Posted on 07/22/2013 9:06:25 PM PDT by cradle of freedom
I think cats just go off to die somewhere. Our cat did that.
Molly was an indoor declawed cat that would dart out an open door every chance she got but I would always be able to catch her and bring her back in. I have a cat door that allowed her out on the pool deck where she could watch the squirrels and birds. One time I must have left the screen door to the pool cage ajar and she got away at night. Well she was gone for over a month. I left the screen door ajar all the time she was gone and finally one night I heard the cat door flap and a whole lot of meowing and there she was bedraggled and skinny but otherwise healthy and unharmed.
Your kitty will come home too when she’s ready. They know the way home.
Had a beautiful all black long hair female kitty walk in my back door one evening. She stayed around for a couple or five weeks, eating anytime she wished and demanding I hold her and pet her whenever I lit for TV or Interneting. I took several pix of her and named her Midi, for Midnight. Then one day she walked out the back door in the morning and has not been seen since. Truly cats are their own bosses. I reckon she went back home after giving herself a rest from perhaps a new baby in the house.
I had a black cat, walk up my sidewalk, into my open front door, hiss at my dog, climb up on my couch and immediately go to sleep. He stayed with me and became my CAT! I moved from Tampa to Atlanta with him. I had him about 3 years. I introduced a new cat in Atlanta and CAT took off. One year later on the day and hour the moving truck with all my belongings was leaving for Nashville, CAT jumped up on my patio, rolled on his back, I scratched his full belly and he took off. He had come to say good bye. Cats are beyond mysterious.
Had an old cat disappear for 3 months and then show back up on Christmas Eve like nothing was wrong. She lived another 9 months and died at home.
We had a cat that for about 7-10 years lived up in an Oak tree right beside our front porch laying on a branch. I built him a platform and would send his food up with a long pole. He could get down when he really wanted too but he simply liked living in the tree. He felt safe there. Good Luck.
I always figured women like cats for the same reason women like bad boys: because they both treat women like doormats.
Yes your cat could have survived. They are great scavengers for food. 12 is not old for a cat.
In Houston one of my neighbors used to park his boat in his garage. The boat was too big, so the door wouldn’t close. Mycat would go in at night and leave little cat paw prints all over his boat and hat made him furious.
One day my cat disappeared. She was gone 6 months. Eventually she came back, fit as a fiddle. Obvously she had been eating well.
My neighbor’s wife admitted that he had captured the cat and had taken her to another neighborhood and let her go.
There’s even a song about that — “And the cat came back...”
My cat, who ended up dying of heart problem in March at age 12 1/2 (may she RIP), would get out on occassion. After a few hours, she would come up on the porch and want in, but she wouldn’t come in unless a plate of food was given to her to coax her in. One time, though, she got out and wouldn’t come back. This was probably months to a year before she died. We kept thinking she’d get hungry and come home, but she didn’t. We saw her over at the neighbors, but she would run if we went near her. Finally, I guess after she got so weak and exhausted, three days later, we found her and were able to grab her as she was starving. She was declawed, though, so I don’t think she could catch her own food as well as as a cat with claws. She was older then, and maybe cats get a bit odd when they get older, and for whatever reason, are more reluctant to come home.
The bottom line is that I believe your cat could be alive and could be finding something to survive on. I would try a shaker can of treats to see if the cat comes back. If not, I’d try putting food out. Your cat may come up and eat it. Then you can get ahold of your cat. If you don’t think that will work, I’d put the food in a trap, so when your cat goes in to eat, you have it. I wouldn’t write your cat off as gone yet.
I wish you the best of luck and hope you catch your cat. They truly are valued members of the family.
My cat ate a big live locust today, then puked it over the floor 10 minutes later.
Cats will return to the smell of their cat boxes. Put your cat’s litter box outside the door. This is what my vet told me to do once when my cat got out. He was back by the next afternoon, sleeping on the patio chair.
Put fresh food and water out daily. Expect raccoons to show up. At the same time every evening, go outside and gently call.
I think your cat is trapped somewhere, not outside. Look in all the rooms closed off, closets, nooks, crannies...
This is what happens with my cats from time to time. They get shut into a room and meow to get out.
We had the same problem with our Siamese. She was an indoor cat and slipped away when we were on vacation. Our neighbor was watching her and just left the front door open. Any way we left some of her blankets and our cloths outside by the back door as a familiar scent. She was gone for a full week and we thought we lost her forever. However she finally showed up by the blankets. She was a little thin and looked good physically. We immediately brought her to the vet for a check up. Hope this works for you and good luck. It’s a heart breaking situation.
If she can get to water she can be alive. Even indoor cat become great hunters when hungry.
Indoor cats escaping is very common. Finding and recovering the little critters is difficult unless you understand how they adapt to their new found independence.
1) A cat will stay within 2 or 3 hundred yards of it’s home for as long as 6 or 8 months.
2) You home will be the center of the cat’s territory.
3) A cat will switch to nocturnal only ways within only one or two days.
4) You will NEVER see the cat during the daylight hours.
5) Put out food and water near your back door.
6) If you have a video camera to watch the food bowl, use it and put a time tag on the video. (If you don’t have a video camera, then watch through the window for a 2 hour period every night, after midnight or preferrably start watching 90 miutes to 2 hours before sunrise.
7) Your cat will visit the food once every hour or two during the night.
I have shown at least 15 people with lost cats this method and every one of them recovered their kitties. Three years ago, my own daughter’s cat escaped the day she moved into a new home and neighborhood. It took her 3 weeks to recover her cat even though she was able to see the food go mssing every night.
IS she in your walls?
I woke up with dreams of my missing cat’s meowing for a month. then one day I was in the basement and heard it coming from above the ceiling.No idea what she drank for all that time, but she ate dry leaves from between the floor joists above the basement ceiling. She lived another ten years.
Make sure you have considered every possible choice.
Not true. I've seen cats waste away ...trying to survive on bird seed and lizards which give them liver flukes. Most cats can't catch birds or squirrels...especially if they are older.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.