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Original poster

Please share your 'lost pet coming home' stories.

64 replies

TravellingSpoon · 28/02/2022 09:37

Our cat is missing. She never goes very far and hardly ever goes out. She went out yesterday at 4pm and hasnt been back since. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but she is usually out for 5 minutes and back, she doesn't go out at night.

DD is distraught and nothing I can say can make it better. Please share your positive stories to cheer me up.

OP posts:
MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 28/02/2022 09:41

Mine came back after 3 weeks, never strayed again.

It's that time of year ,bit lighter and birds are chirping, Spring is on its way and I've noticed our cat get a bit restless and in and out every 5 minutes.

Put some of the cat litter outside so they can smell home. Go out when it's dark and quiet and call their name.

Post of FB and nextdoor

Fingers crossed xxx

Mummysgirl12 · 28/02/2022 09:43

The cat on our road was the same, they put out fliers - no one saw the cat.

Then after 2 weeks, it had enough, came back. Seemed thoroughly well fed though...

My dog went on a nice jolly for 7 hours - whole town was looking for her. She was sunbathing outside a nice fancy house and only returned for dinner. Absolute bitch.

princesssparklepants · 28/02/2022 09:57

Ours went for a few days a while back. Came back a bit poorly a dehydrated so had prob got stuck somewhere!

Hope she returns soon x

spiderlight · 28/02/2022 10:08

Our cat was missing for three days and nights over a Bank Holiday weekend. I was frantic, as she was a tiny little thing . Put up loads of flyers all round the area, and then on the fourth morning she just strolled in. I went round taking down the flyers and the woman from the local bakery said 'Is that your cat? She was locked in here - she frightened the life out of me when I opened up this morning!'

spiderlight · 28/02/2022 10:08

Sorry - forgot to say that i hope yours comes home today.

Sparklingbrook · 28/02/2022 10:10

I noticed a cat I'd never seen before was wandering about. I managed to coax it in and took it to the vets to be scanned. Long story short it had been missing from the family home for 6 months, and I took it round to the stunned and overjoyed owners.

Sparklingbrook · 28/02/2022 10:12

It's early days for your cat OP. If the weather where you are was like here yesterday it was lovely, maybe she's in someone's garage or shed that they opened for the first time this year. Fingers crossed she'll be back soon.

Beachsidesunset · 28/02/2022 10:13

Our 3-legged cat went missing. I put flyers through all the local houses then went out at 2am and called. I heard him meowing inside a locked garage. Happy reunion.

TheVanguardSix · 28/02/2022 10:15

My old ginger boy left for 6 weeks about 5 years ago. Hasn't strayed since.
My young'un, who is about to turn 2, went 'walkies' for 5 days over Christmas, which was really unusual for him. He's a real homebody. At the same time, NextDoor was posting updates about a tuxedo cat (similar to him) that had been struck by a car two roads away from mine. I was soaking in anxiety.

Someone told me, with my younger one who went missing at Christmas, to go around calling out to him. I went out one night with the dog (whose smell the cat would know since they share beds) and called for him everywhere on every road. I shook his food box. I went home to bed and he rolled up, meowing at the back door around 3am to get in.
So... give it a go. Walk around your entire neighbourhood calling to him, preferably at night since that's when they're more likely to be up and about wandering.

TheVanguardSix · 28/02/2022 10:16

Also if your neighbourhood has a whatsapp group, ask them to look in their sheds/bike sheds. Post photos of him on whatsapp. Go onto NextDoor, post there.

TheVanguardSix · 28/02/2022 10:17

Sorry, she/ her... I referred to yours as a male.

GaiaWise · 28/02/2022 10:18

Mine went for 10 weeks! We’d given up hope. She strolled in miaowing and I nearly died of shock!

Sparklingbrook · 28/02/2022 10:19

@TheVanguardSix

Also if your neighbourhood has a whatsapp group, ask them to look in their sheds/bike sheds. Post photos of him on whatsapp. Go onto NextDoor, post there.
YY or Facebook Spotted, social media is brilliant for this.
steppemum · 28/02/2022 10:20

I was living with my mum with my cat.

We had been there a while.

My cat disappeared. I then moved away and assumed the cat had gone.

5 months later, she reappeared at my mums house. Thin, wobbly, covered in ticks and starving. I drove home and she was so pleased to see me. She appeared fine. Was a bit more grumpy that she was before, but also more of a lap cat.

Several years later she had a problem with her back leg, and the vet x-rayed it. He said that at some point she has broken or dislocated her hip, and it had healed slightly off. I assumed that she has done that while missing and only made it home once it had healed. No sign of the break/bad leg when she reappeared!

PrimroseTheSmooth · 28/02/2022 10:23

5 months later, she reappeared at my mums house. Thin, wobbly, covered in ticks and starving. I drove home and she was so pleased to see me. She appeared fine. Was a bit more grumpy that she was before, but also more of a lap cat.

This also happened to my cat.

LightsoftheNorth · 28/02/2022 10:25

Everything crossed for you OP.

Multiple stories with happy endings here.

One cat disappeared and came back 6 months later in the middle of a storm.

Another just moved out and I discovered that she was living at the local vicarage 5 weeks later

Yet another followed a man home from the pub and moved in with him. Found him after putting leaflets though doors. I also discovered that for the last year he had been spending his days sitting on a comfy chair in the local car showroom (and being fed!).

The same cat got locked in a neighbour's shed for 5 days (neighbour claimed he'd already checked the shed Hmm ).

And the same cat moved in with someone else in the village (twice).

Our current cat has been locked in assorted neighbour's barns for several days on 3 occasions before we found him 🤦‍♀️

chocolateisavegetable · 28/02/2022 10:25

Ours had climbed through a window of our neighbour's house and hid under the bed of their spare bedroom! Quite why she didn't come out when she got hungry, I'll never know.

Blinkingbatshit · 28/02/2022 10:30

Our cat disappeared for over a month! Turned out he’d jumped in a furniture delivery van, gone all round the county before the driver found him but didn’t know where he’d picked him up. The driver/van owner took him home but was about to go on holiday to Florida so left the cat at his house with his cleaner going in to feed it. The cleaner saw our ad in the lost section of the local rag (was about 20 years ago this!) but didn’t want to do anything without her boss’ permission. When he returned from the US 4 weeks later they rang and we were reunited!😅 My sister’s very elderly cat disappeared and she assumed it had died - 3 years later she got a call from a vet to say an elderly couple had come in with a cat they’d been looking after and on a microchip check they discovered it was registered to her…. She let the elderly couple keep the elderly cat rather than make it move back to her and her rowdy kids!

SmallOrFarAway · 28/02/2022 10:35

Ah I hope she's back soon. One of mine wanders occasionally and I won't see him for a few days and get so worried. He usually turns up chilling in a garden not far away and I get texts from various neighbours saying he's been in and punching their food! The last time he'd been gone over a week and I was really panicking. Put his photo on some local fb groups and he turned up later that day. Not sure if it was a coincidence or someone had kept him then felt bad. He still had his collar with my number on so I'd like to think nobody had tried to keep him as it was obvious he was a pet and not a stray. Maybe you could get some pics on local groups too just in case.

AngelsWithSilverWings · 28/02/2022 10:39

My indoor cat escaped one night and went missing for 5 days. I posted on here and got lots of support and advice. He came home after I smeared a thin layer of cat food all around the boundary of our front and back garden. Woke up the next t morning and could hear him. He was thin and smelled of engine oil so I think he had been accidentally locked in a garage somewhere.

KatnissNeverdone · 28/02/2022 10:42

Ours was missing for 10 months. He was found about 3 miles away and returned after CPL scanned his chip.

Beachsidesunset · 28/02/2022 10:46

We went on holiday for a fortnight and a friend living on the opposite side of town looked after our dog. We arrived home and doggo was patiently waiting on our front doorstep, followed 10 mins later by our very stressed then relieved friend. Doggo had jumped their back fence and made its way home, shortly before we got home, as if they knew we were on our way back! Animals work in mysterious ways.

StrictlySinging · 28/02/2022 10:47

My little dog was missing for two days had crossed roads and an industrial estate, was found in the front garden of a house that looked like ours but 2 miles aways from where she was lost. The finder thought she was sweet and decided to keep her but when the other adult came home after work they finally reported her found.

lollipoprainbow · 28/02/2022 10:48

We had this last summer, our beautiful house cat shot out the front door one very hot summers night in July as my daughters dad was leaving the house. My dd and I were distraught, we searched the nearby streets, put posters up all over the neighborhood and left all windows and front door open hoping he would return. I left his litter tray and food out but nothing. I put posts on social media and alerts with local cat charities. We were convinced he would never come home. This all happened in early hours on a Friday morning. Monday morning I was putting the rubbish in the communal bins and I had one more look round the communal car park under some bushes. I called his name and heard a meow!! He was there, I grabbed him and ran to show him to my dd who was so happy!! Don't give up hope, many many cats come home !!

Ftl6 · 28/02/2022 10:50

I went knocking on doors when my cat, who is a creature of habit and always comes home in the evening and stays in overnight, didn’t return home one day. He was shut in a shed a few doors down the road.