Hi, lost my cat after moving house last month. We kept him in for two weeks and he was going in and out after that without any problems for just under a week.

Then on the 11th he went out in the evening and unfortunately hasn’t come back. After delivering about 500 flyers to local houses and quite a few wild goose chases, it would appear that last night we may have tracked him down.

He’s a black cat and when we got to him it was dark. He was hiding under a car and gave us the right run around trying to catch him, so much so that we were unsuccessful. I’m 90% sure it was my cat, but with the poor light I can’t be certain.

My problem is, why wouldn’t he come when I called him? He wouldn’t come anywhere near me 😥 I’ve had him since he was 12 weeks and up until he went walkabout his recall has been better than my dog’s!! I had his favourite treats with me and he very tentatively ate a few, but stayed resolutely out of reach.

Has anyone else experienced this type of thing? Could it just be that he’s now too nervous of people after a couple of weeks out on his own?

Friends had something similar with one of their cats, moved house kept cats in for about 2 weeks. Then one of them went missing, went back to the old house, lots of searches, visiting the neighbours etc. 6 weeks later Ziggy cat turns up looking a bit thin and straggly but otherwise in good health.

If it was your cat and was scared then he might of been a slave to his instincts. Hope he comes back.

I don’t think that he would have forgotten all about you in a couple of weeks – I know my parent’s cats wouldn’t see me for months at a time, and were always OK with me. Are you really sure that it was your black cat – any markings on him? or it could just be that he was really stressed, and that time and some of his favourite treats will see him accept you picking him up.

I take it he is microchipped ?

We had the same when we moved, and we only went 100 yards up the road. She never came back, but we could see her about near the old house. Looking considerably plumper.

It transpired that the fat moggy had set up residence in a nearby home, where she’d been getting (over)fed, on top of the ample meals she’d been receiving at home.

To be fair she was quite old, and we’d got a younger cat who is, quite frankly, bonkers, and just seemed to annoy her. She seemed happy enough, so we left her too it, and got another (even madder) kitten. Still see the fat lump from time to time. Now the size of a house.

Cats eh? Mercenary little sods. Its true that they own you, not the other way around. And they’re always open to a better offer

Territorial buggers, cats. How far did you move? He’s probably gone ‘home’ or attempted to.

Yes, one of ours disappeared for over a week after a house move. She was a very timid house cat and wasn’t the sort to go roaming about. She turned up eventually looking none the worse for it after we had virtually given up on her. Try not to worry too much, the cat will come back in its own time.

My Sister in Law has just had this.

Moved a few streets away, locked ’em in for the first week, then started letting them out. within another week one had buggered off.

Was returned back by old neighbours .. then buggered off again, returned, then locked in for another two weeks of re-familiarisation.

Buggered off for 2 weeks again and couldn’t be found.
In the end it seems one of the old, less well known neighbours had started feeding it and it was basically shacked up with them, and very nervous of my SIL, noticeably heavier

She now isn’t really letting it out until further notice.

Seems to be lots of lost cats at the moment.Ours went missing for 5 days and parents neighbours lost there for 2 weeks. I wonder if its the hot weather

I’ve had this before too. I moved about a 10mins walk away having lived in the same house for ten years. Kept the cats in for a couple of weeks but soon after letting them out they would both wander round to the old place. I kept finding them either in the garden, on the shed and one time in the house! One of the cats went for three weeks before I found him and yep he was running away from me but I managed to entice him back with some food. They got the message eventually, afer about six months and realised that we had actually moved house.

They’ll go where they can get easy food, leech heat and get stroked so if someone is better at this than you, it’s their cat now. The only reason cats come back at all is because they’ve not found someone better yet.

One went missing for two weeks once but I reckon she was locked in somewhere because she was incredibly skinny and had changed from a reasonably nice, inside cat to a vicious, paranoid, outside cat. I feed her twice a day, I’m the only person who will cut stuff out of her fur (she’s very long haired) and yet she attacks me at every opportunity.