Misery of Losing Puss

This week our oldest cat, he who loves to wander didn't come home. He's been missing for three days now but I'm really worried about him and what may have happened.

He's always loved being outdoors but has never stayed out for more than 24 hours before, he's neutered and micro chipped.

Puss is a really friendly little guy, he loves people and other cats, in past homes we lived in it wasn't unusual for him to come home with a retinue of followers, as if he was saying to them, come on home, my folks love to party :)

As you can imagine, he's a real character and his absence is creating quite a void, none of us are too happy at the moment, missing his mischief, especially since we moved a couple of months ago and it seemed to have curbed his wandering desire altogether. We've been amazed (and I was secretly relieved), since this move how he simply hadn't wanted to go out in the garden unless we were there with him. He can easily work the dog flap but had no interest in it until last Saturday when he went through for the first time alone but only stayed out 10 minutes. Sunday was the same with Puss staying around the house and colonising his favourite window-sill in the sun for most of the day until he wanted food or some attention..

Then Monday evening, the last time I saw him he was curled up on one of the dogs beds (with the dog), sleeping peacefully and an hour or so later he had disappeared, obviously taken it into his head to go for a moonlit walk and we haven't seen sign of him since..

I've called the vets and the people who oversee the pet register, the local cat protection place, the dog wardens and have asked some local shops to put up posters for us. No-one seems to seen a sign of him and it's awful to worry that something bad may have happened to our boy and we're not able to help him. The worry makes it difficult to concentrate on much which is why I figured it may help to galvanise me to pour it out into this hub.. I plan to go around the neighbours this afternoon although my husband says that if Puss was stuck in a shed nearby he would have called out to us when we've been looking for him (there's a path at the back of our gardens that we've wandered along calling and listening), it has to be worth a try.

If you've taken the time to read this miserable outpouring I thank you and would be very grateful if you can think of anything else that may help us to find our boy. He's about 14 or so, (we've had him 6 years since he adopted us and we believe he was 8 or 9 then), but he's pretty fit and loves climbing trees though he's afraid of loud noises and traffic so I'm hoping that he's stayed in the fields and is just romping around enjoying himself now that he's got his bearings in this area. I know he does hunt so it's feasible that he could feed himself that way for a while but he's sociable and likes his regular fuss. Of course someone may have taken him in as well as he's such a friendly guy and doesn't wear a collar because of his love of climbing. Those are the best options, the others are unmentionable, just dull fears and aches at the back of our minds, worries that won't go away.

We've never lost a pet this way before, always managed to keep them until they were old / ill and this shock and uncertainty is really eating away at us. It's hard to describe how helpless and ineffective you feel when a pet that you love and believe you have been caring for to the best of your ability disappears like this, we can't help wondering what we missed, what we could have done better but above all that praying that he is safe and that he will find his way home to us, that he's not injured or lying dead somewhere with no-one to watch over him and try to give him whatever help he needs..

I guess only time will tell so in the meantime it's off to speak to some more neighbours just in case.

Woo - talking to the right neighbours really helped! I feel so much more positive as the people I spoke with this afternoon have seen our boy last night and this morning. I still haven't found him but I feel so much better knowing that he's not too far away, just disoriented and hopefully when it gets cooler later this afternoon I will be able to find him nearby.

Apparently he has been sighted just a couple of streets away, I wandered all around there earlier but couldn't find him sheltering anywhere from the heat so not sure if he may have gone into someones' house.

Fingers crossed that we can find him and bring him home later on - wish us luck :)

Oh dear - back on the down slide of that emotional roller coaster, still no sign of our boy even after 3 long tours of the neighbourhood at different times yesterday. Then this morning my hubby came across a cat who lives nearby and is similar looking to our puss so now we are concerned that maybe this was the cat our neighbours had spotted rather than ours.. 

I am so over-joyed I can't wait to share my news with you!

Our Puss is back! He is sitting on my lap with his head on my arm as I type this :)

Last night one of the neighbours who was keeping an eye out for us, came over to say he thought he had seen Puss near his house late the night before but as he wasn't sure and we were already in bed he didn't knock then. This prompted us to go out calling Puss again as the neighbour said he had run down towards the house so wasn't sure if it had been Puss and maybe he had found his way home..

Well, again there was no sign so we had resigned ourselves to waiting until it was dark and trying again when our neighbour knocked again to say Puss was in his garden! We rushed up there with him and there indeed was our Puss, pretty hungry, very anxious but oh so pleased to see us too.

So for now he's home safe and snuggling in his usual way thank goodness and thank God, which is what I have been doing over and over since his return I have to say :)

Lets hope we can keep him home this time, and only let him in the garden when we can be with him, unfortunately it means locking the dog flap much of the time so he can't sneak through like he did before but luckily the dogs are pretty good about it, they're all dozing around my feet as I type this and later I shall just have to force myself to go spend some time sitting in the garden with them so we can all enjoy the sunshine a little - what a chore lol :)