The red-faced owner of a 'stalker cat' has been forced to put a collar on her kitty confessing 'I follow people' - as it tails bemused villagers and even tries to get on bus with them. Taylor Williams claims she regularly receives flurries of messages from neighbours saying her four-year-old puss Cleo is stalking them around the village.
The mum-of-two believes the mischievous moggy suffers from 'FOMO' and regularly follows neighbours to the bus stop and waits for it to arrive and tries to hop on before being shooed away. Taylor says she even spots Cleo following other folk down the street from her living room window - despite the kitty having a loving family waiting for her at home.
The 31-year-old has been forced to attach a collar that reads 'I follow people but I have a home' so people don't assume Cleo is looking for a new owner. The theatre recovery worker says Cleo is famous in her village of St Erme, Cornwall, and people regularly message her to let her know her whereabouts so she can be collected.
Taylor said: "She's started following everyone. She meows at them like she's trying to talk to them. My neighbours regularly send videos and photos of her following them. She follows them to the bus stop and tries to get on the bus and they have to shoo her away.
"I don't know where she thinks she's going. She's followed us to the park and sat on the bench, she doesn't like missing out. She's also followed us to the village shop, I don't know how far she's been.
"I get clusters of messages of Cleo following people. As far as I know, she does stay in the village. I've seen her out the front of the house following a couple. Everyone knows her now. She must just be so curious, we call her the stalker cat.
"I got the collar because I was panicking thinking that people would think she's homeless or lost and take her in. I got her a collar made with my number on it and 'I follow people, I have a home' and the first line of my address. She didn't like it at first but she's used to it now. She waits for her collar to go on in the morning."
Taylor said she decided to buy the collar as concerned villagers assumed her pet was trying to tell them she was lost or needed help. Taylor says Cleo's stalking habit began a few weeks ago when she started following 12-year-old daughter Megan Williams to the school bus stop - and she hasn't stopped since.
Then she received a message from a group of teenagers saying that Cleo was following them to a park a ten-minute walk away and they were worried she'd get lost.
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Taylor said: "She would follow my daughter to the bus stop when she was waiting for the school bus. My daughter would bring her back because she was worried about her getting knocked over.
"We would shut her in, wait for the bus to go and let her out. Next thing I know, I get a message from a group of teens at 10pm saying Cleo was following them up to the park.
"The village is a couple of miles long but it would take me ten minutes to walk there so it's far for her to go. She was meowing and following them. I stood outside the house and shook some treats.
"The teens could hear me but she was just sat down so I went and got her. Since then, it's everyone. When she's meowing at you, you do your best to ignore her but you can't because it's so cute. She comes home every night. She's a funny, curious little cat. We don't have to worry about her now everyone knows her and now she's got the collar."
