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