Long post, sorry. We’ve been “fostering” my MIL’s cat - she’s sold her house and doesn’t get entry to the new place she’s bought until next month, then plans to get a load of work done before moving in. It’s likely to be the end of the year until she does. She’s in short term accommodation until she moves properly, and can’t have the cat there. Cat is ten, she’s had him since he was a tiny kitten, and from pretty much as soon as he was neutered he’s had free outdoor access with a catflap.
He’s settled very well with us (especially as we have a boisterous three year old cat) but has been absolutely desperate to get out from day one. So yesterday, after six weeks, was the day. We did everything right, waited until almost the cats’ dinner time, put some of his used litter round the garden, accompanied him outdoors - and he legged it straight over the back wall and won’t come back!
We know where he is, our garden backs onto other gardens, and he’s just mooching between them. He spent last night in someone’s barbecue pergola on a comfy sofa. There’s a neighbourhood watch on him and we can get a sighting, go to a garden he’s in, be right up close, and then he scrapers. MIL came round this morning and he wouldn’t come for her either. We have his litter tray in the garden, been calling non stop, and all that usual stuff, but I don’t think it’s that he’s lost (at one point he was just sat on the shed over the back laughing at me), he simply doesn’t want to come back - even though he must be starving now. Putting food out in the garden brought all the neighbourhood cats to the yard for snackies, but not him.
What next? It seems early to think about trying to borrow a trap, but I can’t actually think what else to do? We live on a very quiet one way street and he’s a streetwise lad, used to being in a much busier area than this, but I’m still worried that he’s at risk from cars if he does venture onto roads as he’s a black boy. Photo attached of him smirking at me from the shed.