for help find their beloved cat went viral and the vet hospital hired a pet detective to locate the animal.
‘At the end of the day… they were the only people that were responsible for Tara and they failed her and us,’ Katie Matthews (pictured with cat Tara) told Daily Mail from the UK
Tara’s devastated owners shared this message from the vet clinic alerting them to the mix-up
Bondi Junction Veterinary Hospital became world famous via vet Dr Chris Brown and the hit television show Bondi Vet, where the long-running show was originally filmed.
The series has since moved to be filmed at another local veterinary clinic.
Dr Chris Brown has gone on to host a number of other successful TV shows including I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and The Living Room.
Bondi Junction Veterinary Hospital was made famous by celebrity vet Dr Chris Brown (pictured)