Missing Cat Stories (positive ones please)

[XxSideshowAuntSallyx]

I need some positive stories (I have enough negative thoughts of my own) of cats who went missing and have turned up.

One of mine has been missing for 3 weeks now (23 days to be precise). I've done everything, posters all over the neighbourhood, flyers through all doors, reported her missing to Cats Protection, RSPCA, the microchip company have sent her missing poster to all vets, rescues and police within a 20 mile radius.

She's on Facebook on multiple pages and groups. I go out every day looking for her, think most of the neighbourhood are looking for her. I've called the council, who said they scan every cat that they get in. There have been some sightings but it's never there when I get there (I ignore the crank call from the woman who screamed down the phone).

I just want her home. It just feels so sad and I feel so helpless that she's out there and not sprawled on my bed. Her brother misses her terribly and isn't eating much as well.

My sister's cat went missing following a house move (from the North West to London). We did all we could to find him, to no avail. A few years later (around 8 years iirc) my sister received a phone call from a vet practice as they had scanned the cat's micro chip. He was living with three guys about three miles away from where he'd gone missing! They'd taken him in and cared for him all that time apparently. He ended up staying with them but my sister was given the option to have him back. Given he was pretty old by then and happy in a new home, it felt kinder to leave him there.

Friend I worked with, her son moved across town about 1 mile and their cat got confused and tried to go back to their old house and was missing for 6 weeks, turns out she was being fed by random people who saw her roaming a street about halfway between their old house and new one. He saw a post on fb and realised it was his cat.

My cat went missing last year. She was gone for 3 weeks.

Not one sign of her. We searched everywhere, posted leaflets, stuck posters up and nothing.

One day she just turned up in the garden as nothing had happened!

It's such a horrible feeling and I hope your cat comes home soon!

Thank you! These are the stories I need to hear. You can fall down the rabbit hole of lost cats never turning up stories.

Probably unhelpful but have you checked every nook and cranny in your home? Our cat went missing this week and we were really worried with the cold weather. I posted on Facebook groups etc. Turns out he'd got trapped in a cupboard that we'd not checked!

Not me, but someone I know through work had their cat missing for weeks, and he turned up safe and well, miles away. (Think they lived in the city centre, the cat was in a village about 20 miles out of town!) The only explanation they could think of was that he hopped in an Amazon driver’s van or similar, and went on a wee trip. He’d been mooching about the village and someone had seen one of the owner’s Facebook posts, trapped him, and got him scanned.

Oh gosh.

i had a childhood cat. Older kitten who followed us everywhere. Dm and I went for a walk. She followed. 20 mins into walk an Alsatian not on a lead bounded over and cat ran for her life.

was devestated and did all we could. About three weeks later decided to put away her cat stuff. As doing so heard a cry and she was at the door bedraggled, thin, and I’ll never know how she found her way back.

my boss more recently. There was a film about a homeless man with a ginger cat. Popular. Her ginger and older cat suddenly went missing. She wondered if he’d been taken. A month on and a few days after Christmas a vet called to say they had him (he’d been handed in).

Have hope.

Thank you again. These are giving me hope.

Her brother is struggling though(I got her because he needed the company of another cat after my old cat died in the summer he's exactly how he was then too, it amazes me how well they get on), the worst bit was when he kept calling and looking for her in the first few days 💔, he's not playing at the moment and I can't play the same way they do so feel a bit useless.

We had a cat go missing for a couple of weeks. She then turned up a little skinnier and hoarse sounding. We think it was likely she got shut in somewhere when someone went on holiday.

That your cat had likely been seen sounds odd, as I would have expected them to come and go if that was the case. But, as people return to work after the Xmas/NY break, hopefully your cat will come home if they have been getting their food elsewhere.

My cat didn't come home after fire work night. Two weeks later he came home, skinnier but fine !

I thought about that yesterday, there's lots of water around, as it's been wet and mild, and we live near a meadow/wood (where I have a video of what looks like her, that someone sent me) so she could be hunting or going through people's food waste bins. She's a rescue so I have no history for her.

I'm hoping that now I've made it public that all vets in the area have been informed that she's missing, if someone is feeding her they grow a conscience and let me know.

A few years ago I was staying with a friend for a few months while I had my house renovated. One of my cats escaped and disappeared for nearly 3 weeks. I had done what you are doing - posters, social media, went out every morning shouting him for about a mile in every direction. The house was quite near a very busy road, so I'd even gone looking to see if he'd be run over. I'd pretty much reached the date where I was moving out and one morning he appeared behind me on one of my 'cat shouting walks'. He didn't look at all bedraggled or thin. I am 99% certain someone had taken him in and had been feeding him.

Our cat went missing for 3 weeks, did everything you have done, even emptied the contents of my vacuum cleaner around the outside of the house in case the scent helped him find his way home. He suddenly turned up at 3am one morning looking a right mess, thin, covered in ticks and flees and had cracked 4 teeth (thankfully insured as that has cost £3000 to sort!). Never found out where he was, but he very rarely ventures outside now and spends his days snuggled up on the sofa.

We had a cat start hanging around our garden and coming in to eat our cat's food. After a few days I noticed he was injured so I took him to the vets and he was scanned. He had been missing for 5 months but reunited with his owner.

Get up very early (no mist or icy) and visit any graveyards in the vicinity.

Cats are drawn to graves and early morning is nice and quiet.

Graveyards and church grounds are also a good place for a lost cat to crack mice and birds.

I have a cat who is 16 now, and at age 8ish went missing for weeks. One time i was out shouting for her (did this twice a day every day) and i heard a weak little meow. She was in a garden literally 5 doors down hiding behind a stack of paving slabs. The owners of the house obviously hadn't spotted her. I burst into tears and she just put her paws up in the air to be lifted. She was never carried before and won't tolerate being picked up after either, however, as another poster mentioned, she now will rarely go outside!!

I saw a cat missing notice on the local FB group, thought little if it, some weeks later was walking in a local park and saw a cat snoozing in some undergrowth, looked up the post contacted the owner who came and fetched him. Everyone happy.

Multiple stories of my Cat Timmy!!

He went missing on September 6 (week before the 9/11 tragedy). I looked EVERYWHERE and went door to door looking. Was absolutely broken hearted. Then 9/11 happened. I went down to the end of my street (I lived in the USA at the time) to look at the makeshift memorial that people had started for the victims. At the very top of the memorial was a photo of my cat lounging on someone’s sofa! I called and they said he just wandered into their house and was quite content 😂😂 I went to get him and he followed me all the way back home (walked).

Same cat about 3 years later… went missing with no trace for 2 days… I went looking and bumped into a new neighbour… said I was looking for my car. He said a cat had wandered into his apartment and made himself at home 🤣 it was Timmy.

Third Time, Timmy was missing for a few days. (We had moved back to England so he wasn’t overly familiar yet with his new surroundings). I looked EVERYWHERE! We lived by a park with a river. I thought the worst. Went out about 5/6 days on my usual walk looking for him. Some workmen were doing work on a road and I decided to ask them if they had seen a white/ginger cat. They said yes that they had been spending days trying to rescue a cat that had climbed a tree on the river bank but wouldn’t come down- I went to the bank and called his name and he meowed SO loud when he heard me. When I got into view- he climbed out of that tree SO fast and ran into my arms!!

He was such a beautiful boy and was more dog like than cat 🥹😂 he lived for 23 happy years with me! (Except the times he decided to visit random peoples houses!)

don’t give up hope!! An old person or someone who doesn’t use social media might be looking a your cat ❤️‍🩹🐈

Ours went missing and we went looking,knocking on doors , he was about 20 doors away ,very happily ensconced with the neighbours.
Good luck OP 🤞

Our tortie queen Molly went missing for 6 months. Went to very local shop (next street) and she was just sat under a tree!! She hopped a fence and I went round and knocked... Apparently she had been seen catching birds and mice. Nobody thought to get her scanned. Though was early days of chipping back in 2000..
Another dcat Bob chose a lady a few streets away. The story goes he killed all of her budgies then moved himself in! Used to see her (peach updo hair) walking her peach ddog with a black and white moggy trotting behind. She had no dc so maybe out house was just too loud...

In the 1960s (yes I am that old) we had a cat and he travelled with us to our new house 5 miles away. He then went missing.
We traced him to our old house. We kept bringing him back to our Newhouse. He kept disappearing. Then he stopped arriving at our old house.

Years later our old house was sold and my mum and dad went for a nosey..... and there in the window was our old cat!

We left him alone..... he was fat and happy and loved.

My indoor cat (who hates the outside world, her choice) randomly did a runner. She was missing for 2 days. We searched for her, our son was in tears, we all panicked.
Then she strolled into our kitchen, like a supermodel on a cat walk. Ignored us and buggered off upstairs to sleep.
She’s an arsehole fine 😬

Thank you everyone, these fill me with so much hope and have made me smile (cats are definitely arseholes individual characters 😂).

Unfortunately our DGirlCat went missing years ago and she hasn't returned yet.

But I know of 2 that have! I paid for Animal Search to look for her and the gentleman said that a client had rang because his cat was missing for 3 weeks. Guess where he was? Next door! He was living off scraps and fish and water from a pond!

Another lady in my city's cat went missing for 5 years. She moved after a while and he was found in the same street she moved from.

So an update

I got a message at the weekend with a ring doorbell video of a cat. It's her, she's been frequenting their garden since new year! She just sits on a box in their porch most of the night (it's sheltered and safe).

I dropped food round on Monday in the hope that it entices her out. It did, she licked the bowl clean. She even came out for food yesterday lunch time, sadly no one was in so they put some out when they got back, she came back, they messaged me, I went to go and see if I could catch her, I saw her!

I called her name but she ran off.I'm gutted that she ran off from me but I'm so happy I got to see her. They said they'd put some more food out last night. I've not heard anything today and now my head is going round in circles worrying I've scared her off. She's obviously found a safe place to hide but she's so scared, bless her.

I'm collecting a trap later and will set it up this evening, hoping that it doesn't take too long to trap her. However I'm so nervous that I've scared her off and that it won't work.

The lady says it always works. I need to stay positive.