HEAMOOR — Wilbur, a female tabby cat from Heamoor in Cornwall, returned home with blue fur after entering a neighbor's garden. The blue coloration resulted from her rolling in cornstarch dye left over from a gender-reveal party.

Sophie Jenkin, Wilbur's owner and a GP admin worker, discovered the cat's altered appearance. "We were all cheering and celebrating and then my brother said: 'Sophie, why is your cat blue?' I thought: 'Oh my god, someone's thrown paint at her,'" Jenkin said. She subsequently posted a photo of the blue cat on the Heamoor Facebook page to seek information about what had happened.

Hollie Jenkinson, a neighbor, identified Wilbur as the cat that had rolled in the leftover cornstarch from her gender-reveal party. Jenkinson had used footballs filled with blue cornstarch dye for the event in her garden. "We thought it would be a great idea to do a gender reveal for our children in our garden. It consisted of the children kicking footballs containing blue cornstarch. It all went really well and my children were really excited to find out what we're having," Jenkinson said.

Following the discovery, Sophie Jenkin washed Wilbur to remove the blue dye. A small stain remained after the washing. Izzy Hocking, the senior veterinary engagement manager at the charity Cats Protection, commented on the situation. "While it must have been quite alarming for Wilbur's owners to see him come home bright blue, cornstarch coloured with standard food dye is unlikely to cause harm in most cases," Hocking said.

Hocking also noted the appropriate actions taken by Wilbur's owner. She stated, "Importantly, they did exactly the right thing by identifying what the substance was and washing it off straight away to prevent [her] from grooming [her]self and potentially ingesting it."