Cheryl Schmidt thought she had found her beloved cat, named Kitty, at the side of the road.
She told the rest of the family the pet had died and held a ceremony in the garden before burying her.
But just hours later, Kitty turned up at the family home in Indiana, USA, and Cheryl had to dig up the body she had buried.
the 63-year-old wanted to take the cat she thought was hers to the rightful owner – but it turned out it was actually a rabbit.
The bunny had been hit by a car and Cheryl and she later gave it a dignified funeral in their garden.
She shared the news of the death followed by the confusion with her husband Steve and their children Eric Schmidt, 35, and Katie, 31.
Eric, a voiceover actor, said today: ‘My mum absolutely loves the cat.
‘It was quite a ceremonial service for the cat.
‘She had to borrow a shovel from someone in the neighbourhood and she was crying as she shovelled a random rabbit into the hole.
‘The vet offered to cremate the rabbit for my mum, but she said she already had a hole in the back garden so buried it again.’
Eric shared details of the bizarre incident on Twitter and the post has since had up more than 792,000 likes.
Eric added: ‘My dad text me and my sister saying that the cat had gone missing and that we should make sure our mum was ok.
‘Then he text us saying she’d found the cat dead at the end of the road and it had been run over.
‘She put it in a plastic bag so she didn’t have to look at it. She wishes she’d given it a better look before she did that.
‘She was pretty upset so my sister called to console her.
‘Then he text saying he’d buried the cat but our actual cat had turned up at the house, so my mum had gone from being devastated to being overjoyed.’
Cheryl then dug up the cat and took it to the vet to see if she could find a microchip – but the vet revealed it was actually a rabbit.
Eric added: ‘The mistake is understandable considering it was pretty flattened.
‘My mum asked me not to tell anyone, but I’d already screenshotted the messages and put them on Twitter.
‘It blew up and it was so unexpected.
‘It’s so funny because people think it’s fake. We’d need to hire a forensic detective and dig it back up.’
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