Cat Who Invaded Pitch During Sheffield Wednesday vs Wigan Athletic Match Gets Reunited With Owners

A cat that stopped a football match with its impromptu pitch invasion has reportedly been reunited with its owners after missing for months. The feline ran onto the pitch during a Football League One game between Sheffield Wednesday and Wigan Athletic in Hillsborough, England on Wednesday, and managed to halt the game for quite some time. The cat’s 94-minute incursion delayed the match by a few minutes as it evaded attempts to capture it before Wigan player Jason Kerr managed to pick it up and handed it over to officials at the venue.

According to BBC, the furry cat was examined at a vet’s clinic and was found to be microchipped. They contacted the owners who presumed their beloved pet to be dead after it went missing since last June. Topsey, the cat, went missing from owner Alison Jubb during a trip to a cattery in Worrall, north Sheffield. It is about 4km away from Hillsborough Stadium, where it was found during Wednesday night’s football match.

“She went missing last June. We were going away and I was taking her to a cattery and she escaped out of the cat box and we never heard anything again,” Jubb told BBC.

The report also mentioned that after months of trying to find her pet, Jubb gave up all hopes until earlier this week when her daughter-in-law called. “My daughter-in-law rang me last night and said, ‘Are you watching the football match?’ I said no, and she said there’s a cat that ran on the football pitch and it just looks like Topsey,” she told the publication. She also admitted that she laughed it off as it couldn’t be her cat, until she received a call from the vet about Topsey.

It was later found that Topsey had suffered a head injury and a bite to its neck, but the club in a Tweet confirmed that after having treatment, she is fine.

Meanwhile, despite the pitch invasion, Sheffield Wednesday won the match 1-0, courtesy of Barry Bannan’s 53rd-minute penalty.