cat-sitting and cat absence

One cat we had disappeared for weeks. We were frantic, searching everywhere. Then he turned up one monng at 5am, kicking off because he couldn't get in the house. He hadn't lost any weight. Probably been on his holidays!

The children across the road from me were looking after my neighbours' very elderly cat while they were on holiday. One day, the kids arrived at my door asking if I had seen Snookie. I hadn't but I knew where - under a bush in my garden - she liked to lie during the day. Sure enough she had gone there to die peacefully.
A happier story - my son's partner got two new kittens last year. Early this year, one of them, almost fully grown, just disappeared in the space of a few minutes. She put up posters round the neighbourhood and delivered flyers round the doors. She had given up hope when, five weeks later, she had a phone call - 'I think we have your cat in our garden.' And there she was, none the worse, and so glad to be home that she's hardly moved out of the garden since then. No-one knows where she was all that time and she's not letting on.

Cats do disappear for weeks,some get locked in a garage and they can turn up after a few days. Next door's cat loves to stay away when her owners are not at home.
We came home once from a holiday in France about 20 years ago to find the neighbours waiting for us. I immediately sensed the worst and they told us our cat had died suddenly, perhaps had a knock from a car, and they had put the corpse in our spare fridge in the garage. It was the May weekend and hot as well so we understood why, but I have never forgotten it.

You can only hope for the best. Leaving an animal in the care of someone else is always a risk but most cats turn up immediately when their people come home.

How kind of them Charlotta

When I lived on our school compound in Kenya, I had a black cat which was a one-woman cat. I went away for a short trip, leaving him to be fed by my cook. However, he took up residence in a colleague's roof, refusing to come down until I came home and called him, whereupon he was down like a shot and charged in the door with me.

My SIL's cat ignores him if he stops away for a day or more. Last month, he came back from Belgium to find the cat didn't want to know him and one of his baby twin daughters wouldn't look at him for 24 hours. Obviously colluding with the cat!

I'm now feeling a little worried about cat-sitting for the formerly absentee cat and her sister at the end of the month!

Thank you. I'm feeling a little better. Only four more days to go. And maybe I'll see her in the meantime. OR NOT.

One of my 3 cats disappears frequently for up to 12 days at a time, then strolls in hungry but not thin. I think she has another home in the next village, which is 2 miles away across fields. Another cat goes off when visitors come, sometimes for a day or two. I would therefore not be too concerned in your position.
What I have is a wildlife motion-sensor camera which I put in the hall to record all use of the cat flap when I am out or in bed. I then know if I have missed a cat returning to eat and going out again. On an a average night there are 40 video clips recorded, including visits from next-door's one-eyed, three-legged, brain damaged Tom! (And I had thought they slept all night.)
It is a big worry looking after someone else's pet. As a teenager I managed to lose a friend's hamster up the chimney. Luckily it emerged, filthy, on the day of the owners' return.
I hope the wanderer returns soon.

My neighbour used to come to my house to feed my best ever cat, Douglas. One year I said to her she might as well just put the food out in her garden to save coming round [she only lived over the fence]. When we returned from holiday she pointed to Dougie who had taken up residence in her compost pile. Not being allowed into he house he'd got it in his head that he was no longer living with us either. Strange little minds they've got, cats. I now have a garden full of birds but no cats; I do miss them in my life.

I`m worried about when we put our cat into a boarding cattery for 2 weeks when we are on holiday, he`s 15 months old, but we`ve only had him for 3 months, and I`m worried that he`ll firstly, think he`s been abandoned again, and secondly, that he`ll forget about us.

He won't be that bothered numberplease. He'll just think his staff have dropped him off for a holiday!

One of mine used to turn his back on me when I went to pick him up from the cattery. It was an exceptionally luxurious establishment, but I didn't think it was a substitute for home comforts! Huffy beasts, cats!

Oh, Flowerfriend, I do hope your missing charge turns up safely!

Our stray cat who was 4 years old when we took her in got attached to a neighbour in our absence. This neighbour had a foxterrier and she cooked his food herself for him. Our cat liked the taste of home cooked food and refused to come back home to tinned stuff, annoying the dog who was frightened of her.
In the end we placed liver and other titbits daily on our doorstep and finaly she returned home and left the dog in peace. It is good example if how cats somehow always get their way with humans.

Have just seen little horror as she was on the roof of a derelict cottage opposite.

I must admit to despondency. Slept badly last night. Shall enjoy my G and T this evening.

Phew! What a relief for you. Sleep well!

Merci!

Thank goodness she's turned up, flowerfriend! We're going away for the night on Saturday, and it's the first time Daisy's been left in an empty house all night, though she can come in and out through the cat-flap. My cat-loving neighbour will be feeding her and checking on her all the time, but I worry that she'll feel abandoned! We're going away the following week for 6 days, and my neighbour will look after her then as well. She brings in mice all the time (Daisy, not my neighbour), and also slugs get stuck on her long fur.....she sleeps on the bed...!

Visions here Green, of you coming back from your holiday to a bed full of slugs!

green , many a time I have found a little slug on my bed, and live mice and baby bunnies are brought in unharmed requiring furniture removal to locate them. I have a motion-activated camera in my hall and have seen a mouse running around but cannot find it and the traps are empty.
You can be sure you will get the cold shoulder treatment on your return!

shysal, I was out in the garden twice last week during the night, putting wee fieldmice back! Once at 2am and then at 5am. Daisy brings them into the hall and sits staring at them...ready to pounce! I think any sleepless neighbour must think I sleepwalk, because I have never got the time to put my dressing-gown on - thank goodness I wear pyjamas!
number - oh, imagine.... Well, as long as they're on his side of the bed...

green- are you sure they are not shrews? Cats catch them but don't eat them and the little shrews seem to have no idea of how dangerous a cat could be. they just sit there.
I have enjoyed reading these posts. My lovely tomcat is now 16, ginger and white and a real gentlemen. He has ladies fan club and can sometimes be found in next door's conservatory, asleep on her chintz-covered sofa there. She says he has found hole to creep through. I think she has made it herself to encourage him.