Adelaide vet clinic forced to apologise after giving wrong cat’s ashes to family: ‘We are only human’

An Adelaide family was stunned when a shocking vet clinic bungle led to them receiving the wrong cat’s ashes.

To Katelyn Tanner-Smith and her family, their little cat Spy was more than just a pet.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Adelaide family ‘baffled’ when given the wrong cat’s ashes.

“He was just a loving cat, loved everyone, very friendly,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.

For the family of three from Sturt in the city’s south, his death a few weeks ago was particularly tough.

“Emotionally ... it hit us a bit,” Tanner-Smith said.

To honour their pet the family paid to have him cremated.

They received a black cat-shaped urn with a plaque adorning the words “my true little Spy”.

It sat proudly in their home until they got a call they never could have imagined receiving.

“(The vet) told me that the ashes they had in the urn weren’t my cat,” Tanner-Smith said.

Instead, the ashes belonged to a deceased stray cat who had been cremated by mistake.

“My cat had actually been left in the freezer,” Tanner-Smith said.

“It broke me, like he was our family.”

The urn was eventually returned and replaced however Tanner-Smith said she still doesn’t have the closure she paid for.

“I don’t even know if it’s my cat really, they stuffed the ashes up once ... it just baffles me,” Tanner-Smith said.

The southern suburbs vet clinic has apologised for the mix-up and in a statement told 7NEWS: “We are only human. We owned up to our mistake and did everything to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.”