My cat ran away...

[NCScrub]

Mr. Write, just learned through the power of the Internet of your drama, glad to hear it turned out fine. Maybe Chuck was looking for size 18 sneakers in a nearby trash can. Enough code speak, maybe I'll finally get to meet Rick Mahorn's buddy in a few weeks.

 

[Bubbler]

Good news. Now you better put that ***** on a leash.

 

[Giggity]

Last time my cat got out was also the last time I hit somebody in the face. Well, the ear to be precise.

Had a little party a few years ago, and somehow she gets out the front door amidst all the comings and goings. Emotions run high as we look for her. Some idiot friend of my girlfriend says "I know where she is: I cooked her up and ate her." I, heroically, tell him gently to shut up. He persists, I warn, he persists, I warn, he persists, I knock him upside his mother****ing head.

He runs out the door, I follow and watch him drive off, then sit on the front porch and bury head in hands. Girlfriend comes out in tears and sits down next to me. She finally calms down, we're deciding there's nothing more to do for the night, when the cat walks around the corner of the house, looks at us like "what the **** is all this drama about?" and calmly strolls back in through the open door. Which is why cats are awesome.

 

[Colton]

Mr.Write: Thank you! A rare happy ending... I'm very happy for you and Chuck.

 

[Barsuk]

Last time my cat got out was also the last time I hit somebody in the face. Well, the ear to be precise.

Had a little party a few years ago, and somehow she gets out the front door amidst all the comings and goings. Emotions run high as we look for her. Some idiot friend of my girlfriend says "I know where she is: I cooked her up and ate her." I, heroically, tell him gently to shut up. He persists, I warn, he persists, I warn, he persists, I knock him upside his mother****ing head.

He runs out the door, I follow and watch him drive off, then sit on the front porch and bury head in hands. Girlfriend comes out in tears and sits down next to me. She finally calms down, we're deciding there's nothing more to do for the night, when the cat walks around the corner of the house, looks at us like "what the **** is all this drama about?" and calmly strolls back in through the open door. Which is why cats are awesome.

Great story. :D

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Cool news, MrWrite.

There's obviously a reason they say cats have nine lives. They are the Keith Richards of the animal kingdom.

 

[EStreetJoe]

Mr. Write -- Glad to hear the Charles Barkley came home and everything is good.

My little guy is an indoor cat and for fear of him getting out and not coming back I get nervous if he tries walking out onto the deck or even into the garage.

But he gave my wife (and I) a couple of scares when we moved into our townhouse. Not running away, but funny stories of going MIA.

Moving day -- My wife goes ahead to the townhouse with the cat to get him used to the place while I stay home with the movers showing them what needs to be packed, making sure everything gets loaded, etc. At one point my wife calls and says "I need to run out to the bank to get some money to tip the movers with, he seems to be ok here, should I put him in the carrier and take him with me?" I tell her yes to make sure nothing happens to him. She decides to leave him anyway. Half an hour or so later I get a call from her and she's in tears "He's gone, I can't find him anywhere" I tell her to calm down and ask "were there any open windows?" "No" "Any open doors or crawl spaces where he could get out from?" "No" "Then calm down, he's there somewhere" "But there's no furniture for him to hide behind, where could he be?" "Calm down, and look carefully in the closets (as we had already brought clothes and some valuables over ahead of time)" A couple of minutes later she's saying "There you are, you had me so scared" (Little guy had hidden behind a milkcrate of pocketbooks she had on the floor of the closet)

Two days later -- We're unpacking and all of a sudden we realize we can't find the little guy. We look all over, no sign of him. His favorite toy makes a noise, I get it out and start playing with it and suddenly he appears out of a bedroom.

After that we decided that we need to get him a collar with his name and our number on it (incase he gets out) and a bell so we'll know where he is.

The day after we get that for him, its hot out. My wife decides to open a bedroom window (second floor, overlooks the roof above the living room) to allow a breeze. She opens the one window that's missing a screen. I walk into the room and say "Honey, you realize that you opened the window with no screen" and I look outside and calmly say "and Wonder's on the roof". She goes into a panic as I lean as far out the window as I can, having her hold my ankles, to try getting him back in. He's just walking around like nothing's wrong. I have her hand me his favorite toy and I reach out to him with that, and he comes close enough to me where I can grab him and bring him back in.

 

[Football_Bat]

I let my cats out during the winter when it's cool (not cold) and they won't bring in fleas. The younger one enjoys the outdoor life more than the other; the older one won't go out on her own. The younger one will eventually turn up in my garage, naturally at dinnertime.

Now that it's gotten warm, the cats stay inside.

 

[In Exile]

Anyone have any advice or uplifting stories about the cat who despite being naive in the ways of the world and wandering a complex in which every townhouse looks identical, somehow came home?

Congrats!

Before we were married, my wife's can ran away. A year and a half later, I was living in the next town over - about a mile and a half away - and my wife had moved far away. She was coming up so we could travel together to a wedding. The day before she arrived I go outside and there's her cat, bedraggled, on the doorstep. I figured it must have recognized my smell.

I had to leave him there - my roomate was allergic. But when my wife got in the next day, he was still there. We had to leave, left some food, and three days later he was still there, so she took him back.

When cats decide to come back, they can usually find you.

 

[Ace]

Last time my cat got out was also the last time I hit somebody in the face. Well, the ear to be precise.

Had a little party a few years ago, and somehow she gets out the front door amidst all the comings and goings. Emotions run high as we look for her. Some idiot friend of my girlfriend says "I know where she is: I cooked her up and ate her." I, heroically, tell him gently to shut up. He persists, I warn, he persists, I warn, he persists, I knock him upside his mother****ing head.

He runs out the door, I follow and watch him drive off, then sit on the front porch and bury head in hands. Girlfriend comes out in tears and sits down next to me. She finally calms down, we're deciding there's nothing more to do for the night, when the cat walks around the corner of the house, looks at us like "what the **** is all this drama about?" and calmly strolls back in through the open door. Which is why cats are awesome.

The dude sounds like a real jerk, but a real good way to keep a real jerk acting jerky is to tell him to shut up.

 

[MrWrite]

Glad to see the fun cat stories are still rolling on this thread. On amusing side note from my search for Charles Barkley:

An elderly neighbor, in what was no doubt an effort to be reassuring, tells me the tale of how her cat once got out in the dead of winter and was gone for three weeks -- during which time there was a blizzard. Well, he finally came home, she told me, so it was all good. Then after a dramatic pause, she looks down, looks back up and says, with a dead-serious tone ... "He was never the same."

I was like, Gee, thanks for the uplifting tale.

 

[Ace]

Glad to see the fun cat stories are still rolling on this thread. On amusing side note from my search for Charles Barkley:

An elderly neighbor, in what was no doubt an effort to be reassuring, tells me the tale of how her cat once got out in the dead of winter and was gone for three weeks -- during which time there was a blizzard. Well, he finally came home, she told me, so it was all good. Then after a dramatic pause, she looks down, looks back up and says, with a dead-serious tone ... "He was never the same."

I was like, Gee, thanks for the uplifting tale.

It's true. Frozen cat isn't near as good as fresh.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Glad to see the fun cat stories are still rolling on this thread. On amusing side note from my search for Charles Barkley:

An elderly neighbor, in what was no doubt an effort to be reassuring, tells me the tale of how her cat once got out in the dead of winter and was gone for three weeks -- during which time there was a blizzard. Well, he finally came home, she told me, so it was all good. Then after a dramatic pause, she looks down, looks back up and says, with a dead-serious tone ... "He was never the same."

I was like, Gee, thanks for the uplifting tale.

It's true. Frozen cat isn't near as good as fresh.

Sounds like it might have, indeed, visited the Pet Sematary first.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

This happened to me when I was away at college, far, far from home. It crushed me. My old man wondered what happened to that cat to his dying day. She was an outdoor cat from the start, scratching at the door in the wee hours of the morning when we were leaving for school, and we always assumed she'd be home at dark. Which she was for 11 years. Then it stopped.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Did the cat come back, the very next day?

 

[rascalface]

And all of these stories show the importance of having your cats chipped (or with a tag/collar), so if it does get picked up by animal control they can contact you.

Got my cat at the shelter over a year ago. She hasn't been outside on her own since I adopted her. I used to live in a third-floor apartment, and once she squirted out the door when I was coming home from work. I'm guessing she had never navigated stairs before, because she just froze at the top of them. Which allowed me to go "hey get back here!" and scoop her up. She's never tried to bolt before or since.

When I go outside for a cigarette, she'll usually follow me onto the porch. Whenever I put out a cig, she gets up and walks back inside and looks at me like, "OK, come on." Cats are funny.

 

[forever_town]

HOORAY!

The cat found his way home (sort of). He found his way to behind my back balcony (im on the second floor) and when he saw me sit in my chair by the glass door (after another lengthy search of the neighborhood) he started meowing. I stood on the back deck reassuring him vocally while my girlfriend ran around the building to scoop him up.

So Charles Barkley is back home. And as far as I know, he hasn't racked up any new gambling debts while he was patrolling the neighborhood.

Thanks to all for the kind words and happy-ending stories. I'm relieved to say I now have one of my own.

I'm glad to hear it! Congratulations MrWrite!

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Thank goodness.

Did the cat come back, the very next day?

Never. I just dreamt about that fat gray cat a few weeks ago. Emerald eyes. We named her Grace. We have old 8 mm home movies with her rustling through the Christmas wrapping paper, not much bigger than a shoe.

My pop always thought she left to go out to die, their terms, their way, consistent with the rest of the animal kingdom, etc. I would rather that than watch the favorite pet of my life wheeze and suffer and seek refuge and go to die under a table, dying of kidney disease, going from 12 pounds to four in a matter of six weeks, as he did before we gave up and brought him in.

I scattered parts of my dad, that cat and our other departed pets -- we had every one cremated -- at Little Round Top just June.

 

[RedHotChiliPrepper]

I live out in the country a little bit, so both of our cats are outside cats ... most of the time. And they're both spoiled rotten.

Our boy cat, who is all white, will leave for three or four days during the summer, and show up one day while I'm leaving for work when he hears my car start. He's usually filthy, covered with grease from sleeping under cars. He'll go inside, eat for 10 minutes, sleep for two days and do it all over again. We call him Skid because of all the grease and oil marks on him.

A couple years ago, Skid's mom decided she wanted to be an all the time inside cat when she got pregnant. After she had her kittens, we gave her to a family friend who live on the other side of the mountain behind our house about 15 miles away. Two weeks later she showed up in our driveway. Had left our friends house the day we took her there and walked back to our house. We couldn't give her up again after that.

 

[BYH]

I live out in the country a little bit, so both of our cats are outside cats ... most of the time. And they're both spoiled rotten.

Our boy cat, who is all white, will leave for three or four days during the summer, and show up one day while I'm leaving for work when he hears my car start. He's usually filthy, covered with grease from sleeping under cars. He'll go inside, eat for 10 minutes, sleep for two days and do it all over again. We call him Skid because of all the grease and oil marks on him.

A couple years ago, Skid's mom decided she wanted to be an all the time inside cat when she got pregnant. After she had her kittens, we gave her to a family friend who live on the other side of the mountain behind our house about 15 miles away. Two weeks later she showed up in our driveway. Had left our friends house the day we took her there and walked back to our house. We couldn't give her up again after that.

holy crap, that is amazing.