Hand hold - my wee cat is missing

[Fuzzyheid]

Willow hasn't been seen since this morning. We've been out searching and calling, and it's completely out of character for her. She's normally back and forth every hour or so during the day and is always kept in at night. Today she's not been seen since I went to work this morning. I'm hoping she's just got stuck in someone's shed and she'll come back in the morning when they open up. She's just over a year old, and is pretty daft so my fears range from her being stuck in a shed to stuck up a tree (we have a large wood at the bottom of the garden) to having been caught in a gamekeeper's trap or hit by a car. The local estate breeds pheasants here and the gamies have been known to shoot cats. My head is running at a million miles an hour, and there's no way I can sleep...I keep imagining the worst things and yet the logical part of my mind is reminding me she probably went out 5 minutes before I came home from work, and she's having her first taste of outdoors after dark and will clatter through the cat flap in the small hours.

[Title edited by MNHQ]

"She's normally back and forth every hour or so during the day and is always kept in at night."

She hasn't come home since I got home from work at 5pm.

Thanks for torturing me with a different person's feline disasters too. Very compassionate of you.

@Fuzzyheid pay not attention to the troll above. Ours have all done the same thing and stayed out the night. I bet she strolls in happy as anything demanding her food in the morning.

Thanks Panamii.
I hope so too. My logical brain is telling me this, and we've experienced it before with the previous cats, but my emotions are all over the shop just now and my imagination has already tortured me with horrid things.

I don't think I'm a troll, I like cats to live longer than a few months - they should be 15 ish when they die, I'm not aware of any elderly cats round here. @Fuzzyheid - I'm sorry that you're upset about the (bloody awful and bizarrely routine) stories, but they are, as you know fine well, true.

I do hope your cat comes home - but, if you want her to be safe then don't leave her at risk tomorrow night.

I'm sorry you must be so worried. I didn't want to read abs ru.

My DCat is 18 and has stayed out only two nights. I didn't sleep either of them

Hoping Willow gets back to you safely after her night of adventure

vivariumvivariumsvivaria
cats, dogs and fish are different animals. Cats can jump high and climb to leave and wander. This isn’t the thread for this, maybe try to stop judging your neighbour

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria Oh do please please please, just sod off. You're being spiteful and you know it. What a thoroughly unpleasant person you are.

Comprehension is clearly an issue for you, so I'll repeat. She IS ALWAYS IN AT NIGHT. She didn't come home this afternoon in order for me to keep her in tonight.

OP am hoping your cat returns safe and well

I hope so too @twoandcooplease

My previous cats were 17 and 20 when we parted, so I'm not green, despite the lecture from the expert above.

OP yet again please ignore@vivariumvivariumsvivaria
Female cats tend to kept within a tight radius of home so I bet she’s close by. She might have been happily whiling away the hours watching a mice nest while you’ve been racked with anxiety looking for her. It’s so typically cat!
We have a little portable ring camera trained on our cat flap so we can see their comings and goings through the day. I’m a crazy neurotic cat mum and this helps give me some peace of mind, thought it might be something you could consider going forward?
Keep positive, sending you all my best wishes that you’re reunited with Willow soon x

Oh and @vivariumvivariumsvivaria please, please fuck off!

Aw you poor thing.
We had one night like this a few months after we got our girl last year.
She just didn't come home one evening when previously she always popped back home all the time when out.
I spent an agonising night on the sofa with the back door open praying she would return.
Just after 5am she strolled back in very casually and just sat in the middle of the floor for a wash.
No idea where she'd been all night and thankfully hasn't done it again.

I sincerely hope your girl returns home soon too and you can get some sleep.

There are lots of good tips on other threads to help you if she doesn't return soon. Such as putting some used litter or some of your worn clothing outside to help her find home by scent. And I'm sure others will have helpful suggestions too.

@HalcyonDave I'll look into that camera, thank you. I'd no idea it even existed. Having youngsters is much harder now than it was 20 years ago with the previous pair. I feel so much more anxious now I'm 50+ and of course, that'll be off the charts now, even when/if she comes home. I've been crying all night I just want her home.

Oops name change fail. Ah well, I don't care.

Hi OP. I hope your baby is back/will be back very soon. Is the weather nice where you are? I ask because it is where I am and my cats will not come home. This happens every summer.
My top tips for you :
Empty the contents of your vacuum cleaner into a bin liner and put it outside, your baby may smell home and return. Put her cat tray outside if it isn't raining. Hang out her bedding or blanket. Hang out your worn pyjamas, then nightdress, and slippers, you will bed robe etc. Go walking calling her and rattling cat biscuits, do this particularly in the evening X

That shouldn't say then nightdress, it should just say nightdress X

Its pouring right now, so perhaps that will bring her home tonight, if she's actually outdoors. It's so far out of character for her, not to check in regularly for snacks, that I can only think she's either got herself shut in somewhere (shed, garage) or she's had an accident and is gone. I don't want to focus on that, at all.
She's microchipped and it's all up to date, so if she'd been taken to a vet, we'd have had a call. We've walked a mile or so around the house calling her, and she's vocal so I'd expect her to bellow back to us if she was stuck up a tree. She's very familiar with the area locally, so I can't imagine she's lost, but she may have got in a car, I suppose.

I've put a post on our local FB page asking neighbours in the streets surrounding us to check sheds before they head out tomorrow. I'm currently sitting in the kitchen watching the cat flap and hoping.

I really feel your pain, one of my cats went missing for almost a week, talk about cry. I was churned up non stop and couldn't sleep. I eventually put my night robe out on a garden chair and a day later he came home, and was snuggled up in it!

So sorry for you OP and hope she soon returns safely.
A friend of mine went round to all of her neighbours when her cat went missing and it was found stuck up a tree in one of their gardens.

She's home!

Hungry and spooked, but seems okay.

Thank you x

Great news! Thank you for letting us know :)

She may have been frightened by another cat and gone further than usual, then taken a while to find her way back.

Very glad for you Fuzzyheid!

One of the nicest elements of the 'litter tray' is reading about missing cats who then reappear after their wanderings, and the fact that a significant majority of the offenders do seem to come home eventually.
Very pleased for you OP.

Great news! Thanks for the update.