Havn't read some of this post, i can't handle it – saw the first pic n just sobbed my eyes out! We lost both of our cats last year, one went missing in June while we were away and the other we found dead outside our house in October. We loved them so much they were such characters and so affectionate. Soft i know and dread to think what having kids is like id be an emotional wreck worrying all the time 😕

I remember when i was young my cat went missing for what i thought was about 6 weeks at the time, in my mind im doubting it was that long but it was still a really long time. He came bounding up the front garden and ran straight in the house whilst the door was open.

We suspect, like others have poitned out, he was being fed by someone else because he seemed in no disrepair. We also think he carried on getting fed by some old dear when he was older.

We had another cat who was completely off his trolly and would go off for 24 hours at a time very regularly. Pretty much once a week all year round.

I don't think you can say a cat is yours, they are for all intents and purposes individuals.

If the cat goes out and is chipped leave it to come back on it's own or for someone to call you regarding it. No point worrying it doesn't accomplish anything.

Why not just use a GPS http://www.trackmycat.com/ it's a lot more cost effective than flyers and searching. Not sure if anyone else had suggested this as I don't want to read the whole thread, short on time.

Thought id mention it though just incase.

Kaesae, did you put that tag on yourself?

The farm I used to work at had a cat arrive one day and take up residence. We didnt feed it for a few days as we thought it would head back home but it didnt. So it ended up having the run of the farm and got fed and fussed. Lovely cat used to sit on fence posts and watch you work, sheep dipping time was her fav viewing. It's fav trick was to find an open tractor, landy or car door and curl up asleep in side, got bought back by several visitors. Reckon she must have arrived on a delivery truck. Lived out a long and happy life but someone must have missed her and gone through a load of anguish wondering where she went.

about a year ago had a cat appear at our house, it took about 6 weeks for me to be able to get close enough to be able to determine if it had a collar, it had taken a few weeks to get a good look at it! It had been living under the decking and in the bushes around the house.

In the end got a cage off cats protection, trapped the cat and felt awful doing it, but managed to get it reunited with its owners.

It transpired that it had wandered 3 miles across the fields, and in the end was away from its owners for 8 weeks. But it did get back to them, it was fit and healthy, and despite living outside in January in the snow, it was fine.

I really want to install some kind of camera and gps recorder on our cat for a couple of nights, just to see what he gets up to!