In August 2003, Norris Cole took to a stray cat which he fed and named Monty. The cat disappeared for a couple of weeks and he grew worried that it may have died, even planning to put flyers in the Gazette asking for its whereabouts but Rita Sullivan stopped him. In early September the cat suddenly reappeared wearing a collar tag with the name "Phoebe" on it and a telephone number. Norris realised he'd got the sex of the animal wrong and Rita rang the number, forcing him to speak to the person on the other end of the phone. It was Mrs Parry of Inkerman Street, a customer of The Kabin, who had subscriptions to the Gazette and Warrior Weekly. She came round to 3 Coronation Street in an aggressive manner to collect her cat but Norris wouldn't allow her in, saying that he wasn't afraid of her martial arts husband. Mrs Parry parried that she was a widow of three years and that she was the reader of Warrior Weekly and the fighting expert. Emily Bishop had had enough and allowed the angry lady in to fetch the cat, hearing that her children were pining for it when it wasn't there. Mrs Parry entered, put Norris into a neck pinch and threw him out herself in order that she could collect the cat from Emily in peace.