Oh my heavens! All of the MN love! THANK YOU!! All of you. Thank you SO MUCH!!
I'm coming back to this thread to finally update you all... and to apologise, sincerely for not updating until now.
I wish I could reply to each and every single one of you individually. So please, please, please accept my collective (and enormous!) thank you and MN hugs for hand holding and for all of the advice and unwavering support. Thank you!!
HE CAME HOME! Honestly, we're exhausted. Underslept, overcried, just so tired! We haven't been sleeping or even eating properly. So forgive me for being slow to reply. My little search party is exhaling with such relief!! We're still clinging onto our boy like he's our very own Christmas Miracle (in August)!!
The neighbour, whose wall he was inside of, said, "You really need to broaden your search because I don't think he's in my wall or my house."
So we sent out flyers, re-flooded our local whatsapp groups, walked around the roads and alleyways looking for him (even at midnight, we were out looking for him). No joy whatsoever.
I got a lovely email from the fire brigade saying, after two thorough checks, there wasn't much more they could do. So, on the one hand, we were so relieved to think, "Ok, he's probably not inside the wall." But on the other hand, there was that sinking feeling of, "Where is he? If he's free from the wall, why didn't he come straight home?"
And then... He came rolling home at 6am yesterday! DD came running into my bedroom to say she could hear him meowing outside (furiously! He had SO much to say!). And there he was, at the back door. He came flying into the house, looking very thin and a quite strung out. He was so vocal. He had so much to tell us. He was really unsettled when he first came home, antsy, nervous, couldn't stop roaming the house, exploring, sniffing everywhere, as if it was his first time inside his own home.
Later on in the morning, around 8 or 9am, my neighbour (with the wall) sent a video of him (she'd set up a camera in the basement where the wall is) roaming around the room a few hours before he came home. She said the video captured him at 1:30am. "He's come out of the wall!" She wrote. The video doesn't show him coming out of the wall, but he is skulking around the basement room, looking anxious, skittish, and a bit, "Where the heck am I?".
She must have opened her back door when she woke up in the morning and at some point, he quietly slipped out without her knowing. She said she'd never actually seen him in person the entire time. So, she's had this cat in her wall, who came into her house, then left a few days later without being seen by her in the flesh. I feel so badly because this is the first time I've met this neighbour (she's recently moved in) and she's met this totally falling apart, bedraggled cat lady who can't function without her tuxedo. I'd been trying so hard not to be demanding, very aware that this is her home, I can't just barge in- even though my cat's in her wall. I couldn't just go in and invade her space. But oh god, how I wanted to! It's a terrible feeling, looking across at her fence at 4am, knowing the cat's inside her wall, and there is absolutely nothing to be done about it. Such a powerless and helpless feeling.
So I have taken an oath!
If anyone's cat is ever suspected of being inside my wall, I will tear it down. That is my oath to cat people everywhere! There will be no 'wait and see'. That is my promise to my feline loving friends.
So it is SUCH a happy ending... although, every hair on my head has turned white. I swear, at an age when I cannot afford to age even more, every jowl on my face has just jowled even more. I need to scoop my jowls off the ground! But he's worth it. We can't stop snuggling him. And he is super snuggly! It's like he's stored up his snuggle supply while stuck behind that wall. My kids are totally done with my 'Mr. Gorbachev. Tear down this wall!' references, which was the only joke keeping me going.
THANK YOU, with all of my heart, my loving army of MNers, for all of the support and love for Gus!! The obligatory cat photo has been added!