A Lost Cat

Please allow me to tell you a little story about my cat, hopefully this will put your mind at rest should yours ever disappear.

My cat, is a friendly cat, or should I say a family cat, he’s one of those cats that is into everything. He’ll follow you around just to see what you’re doing, he’s even worse when the kids are home, he love to explore their bedrooms when they’ve made a mess and he always sleeps on their beds when he thinks your not looking. He’s also a very food orientated cat, I know you’ll say most cat’s are, by my cat has simply never missed a meal time.

Then all of a sudden two nights ago he did not return for his evening feed. This was strange for such a food loving cat, however I thought he’d probably be out playing somewhere so I went to bed.

The next morning, there was still no sign of him. I left the door open in hope that he would do the lazy walk that cat’s do, through the door at some point, but the day came and went and there was still no sign of him. I then decided it was time to go an search around for him. I checked behind the shed, under his favourite bush in the garden, in his little hut we built for him. I then left the house and went to have a look behind the garden fence, I even walked to the park and looked in the bushes (he’s been known to hide there when he’s scared), but there was no sign of my cat. By this time I was panicking, he’d never been away for this long, never. I then rung my husband, who was away with work, and he quite calmly told me to give him enough time, and he was probably just off chasing mice somewhere (this was funny because I’ve given this advice to people many a time, but it is hard to be cool headed about something when it is completely out of character for your cat).

So I went off to bed again, I made sure I put some food outside for him just in case he came back during the night, however that normally gets eaten by the local hedgehogs. When I got up in the morning, I left out some more food, (but just dry cat food), for my cat, and went about my daily chores. Then all or a sudden, I heard the food making a little noise, I had to go and check as sometimes the neighbours cat came round for lunch, and low and behold there he was! My cat had come home.

I was over joyed, however on closer inspection he was looking a little funny, as though he was scared of something. After further investigation is turns out there was a new cat in the neighbour hood, who was very large (compared to my little British Shorthaired cat) and was a bully and had been scaring my cat out of his own garden, so much so that he was frightened to return.

How did we solve this problem you ask, well my husband has an air rifle (and no we didn’t shoot the other cat!), and every time this big cat came in the garden, we’d grab our little darling and bring him indoors, then my husband would go outside and shoot into the air, the loud noise would scare the cat away, after a few time the cat would just avoid our garden.

I suppose there should be a moral to this story, and if anything, I would say, your cat is very independent, so if it does disappear for a few days, don’t panic just be patient, it’s sure to turn up of it’s own accord. And if your having problems with unwanted neighbour hood cats, loud noises should do the trick, try bashing two trash can lids together or the base of a cooking pot!

Laura Marsh
Caring For Your Cat
http://www.caringforyourcat.info

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