Has anyone had a cat disappear for more than two weeks and turn up safely?

[Minty82]

I know I really ought to give up hope and let myself grieve now, but I’m torturing myself by collecting anecdotes to let myself keep thinking he might come back!

Our gorgeous, soppy, affectionate two-year-old cat vanished a fortnight ago. We live in a small village backing onto fields, and his brother has previously gone off on a hunting spree and stayed away for up to a week, but this one rarely goes for more than a day. We’ve put notes through every door in our own street and the nearest two asking people to check sheds and garages, put posters all around the village, put something on NextDoor, rung the vets etc etc. I know it’s highly unlikely there’ll be a happy ending at this point, but I just miss him horribly!

Has anyone’s cat returned after this length of time?

A friend posted on fb last night about her SIL cat that re-appeared after 8 years. If you think about it though, some other family now think that their cat is lost

A friend's very homebody non-streetwise rescue tortie with only a couple of teeth, who never went further than next door, vanished one day, turned up at a vets nine months later. She'd been spotted in a supermarket car park about six miles from her home and was taken in for a chip check. Somehow she'd put on weight compared to before - must have been taken away and looked after by someone.

One of my cats didn't come home one day - searched and searched, no sign of him. He liked to stay out for up to 24 hours but was very shy of strangers so didn't have a second family, I assumed the worst. He came back after three weeks, much thinner - it had been the first nice spring day of the year, I'm sure he was shut in a shed. It didn't help his underlying anxious nature but he's still happily with me!

Best of luck with yours finding his way home, or at least you finding out what happened.

We had a microchipped rescue Persian cat that had the call of the wild. The first time she was found living on waste land about a mile away. She was thin - the vet reckoned she'd lived off moths and worms - but apart from that she was healthy.
She would disappear every couple of months. The last time, she ended up with a family about five miles away. We said they were welcome to keep her. No idea if she stayed put.

Thanks so much all of you - lots of cause for optimism, though DH will despair of me, he thinks I’m making myself even more miserable by clinging to false hope!

It’s not false hope, don’t give up yet! My neighbours cat turned up after 6 weeks in two villages across. Keep looking, keep knocking on doors, keep ringing the vets. Expand your range if possible because they can roam a bit, further than you think.

We had a microchipped rescue Persian cat that had the call of the wild.
That doesn't sound like any Persian I know. They wouldn't last five minutes!!
Friends of mine recently had their car return after 4 years!

My nans cat went missing for 8 odd months, ended up a few miles away being looked after by someone else. I think the thing is alot of people just take cats in (which is lovely) but don't tend to get them scanned for a chip! I like to think positively about these situations although i'm happy to say it hasn't happened to me personally, i think cats just like to bugger off sometimes and will randomly turn up like nothing has happened! One of my ex colleagues lost her cat before christmas and i'm still convinced she is out and about somewhere living it up 😹 and will come home one day.

Normally a lost cat is followed up with a 'oh no there's a dead cat on the side of the road' facebook post or something like that so please take the positives and keep us updated 🤞🏻

Oh yes, multiple times. Our old tom would be off for six weeks summer holidays most years, come back all sleek and ravenous. Mum's tortie would nip off for three weeks and come back matted. Our current batch are homebodies but they're only young.

Years ago we had a cat who regularly went off for up to a month or so. One of her kittens ( went to a family member) had similar roaming tendencies. His longest disappearance (probably to the hills nearby) was almost three years! Walked in the door with the thickest pelt imaginable.

toddlertea We thought the same! But she was obviously tougher than she looked.
Molly was a smokey Persian who looked as dainty as can be. We assumed she'd been nicked or run over (). Didn't occur to us that she was perfectly able to fend for herself.

My cousin’s cat disappeared when her brother hosted a big party. He was about 3 years old. After two months, brother confessed that someone fed the cat pot before he went out. Cousin assumed her cat had died, but, eight months later he returned. He went on to live another 17 years.

Oh no!! Poor stoned cat!

Neighbours down their road had their cat missing for about two months. Someone visiting their nearby Tescos phoned to say they'd seen a similar cat by an old railway near their house, about give miles away. It was her, they got her back and she's still here.

Really hope you hear some news soon, it must be awful not knowing where your cat is.

Our cat has had two three week disappearances. Coming home skinny and miserable looking bless her. We're assuming she's been accidentally locked in someone's garage or she'd while they've been on holiday. You'd have thought she'd learn the first time but no

My mum's cat disappeared for weeks one summer. Then one day he turned up skinnier and he told her such a tale! Well, he meowed it all so obviously she couldn't understand him, but she said it was so funny, the way he was telling her all about where he been! with all the evidence here, it looks like your cat may well come back again OP.

Mine went for 6 months. Found her at very local shops just sat under a tree. I asked around and she had been living in a shed eating birds. Had to bite my tongue to ask why they hadn't rang the number of the many many posters all over our estate!!

She had a few smashed teeth but was fine if a bit thin.

@Windyatthebeach I think this is the problem, people see the cats or even take them in as their own but don't bloody contact their owners from the missing posters or check for a chip!

There was a post on a local Facebook group yesterday - a woman had found a cat that had been lost for FOUR YEARS!

Oh that’s heartbreaking though! I mean amazing, obviously, but I don’t want to miss out on four years of his life! And then whoever he’d been living with would have a greater claim than me anyway...

Thank you all so much, these stories are wonderful and massively reassuring. Keep them coming!

Mine disappeared for the whole of last summer. Just didn't come home one day and then two months later we got a call from the vet to say they'd had a stray handed in, scanned the chip and it was ours! He had been hanging around a couple of miles away - clearly got turned around and then couldn't find his way home.

He hasn't gone very far ever since coming home!

Growing up, I had a friend who's cat would pull a runner for weeks at a time, and then come home like nothing had happened. Silly thing.

Aww, wow, that must have been such an incredible feeling! Poor puss.

*whose

I've reunited a lot of people with cats that were missing for months, even years, thanks to their chip. And sadly I could have reunited more, but people often don't keep their details up to date with the chip company after a long time has passed. There was one recently that had been missing for three years. The owners had obviously tried very hard to find her as the chip register had her marked as missing, and they had even uploaded a photo on there, which I'd never seen before. But sadly, when we tried to contact them, none of the contact details or address were still current, and the name wasn't even a full first name - just something like Mrs R Brown, so any sort of Facebook search or similar was also impossible.

One of mine was missing for three months. I found her by accident when I was called to trap and neuter a group of ferals a long way from my house and found her living among them!