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Cobby's Strange Disappearance

Cobby was the English novelist Thomas Hardy's cat. When Hardy died in 1928 the cat disappeared without trace. Author Frank Smyth provides us with an amazing explanation of the cats disappearance.

There was some conflict as to where Mr Hardy's body should lie to rest. As far as the nation was concerned it should lie in Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey, but as Mr Hardy had (metaphorically) given his heart to the village of Stinsford, near Dorchester, It was finally decided that Mr Hardy's heart would (literally) be given to the village. Two bronze urns were prepared, one to house his ashes for the Abbey, the other to contain his heart, to be buried in a grave at the Church in the village. A Doctor was called in to remove the heart and it was buried with the usual formalities, in the village graveyard. The tombstone can be seen today, reading, " Here Lies the Heart of Thomas Hardy". But all is not as it seems!

According to Frank Smyth, the heart was removed while the corpse was still in the house and wrapped in a tea towel, then placed in a biscuit tin next to the body, awaiting the undertakers arrival the next day. When the undertaker arrived to collect the heart for burial all he found were a few gristly scraps of heart and a fat and contented cat! As it was his duty to bury Mr Hardy's heart in the village graveyard, he killed the cat and placed it inside the biscuit tin and then carried on as if nothing had happened.

If this is what happened to poor Cobby, then it most certainly explains why Thomas Hardy's much - loved cat vanished without trace after his death. I suppose the only conclusive way of finding out is to exhume the heart, but I can't see that being a reality. It will just have to remain one of those much talked about mysteries that we all like to ponder over.

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