[grendel]

In August 2009 we took in a cat from a friend of a friend who could no longer keep it. it seemed very timid and would not let anyone approach, for the first few days we kept it on a harness and lead just so we could find under which piece of furniture it had disappeared under. well after a few days we left the harness on and took the lead off, it was the night after we took the lead off that the cat disappeared, we assume it went out of the bedroom window that was open just a crack but latched so by the security catch, how he managed to get through such a small gap bewildered us - he must have been desperate to get out.
after 3 months searching we had just about given up when we spotted him in the distance again, but he disappeared into a churchyard and we didnt see him again.
well that was all in August 2009. Last night we had a phone call - our cat had been found, he had been fed by a woman not 1/4 mile from us since last november (what happened in the missing year we have no idea) and she had noticed the harness which he was still wearing was getting tight on him, so had arranged with a local cat charity to have him trapped so she could get him to a vet. they trapped him and on going through their records came across one cat that had been lost wearing a blue harness - ours, so we got the phone call.
We have decided that if the woman (who we are told teaches vetinary nursing at our local university) wants to keep him then we have no objections, after all she has been feeding him for nearly 6 months now, we had him for 5 days, though if she doesnt want him we will take him in again to live with the 7 of our cat herd that we already have (6 of which can directly be attributed to the fact we lost Byron - we would never have a lot of our cat family if it hadnt been for his disappearance). The Moral of this story is to get any missing cat registered with all of the local cat charities, as you never know when they will re-appear - even a year and a half later as in this case.
Grendel

[Yorkie]

What a nice happy ending, wherever the cat ends up living 

And it's also a good idea to have your pets microchipped for the same reason.

[Paul Plots]

Great story and I hope a very happy-ever-after ending. Good for you too in being so understanding about the cat's move to a new "owner"... if ever cats are really owned in the first place.

Micro-chip = a brilliant idea. We had our new kitten done. We'd hate to lose her.

[penninehillbilly]

We lost our little girl in Dec'09, this keeps the hope in me that she will turn up, tho unlikely as we are in a rural area and I went round every place I could think of with leaflets.
we 'aquired' another stray in about August last year, we had him chipped, but would you believe, someone walked off with him the other day, luckily I caught it on security camera, informed his family, he was brought back that evening, part of me wishes they'd kept him, he was (already) ill and has just cost nearly £200 in vet's bills (blood tests etc)

[grendel]

we do have all the rest of our cats chipped, Byron was going to be taken to the vets as soon as he had settled, but made his break for freedom before that happened. we had a call to the lady that has taken him on, she lost her ginger cat to pneumocilicosis last year and was looking for a new ginger cat, well it seems one found her, to me that says we made the right choice, he was already settling in and had taken over her bed. It was the loss of Byron that was responsible for us rehoming 3 burmese that had been in a rescue 6 months with no takers, tht led to a phone call where we rescued another ginger tom, and indirectly when we took in 2 youngsters when they were advertised on freecycle - all beautiful cats that have enriched our lives. Sometimes these things seem to have a purpose. Byrons disappearance has given homes to 6 other cats and found byron a home with a lovely lady who ws missing her old cat. in my books thats a perfect result.
Grendel

[joyfull]

what a lovely tale, so pleased it had a happy ending 

[Yorkie]

Awwww 

[arugula]

That's a great result grendel.

[Gandan57]

In 2000 our daughter was given two kittens, sisters from the same litter, for her 18th birthday by her then boyfriend.
Two years later she moved back in with us and brought the cats with her. Within a week one disappeared and we couldn`t find her anywhere.
About three months later in the lost and found section in the local paper, a cat had been found in Glastonbury, three miles from where we lived then, and the description matched our daughter`s cat.
Sure enough it was. We`ve moved twice since then, no more problems, both cats are happy and healthy, eleven years old, and apart from buying worm tablets, have never been to the vets. Daughter has left home again tho.