What to do about a lost cat?
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HO LEE SHIT.
Just after I posted this, I went into the kitchen and grabbed a handful of potato chips and just sort of walked around and went into the basement. It's been years since I've eaten potato chips at home and I seldom go into the basement—it's basically just storage and the carpet's got some weird shit in it that messes with my lungs if I'm down there too long—but I've been kind of beside myself and didn't get much sleep last night.
Right fucking there he was, by the basement window.
It's hard to describe but it's very hard to get from the front door to the basement window, even for a cat. You have to take a very long way around. I have no idea how or why he got there or even that he knew that was home. (I mean yeah, pets aren't stupid but even still.)
I fucked up, though, and opened the door too quickly. He got startled and ran, so I chased him as best I could without scaring him further. Finally cornered him in a neighbor's bushes between their stoop and the side of their house. He was freaked the hell out and did not want picked up, but after a couple of seconds he calmed down enough for me to carry him. Poor guy was shaking pretty bad, though.
My wife came downstairs, found me gone with the basement door open and a handful of potato chips on the ground and wondered what the hell happened.
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I really thought we weren't gonna find him. None of the food we've been leaving out has been touched, and he absolutely loves food. (And there are foxes, possums, raccoons and all manner of other woodland animals outside. Not that they'd attack him—he's still got his claws and he's a big boy—but if they aren't touching the food, and he's not nearby enough to know it's there...)
And in all fairness to the HVAC guys, it's not like they knew he was an inside cat only, but still. Fuckin' hell what an unfun day and a half.
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Glad to hear it all worked out so well.
10-15 years, ours (an outdoor cat) vanished. I'd given up after a week, when she returned, miaowing at me from the bushes. Unharmed but a lot thinner. I was initially alerted to her return by the dog doing these crazy twirls - he'd really missed her too.
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Yay!
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@Boris said in What to do about a lost cat?:
Welcome home, brother.
But, for FUCK's sake don't do it again. It's a mean, cruel, and nasty world out there.
Your dad just about had a heart attack.
I relayed the message. His response:
"Soz lol. Pets? Treats? You haz food?"
Freaking Maine coons, man.
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@Aqua-Letifer That is great news!!!
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So happy to read that the family is all together again. It's so frightening when a loved creature is out on their own.
Hopefully, no more escapes. I'm getting ads for GPS collars that can be put on our creatures - even better than Apple Air Tags. But, it probably would be overkill in your situation with an indoor cat.
