A Mexican family recently discovered that their pet cat had been leading a double life, meaning he had a second home, a different name and another family just a few blocks away.

Cats like to be independent, so whenever her cat Pixi went away for longer than usual, Mary Lore Barra assumed that he was out chasing birds on rooftops and going on all sorts of feline adventures through the streets of Tamaulipas, in Mexico. The one thing she never imagined was that Pixi was actually spending time with another human family, who in turn thought they were the cat’s sole owners. But Pixi’s double life was accidentally revealed last month, when he came home to the Barra residence wearing a new collar around his neck.

Photo: Mary Lore Barra/Facebook

In a Facebook post that eventually went viral Mary explained that Pixi had been leaving her family’s house for the past two years, but she only realized where he was going last month, when he came home with a fresh new collar around his neck. Suspecting that he had another family taking care of him, Mary wrote a note on a piece of paper and put it under the cat’s new collar, and then she waited for Pixi to take off again.

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“His name is Pixi the kitten, I think he has 2 houses, haha,” Mary’s note read. Sometime later, the cat came back with another note tucked under his collar. This one read “Here he is called Huarache, apparently he does have two homes, haha. ​​Greetings ! The kitten’s other parents.”

Since last month, Pixi/Huarache has been the only means of communication between his two human families, who apparently live in the same neighborhood, a few blocks from each other. They continue to share the cat and keep in touch through the same written notes.

The story of the cat leading a double life went viral on social media late last month, after Mary Lore Barra shared it along with photos of Pixi/Huarache and the exchanged written notes on her Facebook page.