Buddy goes missing.....

posted by Bunnery on Wed 3rd Sep, 08 at 19:30:28

....it's been a few days since this happened - but I feel able to talk about it now.

The kitties are getting a little more independent and now have a cat flap to allow them to come and go as they please. They love it!

However the other evening Buddy had not returned by bedtime and we were a little concerned. We went outside in the dark to call for him - for quite a while - but no sign of him. The kitties love to go out just as it is going dark and stay out a while, chasing moths and eating next door's grass. So we went back in and thought that he would come in when he was ready to - and when we got up in the morning there he would be snuggled up with Kurt.

We set the catflap to incoming - but not outgoing - and went to bed.

The next morning we got up - and Kurt was meowing plaintively and looking all around the house, There was no sign of Buddy. We though that he had probably lost his collar  (he is the only one of the two who seems to have worked out how to take it off) - and so hadn't been able to get back in the kitty door.. We were quite convinced that he would be sat outside the back door waiting to be let in.

We looked out - but still no sign of him. We were due to go out for the day - so we were frantically trying to call him in for his breakfast - so we could go, knowing that he was safe. However - despite walking up and down the backs - and round the front street - we could not find him. I asked the neighbours if he'd sneaked in through their cat flap - i even went to the local shop to ask if anyone had reported finding a cat.

It would be a Bank Holiday - all the vets were closed! I was contemplating printing out posters and tying them to lampposts! By lunchtime he still hadn't been found. I decided to have one more look down the road at the front - and I walked up and down the length of the street. Then I heard a meowing. I walked back again - no sign of any cat. Then I heard it again! I looked into everyone's front garden - thinking that maybe a local cat was sitting outside his front door waiting to be let in. I peeked over a wall - and there was Buddy cowering in a corner - looking very sorry for himself. I leaned over and picked him up - and carried him back home!! I thought he would be ravenous or at least tired - but he didn't show signs of either. He just wanted to go out the back again! I think because he'd never been let out of the front - he just didn't know his way home. He was quite a way down the road - and the traffic was very busy - and noisy and I think it scared him

Needless to say we kept him in for the rest of the day. Kurt sniffed him - then just carried on as normal. He didn't seem that overjoyed to see him.

We were though [long word]