Cat Ran Away

My cat ran away on sunday, slipped out the door. I found him tonight in a tree 30 feet up, he jumped and then ran off looking terrified.


I'm having one of the worst weeks I have ever had, and its only been 2 days of this. I wasn't even this sad when my dog DIED. seeing my cat out there alone and scared (even of me) and being unable to catch and help him is killing me.



theres not anything any of you can do. I just had to tell someone

I hear you, man. One of my cats just wandered off as well.

How old is your cat? Is there any chance that this is just a leave of absence?

he 1.5 and totally an indoor cat.

I think I know where he is hiding, I just hope he isnt hurt after jumping out of the tree last night. tomorrow the humane trap I bought shows up and I will try to trap him with that


I'm in an apartment complex which makes things tougher, since people walk their dogs and stuff in the places I am trying to calm him down and get him to come to

Is it possible to get animal control to try and catch him for you?

I found him last night, went searching in the spot I had thought he was hiding, and saw his tail poking out. sat there quietly for about 10 minutes quietly talking to him and jingling his laser pointer until he came up to me purring.


that was a shitty couple of days that I am glad are over

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:I found him last night, went searching in the spot I had thought he was hiding, and saw his tail poking out. sat there quietly for about 10 minutes quietly talking to him and jingling his laser pointer until he came up to me purring.


that was a shitty couple of days that I am glad are over

Well that's good to hear. I have 4 cats myself and had a few run away for a few days and it's always horrible. Fortunately they always come back.

Damn I'm too late.

Good to hear you got your cat back. Also good to know that you are still willing to come to this community to talk about shit like that.

yall are my friends... we disagree sometimes but I still feel at home here

I've been very much enjoying the small spike in activity the last month

Mr.Inferior of the two Admins wrote:yall are my friends... we disagree sometimes but I still feel at home here

I've been very much enjoying the small spike in activity the last month

Ditto.

Vigil wrote:Well that's good to hear. I have 4 cats myself and had a few run away for a few days and it's always horrible. Fortunately they always come back.

They don't. Not always.

I don't have any pictures of him on hand because he loathed being photographed, but I'd like to talk about Blackie. We found his mother, a tortoise-shell calico, and adopted her. When I was six, she gave birth to a litter of kittens. We gave away all but one of them, and kept the one I picked. I was really into pirates, so I named him Captain (Something) (Something... It's been a long time) Blackbarrel.

He looked like... well, a slate-gray vampire Norwegian forest cat. And he was mean. When he was a year old, he drove off his own mother. He had the dogs cowed; when they all waited to come in, he would sit on the porch and they'd sit out out on the grass. The local red tailed hawks packed up and moved off. Bald eagles, being made of sterner stuff, moved in. When you open the door at night and said "Time to go out, Blackie", the birds and frogs and crickets would go silent.

I'm only exaggerating slightly, and a lot of his temperament is because my four-year-old brother tormented him as only an innocent toddler could. He hated being picked up, loathed being petted anywhere besides the nape of the neck, and basically used our house as a crash pad.


When I entered high school, he was getting old. Less meat on him, more bone, and he tolerated us a lot more. Kept wandering and hunting, even started bringing mice home. At this point, the other animals were less afraid of him. Our other cat would actually fight him for the food bowl, the glutton.

His open invitation to sleep in my room came to an end when he barfed every night for a week, and let me tell you, nothing wakes you up faster than the sound of a cat puking. If I could get an alarm clock that yarfed instead of beeping, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Since he couldn't sleep on my bed, he decided it was time to reconnect and spend more time together. Since we're talking about a cat like Blackie, 'spending more time together' mean he'd corner me by the recliner, yowl until I sat down, and then he'd jump up and knead my chest until his paws got tired and he'd go to sleep. A thick blanket came in handy, because he'd extend his claws during the kneading.

One day, we realized he was deaf. Not that he'd respond to us calling his name before, but it was easier to sneak up on him. He would sit on the porch and watch the dogs in the yard. You could open the door and step onto the porch, and he'd jump when you stepped into his field of vision. No big deal. He could still hunt, and now he was absolutely fearless of the riding lawnmower.

Then it was time for me to go to college. By then, we were supplementing his died of kitty kibble with soft cat food. That actually made a big improvement, because he put on weight and his coat improved. Whenever I came home, he'd corner me by the recliner and not move until he'd spent a half-hour greeting me. For the rest of my visit he'd practically me.

Every time I left for college, I figured it would be the last time I saw him. But he was always there when I came home. Eventually, we joked about the vampire kitty that would never die. When his coat dried out and he started getting hairballs galore, he'd just ignore them. When he lost a fight with the neighbor cat, he went next door and crapped in the cat's food dish. When my roommate almost ate the other cat, Blackie started paying him regular visits.

On September 23rd, exactly seventeen years and six months after he was born and the same day we had to put a dog down for cancer, Blackie wandered off for the last time. In cat years, he'd be 86 years old, unheard of for an outdoors cat.

I miss him, but I'm not sure how to remember him. A mound of mouse skulls seems appropriate, but it wouldn't last...

Had my one cat since i was in grade 4. Been my best pal ever since. Hes come with me through all my moves, and has been there at my best and worst of times and I seriously prefer that little guys company over most humans.

Hes getting old now though. Has arthritis developing (his joints make creeking noises when he walks) but hes still happy as hell. Gonna miss him when he goes.