On “Friends,” Phoebe thinks the stray cat she finds is a reincarnation of her mother.
The story appears in “The One with the Cat,” the second episode of the fourth season. Phoebe finds a cat in her guitar case and quickly becomes convinced that her deceased adoptive mother, Lily Buffay, has returned in feline form. She interprets small details as signs, including the cat’s apparent connection to her memories of her mother.
Ross rejects the idea and insists that the animal is simply a lost cat. The situation becomes more serious when the friends discover that the cat belongs to a young girl. Phoebe initially struggles to give him back because she feels she has found her mother again, but she ultimately returns the pet to its owner.
The cat is called Julio, a detail that makes Phoebe’s belief even more comically complicated. The episode plays the conflict as a clash between Phoebe’s spiritual worldview and Ross’s scientific skepticism.