Beginning in 2024, Natasha Lavoie started getting calls on her cellphone from individuals who mentioned that they had discovered a lacking cat named Torbo.
However Ms. Lavoie’s cat is known as Mauser, and every time a name got here, her black cat was the place he was purported to be, in her residence in British Columbia, Canada.
This went on for a yr.
Lastly, about two weeks in the past, she handed the telephone to her associate, Jonathan McCurrach, who demanded to know why one man was calling so many instances late at evening.
The person admitted he was calling as a joke: His son had purchased a shirt on-line that marketed a money reward for a lacking cat and listed a phone quantity to name.
That phone quantity was Ms. Lavoie’s.
Her cellphone would ring in spurts. For days in a row, she’d get a number of calls, even in the midst of the evening. Then two weeks would cross with out calls.
“At first I used to be considering, like, who did I anger?” she mentioned. “Who posted my quantity someplace?”
She contacted the American firm that offered the shirts, Wisdumb, to seek out out why and the way it selected her telephone quantity.
The corporate instructed her that its promotional run of the shirts had ended however then minimize off any communication with no additional clarification, Ms. Lavoie mentioned.
The corporate took the shirt off its web site, however it nonetheless has posts about it on TikTok. Textual content on one video says, “I made this thermal (shirt) to assist discover my cat.”
Ms. Lavoie mentioned that she didn’t wish to change her telephone quantity as a result of it’s been hers for almost 20 years, and that the harm was achieved. Her telephone quantity is on the market, on shirts and on social media.
“I’m principally being harassed over a cat,” she mentioned. “I’m getting calls all all through the day, all all through the evening.”
Wisdumb didn’t reply to a request for remark. CBC reported earlier about Ms. Lavoie’s deluge of calls.
The corporate sells shirts with two totally different photographs of a white kitten, with “lacking cat” above the photographs. Typically the cat’s identify is Torbo. Different instances it’s Kawahira.
Neither cat seems to be like Mauser, described by Mr. McCurrach as a “short-haired fats black cat.”
Ms. Lavoie isn’t the primary individual to unexpectedly be on the receiving finish of a private telephone quantity that was extensively promoted.
After Tommy Tutone launched the track “867-5309/Jenny” in 1981, listeners called the number with numerous space codes. Years later, one man tried to sell his model of the telephone quantity.
Ms. Lavoie mentioned studying why she was getting the calls was comforting. Earlier than that, it was regarding as a result of it was not clear who was calling or why.
Mr. McCurrach mentioned a couple of callers had been impolite or insistent.
“A few of these individuals are like: ‘I’ve bought your cat. I need my cash,’” he mentioned. “And it’s like, who the hell are you? Go away. What are you doing? Go away me alone.”
Now that the couple is aware of why the calls are coming, Mr. McCurrach generally jokes again that he has the caller’s cat.
He additionally has some calls for of his personal.
“I don’t need a cat, I need a goat!” he tells callers. “Do you could have any parakeets?”
