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Original poster

Please give me some "my cat did a legger then turned up fine" stories, just do I can hope!

139 replies

AllRoadsLeadBackToRadley · 24/09/2017 21:19

I know it's not the most devastating thing in the world- people live through worse...but...

We have four house cats. One of them has somehow escaped (kitchen window, we think).

We've been calling him all day and shaking his food, but he's still gone!

Will he be ok out there? He's a house cat- n9t used to going out!

He's now been missing for 24 hours.

OP posts:
Original poster
AllRoadsLeadBackToRadley · 24/09/2017 21:42

How random that there are a number of Harry Potter inspired NNs on this thread...my cat's name is Snape!

OP posts:
troodiedoo · 24/09/2017 21:42

My mostly house cat went missing for 4 days after I had a baby. Found him across the road. The cats protection lady said house cats never wander far if they get out.

Hope yours comes home soon.

HemanOrSheRa · 24/09/2017 21:42

Have you got a local 'Lost and Found Pets' facebook page OP? That might be worth a try. Ours is very active.

Lurkedforever1 · 24/09/2017 21:43

I had one that frequently disappeared, sometimes for days, usually weeks, and once a few months. Would just stroll in thin and bedraggled, and spend a week eating and sleeping. Never too exhausted to draw blood on the welcome home flea/ worm treatment. And carried on even when he was old. Eventually died peacefully in his sleep in his favourite sun spot.

That said if yours is a house cat, it's probably scared and hiding somewhere near by, keep an eye out now but late on when everywhere is quiet is the best time to go searching for a cat that could be nervous.

Foniks · 24/09/2017 21:43

I've had lots of missing for a few days to a week and come back fine. Sometimes looking a little disheveled, but they're fine.
I once had one that disappeared for a year! I went past a random house and saw him in the window, he looked at me, I looked at him, he just stood there staring. Knocked the door, no answer. Planned to go back again the next day, but he came home in the morning. It was so weird.

Just get some photos together though, just in case.

TheEdgeOfGlory266 · 24/09/2017 21:45

My cat went missing for a couple of days (she goes out) and then one evening me and my NDN went out to get out nails done and she got a phone call from her DH saying her son just woke up screaming because my cat was in his bed. Had to ring my DH to try and get her out as she didn't want to leave.

MissHavishamsleftdaffodil · 24/09/2017 21:45

just another thought - if he's jumped/fallen from an upper storey window and he's bruised and sore then search very thoroughly through all the undergrowth, bushes, any cover you can find in the area, injured cats hide and may not come when called or call back to you. One of mine did a stuntman leap from an upper window, and while she didn't injure herself she was very stiff and sore for a few days, and sorry for herself.

TammySwansonTwo · 24/09/2017 21:45

One of our cats disappeared - came back 18 months later, fat and happy. No idea who took him in.

MrsFoxPlus4 · 24/09/2017 21:47

I thought mines had got out and she was actually inside my sofa!

nolongersurprised · 24/09/2017 21:47

Ours went missing for 7 weeks over last summer. Horrible weather too - scorchingly hot but loads of dramatic thunderstorms. He would normally stay inside at night but wasn't there in the evening which was unusual. Turned up skinny, with a lost voice and worn down claws but was fine. He doesn't venture far from home now.

UnderTheDesk · 24/09/2017 21:47

Has there been any change in your normal circumstances, op? My cat went missing fir three months a few weeks after we brought PFB home. She turned up a bit hungry but fine.

Copperspot · 24/09/2017 21:47

My friends cat went missing for a month. She resigned herself to the fact he was long gone, then he turned up in the garden one day all casual. He wasn't thin or injured so we assumed he had been lodging with (scrounging off) another family then had enough and gone home!

Agree with pp to call around all the vets

DailyMailReadersAreThick · 24/09/2017 21:49

Mine was missing for about four days. We put up posters then went round every house on the surrounding streets - the LAST house we called out said, "Oh yes, there is a black cat in our garden." Took us out there and there she was! She'd lost her meow, probably worn it out, but she was fine.

Later on a stray moved in with us. One of the existing cats didn't like him, they had a fight, stray cat got an abscess. I took him to the vet who scanned for a microchip (this was when they were pretty rare) and he was registered. Returned him to his owner about 5 months after he'd got lost. We were a good 10 minute drive away. That's a picture of him <

Ours are outside cats and every so often, one of them stays out just long enough to get us worried - goes out in the morning and doesn't come home until we're asleep. She always does come home.

Please give me some "my cat did a legger then turned up fine" stories, just do I can hope!
SunshineLollipopsRainbows25 · 24/09/2017 21:50

I went on holiday for a long weekend, my very cat person friend cat sat my cat at her house I said she was a house cat so don't let her out, she lived in a second floor flat so thought it would be ok.. she left the window open.. only a smidgen..

the first night she was gone (I didn't know any of this until I got back on the monday) nowhere to be found..

2 days she spent looking for my cat.. she heard a howling round the back of some houses across the street.. my cat had fallen down between a wall and was wedged.. my friend called the rspca they said they couldn't get anyone out for 24hr so she called the fire brigade and they knocked the wall down and saved cat
i left a black and mostly white cat came back to an orange cat as the broken brick had dyed her fur :( my poor kitty she was traumatised!!

I feel like she thought I'd abandoned her I felt so guilty, sorry whoever that wall belonged to as I have no idea what happened to that! but my cat was home safe after that I'm pretty sure she gave the silent treatment for a few days when I got back.

AccrualIntentions · 24/09/2017 21:51

Every cat I've ever had has buggered off at some point for at least a couple of days. They all turned up again after worrying the hell out of us.

FourEyesGood · 24/09/2017 21:51

Our cat went AWOL for just over 6 weeks! She came back thinner, flea-ridden and a bit mangy, but she made a full recovery and lived for several more years after her return. We have absolutely no idea where she went, but it was so amazing to get her back - she just turned up on the doorstep one afternoon. Smile

SnowiestMountain · 24/09/2017 21:52

Our cat went missing for 17 weeks!! We honestly thought we'd never see him again. Then one night, about 11pm a lady from one of these 'pet rescue army' things called and he'd been found hanging around a Royal Mail sorting office about 3 miles from us and they'd called this lady out who had scanned him and he was ours!

If you've no proof they're not alive, never give up!

SunshineLollipopsRainbows25 · 24/09/2017 21:53

my childhood cat disappeared for a week. she was locked in my neighbours shed!!

CurbsideProphet · 24/09/2017 21:54

MIL's cat has wandered off for a few days on several occasions. Apparently they can smell over a mile, so you should leave their bed or something outside to help them pick up the scent of home. I hope Snape is home soon!

Original poster
AllRoadsLeadBackToRadley · 24/09/2017 21:55

And DH asks why I bloody love MN so much...

No change of circs. I've just given DH a list of everyone's tips (kitty-litter, etc) and finally feel like I'm doing something useful ( VI, so I'd be useless at looking for him.

Stupid question- should I stay in the house tomorrow? He has no way to get in if he comes back!

OP posts:
trevthecat · 24/09/2017 21:59

Oh so sorry to hear this. My mum's old cat olly was all for my dm. When I was 16 we moved 200miles away. My uncle and cousin took olly in the car, the cat didn't know them, they got to the new house and let him straight out. Poor cat had no idea where he was or where his family were. My dm was devastated. She called him, left food out, left a top out that smelt of her. All the recommended things. About 6 weeks later with all hope lost, I came in from school and he was sat on the kitchen window ledge!!! My mum rushed home from work and fed him expensive fish!! We don't know where he went, he wasn't skinny so he was getting fed somewhere.

Indigo90 · 24/09/2017 22:01

My cat wandered off as a teenagers and was gone for 6 weeks. We had given up hope when someone called saying they had seen our poster in the vets and thought they had our cat. He was fat and riddled with fleas so we think he had been living with someone else's cats.

Thankfully he has never repeated his adventure.

Spuddington · 24/09/2017 22:02

Check behind sheds. Spudcat went missing for 24 hours after getting out of a window. We'd only moved a week before. He was behind next door's shed.

Parrcful · 24/09/2017 22:04

I had to look after my mother's two cats when she moved a few years ago.. The first night her boy cat escaped from my house & reappeared about 6 months later!

Odoreida · 24/09/2017 22:05

my cat was lost for 3 days and I heard him meowing from a garage - the door had been opened and then had blown shut. It was a house where there had been a stabbing a few months before. I knocked at the door, no reply, so I kicked the garage door down, got my cat and ran away ... I was so happy to hear him!

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