To ask for your “cats getting lost and coming back” stories?

[Sleepyandtired21]

My cat is missing. She normally comes back when called and lazes close by, but it’s been nearly two days and there’s no sign of her. Getting really worried as it’s so out of character - can people cheer me up with stories about how your cat came back? We’ve checked nearby sheds/garages, told neighbours, left her stuff outside to guide her home. Just feel a bit hopeless atm, plus the radio just played bring him home on the radio and I started ugly crying, so not a good day so far!

First time we let ours out she bolted. No sign for two days and then she reappeared. Once I'd made missing posters, of course.

If your cat has an indoor litter tray I read if you leave it by the back door it helps them find their way home. Ours went missing for 36 hours, after we had had her for 2 months, it was very traumatic. Facebook pages, the local cat charity and your vet might be helpful. Also if your cat is microchipped call petlog. I hope she comes home soon.

My friends cat was locked in an empty house for 3 weeks and survived on wallpaper and a drip from the sink. And I had a cat carried away by a stray dog who came home after 4 months!

Litter tray outside for wanderers really does work. Didn't believe it but my very limited sight cat always finds her way back when her tray is out.

My cat went missing for almost a month. I put lots of posters up and went out at night calling him. I had almost given up, but I put a few more posters up. A man phoned late one night and said he thought he had seen my cat coming out of a building site. He had! The cat had jumped down from a high wall into the building site, then hadn't been able to find his way back. He has done this twice more since, but now I know where to look! Calling late at night is more effective as the night is quieter and cats more likely to respond.

One cat would trot out every spring for a few weeks and then come back, presumably when he’d had his fill of rabbits. We got used to his holidays.

Another one went missing for three months and I got a call saying he’d been found in tescos. He was fat and happy so I think had moved in with someone else.

He finally left after a few years, we replaced him eventually with two kittens after about two years. Got a phone call from the cat rescue, they microchipped him and did we want hi, back? We reformed him with a friend in the countryside with access to a field with rabbits and he settled in happily.

Our kitty Jeannette got out once and was missing for a few weeks. She was normally an indoor cat but got out through a broken screen in a window. Our other cat was very lonely so we adopted a new friend for him. After about 3 weeks Jeannette came home. We didn't want a third cat at the time so she went to live with my parents. She enjoys living with them and has a new friend there - they have another cat too.

Timely thread.

Came down this morning to find a random cat trapped in the conservatory cat flap had been set to 'in' only.

Suspect I have foiled my cat's hostage taking activities. She was completely unperturbed by the random cat which had hidden itself away under a sofa.

Glad your cat is back. Mine once disappeared for 6 days. He did not return by himself. I spotted him waiting outside the back door of a school canteen very near our street. He had clearly found a great source of meat.
I called him and he came. Got him by the scruff of his neck and took him back home.

DHs cat went missing when the family had to move in with relatives temporarily ( cat went too). She got out and went missing for 6 months. They were visiting their relative and cat recognised their car and hid underneath it - coming out when they came back!

They are amazingly clever animals.

Glad your kitty is home OP!

Just a tip for all the cat owners out there, if your cat is microchipped make sure your vet or you have actually registered the cat with pet log.

Moved house recently so switched vets and was annoyed to find that our previous vet hasn't registered our cats with petlog and hadn't told us to, so for many years I thought our cats could be identified as ours through their microchip but that wasn't the case!

I've also bought those tabcat discs for finding them which has helped find them, they're not as faffy or expensive as the GPS ones.

My Ex boyfriends cat disappeared for a few days on a couple of occasions. First time he was in a house over the road. The old lady who lived there ended up in hospital and it was only when she managed to alert someone that her own cat was in the house that someone came round and Ex's cat came dashing out. On another occasion he'd got stuck between the walls in a house, and after a few days had lost enough weight to squeeze back out.

But, a friend lost his cat, put posters up and everything. it was a bit over a year later when said cat wandered into the house like nothing had happened. We guessed he'd found a new home for a while, but no-one seemed to be looking for him after he came back.

We inherited a cat with a house and shop we bought when I was a kid. He was the shop cat and really hated people and I was quite afraid of him. He started wandering and one time disappeared for about 6 months. Then he materialised back home, stayed for about 6 months, then wandered off again. He did that another couple of times, then never came back. We didn't know how old he was or anything - all we knew was his name.

One of my cats vanished for a couple of days a few years ago, and I was preparing to go out to look for a body when he turned up. He'd been shut in the neighbour's shed and stank of washing powder, as they kept their washing machine in there. He was hungry and thirsty, but fine.

I hope your fluffy wanderer comes back soon.

Our cat went missing for about a week and we'd nearly given up when she came back home albeit with a rather nasty broken leg having been hit by a car

A year later she went missing for four whole weeks and we really had given up hope then, but she came back one morning looking very sad and half starved but undamaged. We think she'd got stuck in a shed and couldn't escape poor thing.

We'd been searching the neighbourhood for her and the week after she returned we had so many people knocking and calling to say they'd seen her in their garden or breaking in to steal cat food! Never realised before how wide a patch she had but it turns out she's a right minx!

My next door neighbours cat went on an adventure and came back 4 months later, meowing on door step demanding food.

One of ours decided to go awol after moving from one country in Middle East to another one. Bearing in mind it is about a 6 hour drive and 50C outside. All I could think about was him trying to get across the desert to his old home,
However, 5 nights later, I got woken by my DH telling me 'your boy is home'. He was crying by the patio door.
He did again a couple of years later, again for about 5 days. Have moved him to UK now and he's been good as gold...so far.
People round here tend to post on multiple local FB sites and posters on lamp posts.
Hope you have your girl back very soon.

So glad you found her. My beloved cat went missing when I was little. We put posters up and spread the word around the village. After ten days we got a call from the vicar who found her lying by the side of a country lane about a mile away. She had been run over. She had to have her leg put in plaster much to her annoyance but she made a good recovery and lived many happy years. A very lucky cat.

My mum’s cat went missing for 6 months and then suddenly nonchalantly strolled in through the patio doors like he’d been gone for 10 minutes! Turned out he had moved in with someone up the road after taking a shine to them.

When I was little, our cat found a hole in the floor in the hot water tank cupboard and got lost under the floorboards for a couple of days. We turned the place upside down looking for her. Then I heard a faint miaow when I was in the bath and we managed to get her out.