I think my cat is missing.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

I could cry.

We've been staying at my mum in laws for a few weeks while some work is done on out house. We took our 3 cats with us. They had been totally fine until yesterday when my mils friend came round...with her 3 lurchers. Who escaped and chased the poor cats. Two of them are fine, but one has not been seen since. We have searched the house repeatedly, but nothing. And she is a big Maine coon so not that easy to miss.

I think she must have got outside. It's been pouring with rain all night, and she has never been outside.

To make matters worse, we had to move back home today. So we aren't even in the house to keep searching.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

Thank you to everyone who offered support. Sadly, I don't have good news. I have just returned from burying Sedona. My MIL found her body in the garden last night. The foxes got to her.

She hadn't been there before, it was a spot we had often searched. It looks like she was trying to find her way home :(

[cozietoesie]

So very sorry, SC.

[Mrsrudolphduvall]

Sorry to hear that.
She was a beautiful cat.

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

So sorry to read this

[Horsemad]

I'm so sorry to hear about your beautiful cat
What a shame.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I'm so sorry. What a bloody waste of life. Poor you.

[SecretSantaFix]

I'm so sorry.

[knittedslippersx3]

So sorry xx

[StatisticallyChallenged]

Thanks everyone. Absolutely gutted, she was just the most wonderful pet. She used to sleep cuddled in to the crook of my arm, occasionally grooming my hair. The house feels weirdly empty without her.

I had a horrible feeling those bastarding foxes would get her. She was so close too, and the back door was open. As Fluffy says, what a fucking waste of a life.

[catsrus]

oh shit - that's awful, I'm so sorry - they wriggle their way into your heart and take a bit of it with them when they go.

[ozymandiusking]

So so sorry to hear that you beautiful cat has gone.I'm crying for you x.

[StuffezLaBouche]

I am so very sorry to hear this. Absolutely gutted for you. :(

[NotSpartacus]

Oh no, I am sorry to read this. Was hoping for a happier result for you.

[glitch]

How sad. Really sorry to hear she has died.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

Thanks all. I really miss her - and needless to say I did NOT go to lunch today, although DH did. I think I would have been rather too blunt for everyone.

[QOD]

Oh damn, I jumped to the end hoping for good news.

I'm so sorry, love my little boy so much, he's like my second child

[happystory]

Oh no, so very sorry

[cozietoesie]

I'm not surprised you didn't go. Indeed - if I had been your MIL, I'd have called the whole thing off.

[StuffezLaBouche]

Know what you mean, cozie, I would have too, but I genuinely don't think a lot of people realise how cat owners feel about their pets. "It's only a cat." I've only had my little boy for a few months and would be devastated to lose him, so I can only imagine how the OP is feeling.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

She apparently understood why I didn't go - she had a lovely dog who died a couple of months ago. MIL has never been much of a cat person but Sedona had wormed her way in to her heart while we were staying there.

The lurcher owner gave DH a sympathy card for me - which didn't have even a hint of apology for her part in it. GRRRR. I'm not bitter, not at all!

(I may have been having fantasies about the best way to deal with the damn foxes - they have been allowed to get totally out of control)

[cozietoesie]

Difficult one. Urban fox control is not effective but you might, sometime when you're cooler, have a word with your local councillor about measures which could be campaigned for - to do with rubbish, garden and countryside maintenance etc etc. (The area in question is just one big territory for them with loads of potential dens and plenty of food.)

[StatisticallyChallenged]

They have got very out of hand - DH's parents are divorced now, but his dad was totally shocked when he heard that they were at the stage of sauntering across the garden in broad daylight and attacking cats. He lived in that house for 20ish years and although they saw signs of them, he very rarely actually saw a fox. They had a cat while DH was growing up - it went out, and was never touched. And was probably about half the size of my poor girl too.

I did read something about them getting more aggressive since people started using wheelie bins, which they got down there a couple of years ago. I think I read somewhere that Inverleith and the surrounding area has one of the biggest urban fox populations in the country.

I know they are only doing what comes naturally - it's just hard not to be angry when she managed to survive for 8 days and get within feet of safety before being killed.

[Fluffycloudland77]

It's human rubbish that they usually want, if we weren't such messy so and so's it would be better for fox and rat control.

In the country they get shot, even cubs get shot. Some farmers have proper firearms licences and so have rifles not just shotguns. I've known foxes be killed on arable land by farmers with no livestock at all.

We never saw any foxes when we lived in the countryside but I saw a big cat!