What's the longest your cat has gone missing for?

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I've been out tonight to help my friend look for her cat who didn't come home last night. The cat is a bit of a homebody so this is pretty unusual.

My friend is so upset and imagining the worst. I don't have cats now but when I was a kid we had two and I remember the awful feelings when either of them disappeared for a few days. The longest was 3 days and just when we'd given up hope, he waltzed in the door and headed straight for his water like nothing had even happened!

But just wondering if your cat has ever gone missing for a day or more and what's the longest time they've been away?

Several times one has gone missing for 5 or 6 days, and most times we've had to rescue them eg stuck on a roof, in a shed, injured and couldn't get home.

One turned up after a week where I'm still convinced he was shut in a garage of a neighbour who hates cats and refused to check her garage (I loathe her and would cheerfully shut her in a garage).

One was stuck on a barn roof and too scared to come down. Another decided he liked a neighbour's huge garage and got shut in while she was away. He didn't come back any thinner, I think she kept food in there he could break into 😁

Oh, and one farm cat we had used to disappear for 3 weeks every summer and return fat, deflead and beautifully groomed. We were sure he had a second home who used to put him in a cattery when they went away for 3 weeks even though the nearest house was a mile away!

All neutered males so we couldn't say they were off after females. And our female cats have always had too much sense to stay away.

It's horrible not knowing where they are, but cats do come home even after weeks, months or even years. Get your friend to post on as many list cat FB groups as you can find, sooner rather than later as it gets people keeping an eye out. I'll always check our shed if I see a lost cat post, even if I'm sure we haven't been in it.

One of mine went missing. We discovered he had really chosen to leave home and move in with a neighbour down the road.
The little sod sits in her bay window and watches me as I walk past, wearing a smug expression, on his cheating little face.
He occasionally visits me but prefers the elderly neighbours house. She obviously offers cats a VIP establishment.
She lives with a very grumpy old man so I don’t mind her lavishing attention on my cat, if it brightens her days a bit.
I’ve seen the old man in his garden fussing my cat too - so the cat must bring out the best in him.

Went out on the Friday night. I let her in but DH came home late and let her out again. She didn’t come back until early hours of Monday morning. We think she got locked in a shed or garage. She’s never gone far since

@Kw1234hhggf that did make me chuckle
SIIIIIMMMMBAAA 😂
Glad he came back though, little sod

5 days.

He was also a home cat and quite young at the time. This was back in 2008 so SM wasn't as big then, we made posters with a picture of him and our number and posted them everywhere! Eventually we got a call from a lady who lived on the same road as us but much further down on the other side of the road who said she had managed to trap him in her shed (he was very shy so would have ran from her if she approached him) and it was him!!! He was so so happy to be home and also so hungry! He never left the garden much after that day.

He never came back.So a long time.

Don’t because that wasn’t even my most embarrassing moment! I hand delivered a leaflet to a woman who’s house backs on to us and I actually CRIED AND SNIVELLED IN HER FACE and said ‘he’s such a timid little baby I don’t know if he will survive’. He was 2.5 years old. And also a cat. Who had only been missing about 8 hours at that point.

3 weeks, when we had builders knocking the house about. He goes off for up to 2 weeks at a time in summer. Although now he's older (13) he's a bit more home loving.

A lady around here had her cat wander back in after ten or so months!! Have heard a lot of people say about days or weeks

When one of my boys was young he used to disappear for days on end in the summer months. I would lock the cat-flap to 'entry only' every so often and find he had come home in the night. Now he has worked out, if he bangs hard enough, he can get his paw under the cat-flap and get out, so that is no longer a tool in my arsenal. He disappears regularly for up to 6 weeks these days (9 years old), then just comes in as if he hasn't been away, sometimes he is starving, sometimes he has injuries from fighting, usually he is fit and well, sometimes he stays for a week or two, sometimes a flea or worm dose is enough for him to disappear again. He definitely owns me rather than the other way around!

One of our cats was missing for 3 days. I hung her blanket on the washing line hoping she would find her way home. We were so happy to see her. I think a fox chased her and she must have run and run.

My mums cat was missing for about 2 years. Went missing one day about age 9, as time went on she never reappeared and we thought she was gone, about 2 years later we were at the local council office buildings taxing the cat. This was about 2 miles from mums house. I waited in the car with my infant nephew and niece while mum and sis went into the office building.
Sis comes running up to the car screaming my name with something in her arms. It was mums cat! It had been living wild at county hall, it slept in a wee shed and the security guards and office workers fed her. We know it was the same cat as it had the same bald patch on her tail from a previous fight and she responded to her name.
We took her home and she lived happily until she was 22!

Oh, and one farm cat we had used to disappear for 3 weeks every summer and return fat, deflead and beautifully groomed. We were sure he had a second home who used to put him in a cattery when they went away for 3 weeks even though the nearest house was a mile away!

This used to happen with my childhood cat! It wasn't until we put her in the local cattery ourselves at one point and the owner recognised her that we got to the bottom of it! Flighty little Madam had two homes!

4 months! I was distraught but had come to the conclusion she had been hit by a car and no one had taken her to a vet.

One night after the pub I got home about 11pm and she was just sitting in the kitchen like she’d never been away. Honestly the best feeling ever! I kept her in for months, but she lived another 10 years and never went further than the garden after that. Best cat ever, I miss her.

2.5 years & counting! 😭

Ours went AWOL for three months last year.

This MNer’s cat came back after ten years! 😂 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_litter_tray/4957835-lost-cat-has-been-found-help?page=1

Six long weeks when he was only about eighteen months old. We offered a reward and he was found by someone and returned to us. He’s now twenty years old.

At least a week. She'd shown no interest in the outside world until I went on holiday and left her with a catsitter, from whom she hid. At some point she got out, and didn't come home when I was back. I spent 5 days putting up posters and wandering the neighbourhood rattling dreamie packets. On the 6th day I spotted her in a neighbour's garden, she came close to me for a dreamie and I grabbed her. Two years later, she is a cat who always vanishes outside whenever there are strangers in the house, and quite frequently takes a day or two to return. I have to warn catsitters that they're very unlikely to ever meet her!

Most cats I do think come back and most are quite close by. Our DBoycat used to go missing for days and we found him at someone's house and gained a friend. He was only 3 doors down the entire time. This was very odd because he was such a homebody.

Our DGirlcat used to go missing for 24/48 hours and the come home. But she's been gone for 672 days now. I'm still as desperate about her now as I was on the first day. I employed specialist cat findings and searched morning and night for months.

But like I said most come back. We've been very unlucky.

I hope the cat is soon home.

3-4 days. Both turned up in neighbours gardens absolutely fine, if a bit grubby and hungry.

A friend of mine had a cat who'd go missing for weeks in the summer, presumably hunting in the fields near her house.