One of our twin brothers ,silver tabbies,Ben, went out as normal last Saturday afternoon and failed to come in that night when it was bed time. His brother,Bill, came in as usual, but there was no sign of Ben. It was terribly windy, but we went round the garden and shouted for him. He is a determined hunter and has been known to ignore us when sat by a mouse hole. Still no response. He has stayed out all night before and we do have barns where he can curl up safe and warm so we went to bed. Sunday morning, no sign of Ben and it was raining extremely hard. Even so I walked all round the garden and across the fields, shouting for him and looking for signs of trauma on the road. I even shouted down all the rabbit and badger holes in case he was trapped. I also looked up every tree just in case he was stuck. He is an inveterate climber. Nothing. Ditto Monday and Tuesday. So sadly we felt that he had fallen foul of either a fox or more likely a badger. (Round here they have been seen taking cats!) On Thursday we had to go up to Merseyside to visit my mother (92 in February!) and so Bill had to go out (he refuses to be house trained!). We arrived back at 4 0 clock ish. As usual Bill was sat on the doorstep complaining about being left outside. No sign of Ben. I went and collected some logs from the log store and lit the fire. No sign of Ben. We had Dinner around 5.30 and as it was dark closed the kitchen and hall curtains. No sign of Ben. About 7 my wife went into the Hall and as we have done every time since he disappeared she turned on the outside light and looked for him. Nothing. At about 7.30 I went through the Hall and did the same thing. I saw a silver tabby running like lightning from the Work shed. "Odd" I thought. "I am sure Bill is in the front room." Anyway I opened the door and in came Ben at 100 m.p.h. He was warm and dry and more interested in us than in food. You can imagine our joy! He had something to eat and sat on my knee (something he does not usually deign to do) until bedtime. During the night he was very sick in his bed, cat food and mouse guts!. But he seemed ok in the morning and ate and drank as normal and kept it down. Since then he has been out, but only for a short time, but he is very 'twitchy' and clingy. So one wonders where he was.
Very glad to hear Ben came home safe, sound and even a little smarter about how scary the outside world can be.
Ben is obviously a survivor to have been away for so long. At least you know he was busy keeping the mouse population down whilst he was missing!!
I'm sure glad he returned, I always imagine the worst. Is he fixed? That always seems to help keep my critters close to home. Lost Minnie cat once for a day.. she got locked in a closet, and is not a loud meower. I saw feet from under a door after looking out side where it sounded like the faint meow was coming from. I love Kitties
I would wonder where he was and what he was up to for all that time, besides eating mice that is. And what motivated him to come flying in at that time? And did Bill know where he was? Was he in on the whole episode? Kitty cats are really funny creatures sometimes.. Austin was missing once for a few hours and I thought the absoulute worst. He came to the window looking pitiful, with a hurt front paw. Doesn't stop him from wanting to go out all the time. I am glad Ben returned to you. I CAN imagine your joy!
Eek. What a worry. Glad he came home safe and sound. I wonder if he has told his brother the whole story?
Nice to read of a happy ending,you will always wonder just what he was doing and where,just when you nearly give up all hope of an appearance,they show up!,but we still forgive them and love them.
I'm glad he turned up. I guess he probably got a really bad scare and decided to lay low for a few days. Our (fixed) tomcat tends to be very clingy if he's been in a fight with one of the neighbourhood cats.
Both of them are neutered. There was a large black cat in the garden last night, sprayed all along the front of the sheds. We are sure it was around when Moppet disappeared 2 years ago. Not big enough to be a puma, but bigger than any cat we have ever owned. Trouble with our situation here is that we are surrounded by water. The river sort of loops round us to the South and West. There are huge deep drainage ditches across the fields in all the other directions and if you go not too far East you reach the Canal. So wherever he went he would be encaged so to speak by water.
