LOST CATS: Stories of hope PLEASE!

So I come home to find my flatmate in tears saying Eddy's disappeared. After two days hunting around and sticking up signs the neighbours said they had Eddy - he'd climbed out of the window mum had opened up wide - and fallen 3 floors to the concrete :/ He was ok! A broken leg and very grumpy but all was well :D

2/ As a student we adopted a sorry-looking long-haired tortoiseshell cat that kept scratching on our door and eating the food we left out for our hedgehogs. We took her to the vet who gave her shots and confirmed she'd been neutered etc. FIFTEEN MONTHS later a guy knocked on our door and pointed to Kitty (we weren't too original with names) who was sunning herself on the garden wall outside. He asked us how long we'd had her and it turned out to be exactly the right length of time since his daughter's cat had vanished. Cue emotional reunion scene with 8-yr old daughter and cat. We were sad to see her go but next day we went to the RSPCA shelter and adopted a smaller version of Kitty, who we named Kitty 2 (told you we weren't too good with names).

we gave it up for dead but then when mum and dad were watching TV one day they noticed that hammy (I WAS SIX OK! I HAD READ A BOOH ABOUT A HAMSTER CALLED HAMMY AND I THOUGHT IT WAS A COOL NAME!) was watchin tv with them also

i like to think he had a tan

cats can forage way better than hamsters so there is no especial need to worry

oops's "kitty gotta eat" is true, tho generally this means that city cats have lunch in every hom,e in the street before startin over in time for tea

I looked all over the house. I looked in the closets. I looked underneath and behind the couch. After about an hour of looking and calling, it started to dawn on me that the cat was not inside. This was not good.

So I looked for him outside. Around the house. Inside the bushes. I talked to the neighbors. My elderly neighbor two houses away told me that she had seen an orange cat in her rose bushes the day before. My heart sank.

I went back inside the house where the first cat was still meowing at me. I wasn't freaking out yet, but knew that it was only a matter of time. I decided to utilize these remaining "sane" moments and photoshop a Missing Cat flyer. I printed out a few and put them all over the neighborhood as well as taping one to the door of the local animal shelter (that was closed that day.)

I was due over at my dad's house, and knowing that I had done all I could do for the time being, I figured that being around some family couldn't hurt. I did put out a box on the front porch with the cat's little stuffed toy, a shirt that smelled like me, and some food. I had this happy vision of returning home to see him curled up in the box when I got home later and felt better.

I drove over to dad's and as soon as I got there, he figured out that something was wrong. I told him that the orange cat was gone and before I knew it, the two of us were back on the road to my house.

We both looked around. Somewhere along the line, Dad decided that my backyard needed mowing. I continued to walk along the drainage ditch behind my property while he mowed. Still, no cat.

We sat in the backyard, drinking ice water. My cat was a mean one who liked to hiss and scratch at most of my visitors. I told Dad that the cat wouldn't be missed by too many since he hadn't made any friends. Dad pointed out that my cat had at least made one good friend. (Awww!)

I got up to put the lawnmower back into the storage area. My house sits on an incline which means I've got this hidden ground level behind my house. I had already searched this little place for him hours ago, so I wasn't expecting to see an orange flash out of the corner of my eye. I threw down the cup of water I was holding, and called out his name. He turned around from deep underneath the house and hissed at me. Then he started to inch back toward me.

I picked him up. He was dirty as all hell, cobwebs in his whiskers even. He was still hissing a little, but more in that trying-to-save-face kinda way. My dad had this pleased look on his face, and all I could tell him was, "Well, Happy Father's Day." He said it was now.

Anyway, I've barely let that cat out of my fucking sight since then. Good luck finding your feline, scout. You never know where and when cats will show back up.

Also, I was just out putting up tons of posters and some older lady started in on me about how I "Shouldn't let my cat out... that's what happens to you" as though it was my fault my cat was missing. This cat *doesn't* go out, that's the point! I told her I was a good cat owner, and already upset and didn't need her blaming me for it, and I held my ground. Then I ran home and cried. heh.

Thanks for the stories, guys, seriously, in lieu of some sort of cat recovery statistics this is the best thing I could read right now.

Foot Foot is a great cat name :D Best wishes Scout I'm sure kitty will show up and want lots of lovin'.

*PS not really, but grr, argh.

-- teeny (teen...), September 6th, 2003.

the next morning we went out again and found some grey fur (miles has a very distinctive coat) and worked out that he must have been beaten up by some of the other local cats when he crash landed. as miles couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag we were quite worried but we were pretty sure he was still alive. we kept searching for hours and finally started checking all the back service doors of all the flats on the street. we got to the very last one and i heard a very mild whimpering noise. i went into this room where the bins for the rubbish were kept and miles literally leapt into my arms. he was shaking uncontrollably, had wet and defecated himself, had lots of fur missing and his front paws were all damaged but he was alive.

anyway, he made a full recovery and today is a very relaxed and contented 15 year old pussy cat who never goes anywhere near the windows.

and to answer hardy's question, he's been missing since sunday night. a bunch of people left at the same time, none of them paying attention to the cat.

Arrrgh! While the movers were here, Pepper -- one of my cats -- scooted out, despite never having done so before. I didn't notice until I realized she wasn't around, and one of the movers said they'd seen her on the balcony ... where there's a hole leading beneath the roof, where a cat has previously been trapped. So I camp out there with a can of food and sit and wait (she can't get down the stairs, so I figured she must be there) and nearly doze off because I've had so little sleep. I'd searched everywhere in the apartment, which is after all empty but for me and a dead couch and the computer and a bottle of gin (she wasn't in it).

Then it occurs to me how clever my cats are, and that she might well have hidden in one place while I searched another. So I hit the apartment again. I grab the couch and pick the fucker up to hip-height ... and she falls OUT OF IT. She wasn't under it or behind it, she was in the damn thing, because the frame is broken, which had made a gap by one of the legs where she could crawl between the frame and the upholstery.

But at least I no longer have a missing cat to contend with on "Farewell, Crescent City" weekend.

-- Tep (te...), May 30th, 2003.

(once again i'm amazed at luna's memory)

your cat just turned up at mine duane: i am playing it napalm death and giving it amphetimines... it seems to be calming down
-- mark s (mar...), April 4th, 2002.

the idea of little mark s saying the word "hammy" in his shrewsbury accent is too cute to be possible.

and scout, i hope you find your cat, or it comes back to you, or some combination of the two!

Foot Foot? You shaggs fan, ye.

Good luck!

(i mean her cat)

(not her)

I have had several animals "disappear" by climbing inside rips in upholstery, btw.

Yeah, where was s/he?

It was not a tearful reunion, he barely woke up when I showed up and he tried to claw his way out of my arms when I brought him home. Now he's all sleeping and eating. My pal Foot Foot.

One thing we do with our cat, who has disappeared a couple of times and scared the heck out of us: we put a tiny little metal tag (you can make 'em at department store machines) on her collar, engraved with her name and our phone number. Even if yours is supposed to stay indoors (as ours is), it's a good thing to do.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/Mandalion/ronnie.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/Mandalion/ronnie2.jpg

foot foot not only has socks, but the pads on his feet alternate between pink and grey. actually, colour-wise, what with the weird hitler-marking on his nose and white whiskers, he is pretty weird looking.

She is at least 18 years old (we picked her up off the street [pretty much literally] in 1988) and has had a very good run of things -- I saw her a few weeks ago, and she looked in surprisingly good health, a little hard of hearing but otherwise still relatively active -- so it's sad but not tragic. My family and I have been e-mailing each other stories about her, though, and she will be missed.

I am packing to go away for a few days and my little dog is sitting in his bed watching me, looking like an angry sea monster. From time to time he whistles sadly through his nose.

Pure poetic beauty.

Yay for us then... (?)

Or Harmony Korine fan. I think the cat in Gummo was also named Foot Foot (after the Shaggs song of course). :-)

Hope your cat returns. I can't really give you any tales of encouragement because I never had a cat. We have a dog but we lock her up in the house. I know if I'd open the door, she'd elope with a lover. ;-)

my cat has that, too! she doesn't have white socks though, she has white boots

Archel your cat looks really spooked in that picture!

One second to more Foot pics...

stirmonster: as a glasgow (i'm assuming) cat-user, i'm interested to hear what you think.

mrs fiendish is like some kind of goddess to cats. we'll be walking down the street and they'll appear from people's gardens and porches and curl themselves round her legs. she gets down and talks to them in weird cat-language and they go all floppy and roll about. it can make going to the shops a long and arduous task.

I do wonder if ol' Ronners wants to flounce around in some clover, though.

Grimly, get a solid white cat and then you'll have an excuse never to let it outside (they're more prone to skin cancer if they're out in the sun much).

i used to live on gibson street and had a cat there which seemed totally content not to leave the flat but i must confess i did always wonder if he was missing out on the fresh air / socialising with other cats. he retired to helensburgh and now spends most of his time outside.

Here is my Yampy, posing for me like the pretty thing she knows she is, damn her:

http://www.memorygongs.com/yampy.jpg

is there any way the fact that Foot Foot has been found can be incorporated into the thread title somehow? i was scared to click on it until i knew for sure that Foot Foot was safe...

Thinking does seem to be slowly changing. Remember when we were kids and people just used to let their dogs out to walk around the neighbourhood on their own?

There's a cool thing you can get in the US to let your cats sit outside. It basically looks like a big fire guard that you bolt onto the outside of your house so your cat can sit outside and watch the world go by without being in danger.