In brief
After receiving numerous calls about a missing cat named Torbo, Natasha Lavoie discovers that her phone number was mistakenly printed on T-shirts sold for a prank, making her the unintended recipient of many late-night inquiries.
Natasha Lavoie, a resident of British Columbia, Canada, has found herself the unwitting star of an odd phenomenon. Since 2024, her phone has been bombarded with calls from individuals claiming to have found a missing cat, dubbed Torbo. However, Lavoie’s own black cat, named Mauser, has remained comfortably at home, oblivious to the chaos occurring outside.The strange situation continued for a whole year until recently when her partner, Jonathan McCurrach, took it upon himself to investigate the barrage of calls, particularly late-night messages from a persistent caller. Upon questioning the caller, it was revealed that the man was reaching out as a joke; his son had purchased a T-shirt from an online retailer claiming a cash reward for the mythical missing cat, along with a phone number for tips—Lavoie’s phone number.The calls came in waves, with Lavoie experiencing days of incessant ring tones followed by dry spells lasting weeks. “I initially wondered if I had angered someone,” she recounted, unsure how her number was circulating. In pursuit of answers, she reached out to the American company behind the comical shirts, Wisdumb, in an effort to rectify the situation.The unintended publicity has left Lavoie both amused and irritated, as she navigates her routine while dodging confused callers looking for a cat that doesn’t exist.
