cat-sitting and cat absence

Friend returned yesterday afternoon and her cat arrived snootily five hours later much to our relief. Thank you all for your interesting posts.

Our rector's beloved cat died whilst he was on leave, and so when the curate came back from his holiday the church secretary showed him where she had stored the inert body and expected him to dig a grave in the Rectory garden! Clay is hard to dig and the hole needed to be deep, so passing foxes did not dig up the (very smelly) remains. Then on the rector returned the had to break the sad news! The rector told the curate it was good training in pastoral care!!

was tring to say her absences are necessary. New computer/useless fingers.com.

Update. Not seen little horror since Tuesday. Friend back tomorrow. I shall give a sigh of relief when she is home and little horror turns up. Never again. Although, little horror's mum is a dear friend and her absences Oh Hum - you'll all hear about it. Sorry. But necessary.

Rory, our adopted Scottish feline cat, now shares his upmarket apartment [a new wheelie bin on it's side, complete with basket and several bowls] with a hedgehog. First spotted two nights ago in R's den when he was on a regular walkabout. Rory returned last evening. On leaving R's supper, we saw that hedgehog was curled up in one of R's empty bowls. Happy as larry!

Charlotta, I think you may be right! They really are tiny, and seem to have big feet! Your neighbour sounds a bit like mine - she says Daisy likes to go in and run up and down her stairs - we don't have any!

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.

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 , 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!

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

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...!

Merci!

Phew! What a relief for you. Sleep well!

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!