Family 'Couldn't Believe' Missing Cat Rings Door Bell For Return Home

MASTIC BEACH, NY — Did you hear the one about the missing cat who returned home by ringing the doorbell?

That's what happened recently when Stefanie Whitley's eight-year-old feline Lilly vanished.

She typically split her time between outdoors and indoors, but when three days passed and no sign of Lilly, Whitley and her family grew concerned.

Lilly was missing for a week after Whitley's family moved to their new home in August.

"It's not like her to not come home," Whitley said on "Patch AM" Thursday. "She responds to her name."

Whitley said after the third day, they had given up hope of seeing their pet again. Compounding their emotions, the family had lost a dog and a cat in the last year.

"For my children and I, losing Lilly was the worst thing that happened," she said. "She's the last one that we have standing with us."

Just as Whitley, her fiance and the children were despairing about the loss of the cat, this story took a surprising turn.

"It was a normal night for our family. My children and my fiance were in the living room watching TV," she said. "I was in the kitchen washing dishes."

She got an alert from "Alexa" of activity at her Ring doorbell at 10 p.m. They weren't expecting visitors.

"I look at the screen and it's Lilly's face," an incredulous Whitley recalled.

The cat pressed the doorbell and promptly meowed her way back into their hearts.

"I, of course, was crying," she said of the reunion with the pet. "My children were excited. I couldn't believe she was home."

(You can watch the "Patch AM" interview above-- starting at the 17:40 point of the video.)