On Sun 21 Aug 2005 07:18:42p, EADGBE wrote in alt.cats
roups.com):

I am especially interested in hearing about cats returning after
LONG absences, since Albert has been gone a long time already.

THANKS FOR ANY INFO/STORIES YOU ALL CAN SHARE.

Not looking...but hoping...still hoping...

I only recently read about your sad tale of Albert. I used to read
this group regularly years ago, and sometimes check back. I'm so
sorry he's run off, and I hope you can find peace from the feelings
you have over it. Accidents happen. This leads to my story.

My sister has had a problem with indoor cats getting out mostly
because of her kids - twin 5 year olds. She used to have 3 cats,
but one got out and was killed on the road in front of her house.
She swore the other two wouldn't get out. Problem is that young
kids don't always know how to shut doors properly, don't know that
by standing in the door with it open can lead to pets getting out.
She's now trying to instill that responsibility on to her kids, but
in the meantime, her 8 year old (maybe older) boy cat, very
skittish, got out. She told me he hadn't been acting right in the
past weeks and she was convinced that when he got out he was going
to find a place to die. Well, I was HORRIFIED. It's one thing that
he got out, but an 8 year old cat ready to die, and she didn't see
anything wrong enough to take him to the vet?? Well, unrelated to
your question, we didn't talk for months because I believe pets are
a responsibility that you don't let them get sick enough to "find a
place to die" at 8 years old, let alone any age. I pleaded with her
to go find him and as time went on I was afraid he probably was
dead, but not because of illness. Long story short (well, ok, this
is already long) our mom also told her how upset I was that she
didn't go out actively looking for her cat and at this point 3
months had passed. I got a call one night from my sister. She said
Tigger had come home. Amazing to me because it was soon after I
told my sister that if she didn't go look for him, hang signs, call
the shelters, I would never speak to her again. Ever. She yelled at
me because she thought I called her kids bad. NO! Not bad!
Untrained, not understanding how their actions could cost the life
of a living creature, and YES, I believe 5 year olds can understand
this.

Any way, I believe Tigger was nearby the whole time. He was a timid
cat. Still is. This was last year, and while he was found skinny
and scraggly, he was well. He wasn't ill. But she got him.

--
Cheryl

"The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited
breath."
- W.C. Fields