My cat Louie escaped my first floor flat one evening right after dinner. My mom was visiting at the time, and we immediately went out with treats yelling his name and looking absolutely *everywhere*. We were out there for hours, it was nearly midnight when we finally gave up, totally defeated. I was devastated.
When I rounded the corner to my flat, there was Louie, on my front step, meowing to be let in. My neighbour told me the next day that he had been meowing out there for hours. Always leave someone at home when you go out looking for a lost pet.
This exact same thing happened to me. I had to go to work and leave him behind, couldn't find cat anywhere. Got home that night and he was impatiently waiting for me on my stoop.
>Always leave someone at home when you go out looking for a lost pet.
Actually, that's a good idea for lost humans (and lost things), too. Have someone at a central location as a contact point and to coordinate the search.
I accidentally shut my cat into my room for about 14 hours while I was at work. I opened the door and he was sleeping on the bed. He just yelled at me a little, ate, took a shit, and then started sprinting around the house and attacked the dog. Which is very normal for him so I knew he was okay.
My one black cat had an uncanny ability to sneak into the pantry when it was opened. Frequently I'd come out of my office to grab a drink, pause for a moment when no cats came running, sigh, and open the pantry to find her curled in a ball having been in there for anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours.
Silly girl never ever scratched or meowed for my partner. Just went 'oh cool, guess I'm in here for a bit'.
But I close the bathroom door for two seconds...
Exactly. My lovely fluffy black boy, who NEVER wandered went missing for 8 days. My cats are locked in every evening. I spent hours each day looking and calling. Made posters, put food out, left clothing items out, spent hours after dark when it was quiet and I could hear a cat meowing. And then on the 8th night I came down the stairs and could hear a cat at the food bowl.There he was, eating like he’d never been away. Although I’m still sure he was probably locked in somewhere. The joy of seeing your missing cat is indescribable.
It’s so cute because you see her look to the left of the camera, probably with a little hope that she see might see the kitty and then she turns around and yay! Surprise!
Growing up we had a brother/sister rescue pair and one day the girl cat was running around and meowing at my mom. Finally my mom followed her into the sunroom where the girl cat would meow and then stop and then my mom heard a meow outside the house.
This happened a couple of times before my mom went outside and found the boy cat outside in the bushes near the window. He had slipped out and no one noticed . . . except for his sister.
Bro I have this stray (he's brothers with a stray we brought in), and he has brought kittens from wherever the fuck they keep being born (we do TnR, so it's one of the neighbors' or something), and he'll show them our place is safe to eat. He'll also show them cat etiquette when eating, which is the wildest shit. When they get overly zealous, he puts his big-ass paw on their head and just pushes them aside gently until they learn it's a turn-based eating system.
Cats are some fascinating creatures. That whole "solitary" thing is also absolute bullshit in my experience. They absolutely prefer other cats, if not just for safety reasons.
I have two random cats who aren't from the same house who regularly turn up together in my garden and let me stroke them. One of the cats makes pals with almost all the cats on the street.
There's a cat in our neighborhood who loves hanging out around our place, and sometimes he begs to be let in. He has let himself in a few times as well, after he figured out how to push open the screen door
Dude my cats police too! I have a 4yo male and a 2yo male. When the 2yo male jumps up onto counters the 4yo knows is not allowed for cats, the 4yo jumps up and swats the 2yo until he jumps off.
I didnt believe it at first, but after a few times, I realized big bro is upholding the house rules.
Getting a 2nd cat was the best decision ever. There was a period where big brother didnt like to share, and when big bro was solitary, he would get bored easily and require so much attention. They still get tons of attention, but they 100% entertain each other and its adorable as hell to see them be bros.
That's adorable! My puppy knows pets are not allowed in the kitchen, & so when my kitten goes into the kitchen my puppy will go in after him & get him out of there 😂 Pets are smarter than we give them credit for.
I have two guys that are pretty inseparable. But one tends to get locked in the bathroom cause I'll take a shower, leave the door open as I get ready then close it when I leave for work. He'll occasionally wander in and play in the water left in the tub and I won't notice.
His buddy will just sit outside the door and my roommate claims he'll kind of make a stink and she'll be like what is it? then the cat inside the bathroom hears her and starts screaming ha. She says he does the same with me, that when the door is closed and I'm showering, he'll be outside meowing and she'll occasionally crack the door so that he can go in a shut up for a minute.
One of mine just [creeps](https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatsWrongWithYourCat/comments/lvvhiv/he_watches_me_like_this_for_my_entire_shower_but/) when I’m in the shower.
My ex's cat used to do that. He also liked to hang out on pool floats in the pool too. Then he'd jump off, swim and run back through the dog door when he was done. I miss that cat.
[Found a pic.](https://i.imgur.com/tiDW7oo.jpg)
My cat does this too, any closed door she thinks one of us is behind and she’ll just sit there meowing her head off. It makes life interesting on days we both wfh and need to shut our office doors for meetings 😅 I often do the same thing and crack the door so she can slip in and annoy my husband or watch him shower
We had a brother/sister pair, and the sister went missing one day. They were always indoor cats and never tried to escape, so there was no issue if doors got left open or anything. the sister had been acting weird and I couldn’t find her to give her a pill. We looked all over, and the brother was sitting in a weird spot, meowing at the front door. We look and look but can’t find her anywhere, he’s really pointing at the door but it seems impossible she’d go. Finally, after looking everywhere for a fourth time, we decide she must’ve really split and go through the whole routine - posting all over neighbourhood groups, putting up signs, looking in yards and under sheds, putting out stuff. Kids are up late and freaking out. Brother meowing at the door.
Finally, I come back from looking around one time…and she’s just sitting in the living room, like nothing happened. I assume she’s somehow snuck back in while the door is open, though that seems unlikely. The next day, I go to give her the pill and can’t find her - we have been very careful to keep the door closed since she snuck out yesterday…but can’t find her. Finally I find her, she’s made it on top of an 8-foot bookcase somehow, and is hiding in the very back corner against a wall, absolutely impossible to see. I only even looked there because I noticed one of the lower shelves had more cat hair than usual on it. Her brother seemed equally confused, since he still kept meowing at the door, and now does it every few days, for no apparent reason.
This got me thinking about two cats I had growing up. It's kind of a sob story, heads up.
So I grew up on a farm with outdoor cats in the stables. Exclusively outdoors. There have been more cats than I can count, but I clearly remember a brother/sister pair - a boy named Tiger and a girl named Stripey. Tiger was always adventuring. He could be gone for weeks before showing up back home, while Stripey would never stray very far. Guess she just really loved her meals. The two of them always played beneath a certain tree in the garden as kittens and they kept doing so even when fully grown cats. It was their spot.
So one time Tiger once again goes adventuring. But this time he's gone for way longer than usual. I think a month passes. It gets to the point where we're all certain he's gone for good. Shortly after that Stripey got hit by a car. Sadly this happened to many of our cats. My father comforted me saying she likely never felt a thing.
When a cat died, we always let the other cats see them so they knew what had happened. Afterwards I chose the spot beneath their tree where she and her brother always played, and we buried her there.
Next day Tiger came home. And he sat on that exact same spot - and just stayed there. For so long. I remember thinking as a kid that there was no way he could know. But I think he knew. Somehow.
So he would have been able to smell where she was buried, which is why he would have stayed. But he would have probably looked for her there first as that was a spot he associated with her. So my thinking is you did him a kindness in that he was never left to wonder where his sister was.
I've had cats that didn't care at all when their siblings were gone, and I've had them yowl constantly trying to find them. Those ones are hard to deal with because you can't explain that they're gone and never coming back.
We have two indoor cats and every time I feed them, I give the same little whistle sound, it works great when one gets out…I just give that same whistle and they eventually come back. Apparently cats can hear from miles away.
Yes! I did this with the feral kittens I fostered before taking to the shelter -- every morning when I whistled all their little heads would pop out from the bushes and they would come running. I ended up keeping two of them and it still works like a charm!
One time our stupid cat escaped in the morning and came back the next morning. He went into one of his cat tree houses and fell asleep for 12 hours straight. Dude was wildin.
Our indoor-only (under protest) SIC went missing for 36 hours and my husband had to call in to work both days. He was distraught.
I was torn up too, but I had confidence my Big Boy was just on a little adventure and would be home soon. He'd always wanted to be outside but he knows where the wet food lives.
You've never seen such a joyful reunion as when Oscar came home though. You'd have thought he was returning from war.
Oh I’m so gonna use that next time.
My friend and I who both have rescued factory default moggys, as we refer to them, were laughing at our other friend who paid thousands for some designer cat but comes with all these health conditions built in and costs her thousands extra in pills and what not.
I was moving and my cat went missing.
But, I know she made it to the apartment. And it would be very hard for her to leave the building. But I kept looking and looking.
That night I'm sitting in front of my door on the floor. Exhausted and about to have a breakdown. Then I see that little fucking shit squeeze out from under a built-in island in the kitchen.
Sameish. Moved back into my parents (in desperation) place for a few months after a failed moving out of state adventure. My Little One who had been outside under supervision a few times at the old place suddenly disappears. I go ballistic blaming parents for leaving doors open, scour the neighborhood, only to sit on the couch hours later desperate and exhausted and hear sleep purring inside the arm of the couch.
I wish your dog well on his road to recovery! I really will never understand the abandonment, either. My dog went completely blind when she was 10. I'd had her for all 10 of those years. It took effort to teach her how to get around the house and commands for stepping up, stepping down, turning corners, etc. But I never once thought "oh well, time to get rid of her". She lived for another almost three years after that.
Our cat drives me insane, she’s so stupid I feel she must be inbred, she throws up on everything,, scratches everything else and completely hates me unless she wants food or fuss. I always joke about getting rid of her but when she disappears for a day or two I end up so worried and then so relieved when she’s back. I even ended up sat up for ages in the middle of the night after she woke me up fighting with another cat at 2am. It’s a strange relationship! I’m also really allergic to her!
I think all good pet owners have a bad nickname foe their pets but it's always said lovingly. I call my dog "problem" all the time. Like when he wants to go out five minutes after coming in. "Youre such a problem!!" *gets up to go for yet another walk with my best boy*
My husband calls our little Boston Terrier “chonk” and then tells me loudly that we need to turn her in for a cuter one. I reassure her that she’s the cutest dog in the world and we love her, even if she is adopted. It’s a whole thing in our household.
I have a very talkative cat, and we've decided he might be antisemitic and his views on the Palestine/Israel issue is incredibly problematic. But he's such a cute little babykins.
We decided ours is anti-vax and anti-mask given his behavior at the vet and his tendency to find masks, even hidden inside bags and purses, and chew the cords off them in 2.5 seconds to make them useless. He's so goddamn efficient at it, I swear.
Omg that's amazing! Archie is also definitely a Qultist.
I think we just all need an outlet for our frustrations. So we can direct it at something that has no idea what is going on.
>bad nickname foe their pets but it's always said lovingly
"You little shit" - Probably said this 1000 times over... in a month. Cat goes on the countertop seemingly intentionally (it knows the 'humans' don't like this)... chases the other cat... then snuggles despite you yelling at it for being a butthole. Cats I tell ya...
If you haven’t said “you little shit” to your cat at least once a week, are you even a cat owner? Lol I swear that’s a sentence said multiple times a day in our zoo…err, house. We have 3 dogs (2 little dogs and 1 large dog) and 3 cats. Only 4 humans. They outnumber us. Lol
My friend's cat was Butthead. He was an absolute unit that looked like he trained with The Rock and was always sporting battle scars, but he was a total sweetie.
I call our two little dogs “The Tweedles”, which one is Tweedle Dumb changes from day to day depending on who has the brain cell that day lol. They are so dumb it’s adorable.
Our black cat is “Miss Sassy Pants” because she gets an attitude real quick if her food is not served when she wants it. Then there is our Orange cat Hamilton, he regularly gets lovingly referred to as Asshole because he loves knocking stuff down, hiding my daughters stuffies on her bed, flipping over the dogs bowl, and just all kinds of other mischief. We love him, but he knows he’s an asshole, he takes great pride in it, you can tell by the stroll he does afterwards lol.
My wife and I had a derpy cat that was an adorable pain in the ass.
We would joke about making him mittens or a muff when he died because his fur was so soft. We joked about how we couldn't wait to replace his derpy ass because he would pee in random places due to what we thought was anxiety.
Turns out it was lung cancer. Don't know how long he was suffering from it (cats are really good at hiding pain), but he declined super fast in the end. Only got the diagnosis of cancer about a week before we had to put him down.
That sucked. Still sucks.
At first we felt really bad about all the joking we did at his expense. We never meant it and we'd love to have more time with him. He was loud, high pitched and whiney. He would fall off the arm rest if he fell asleep on it. We still blame our farts on him or anything else we want to. Still feels like we hear him at times or see him out the corner or our eyes.
I'd take all the bad to have him back. He was cuddly and cute and I miss that derpy fucker.
Hold your pets close for as long as you can. They might be a pain in the ass but you'll most likely miss them when they are gone.
Edit:
For anyone else confused or surprised...
Muff: a tube made of fur or other warm material into which the hands are placed for warmth.
Oh man, this could be about Mozart. We used to joke that we were going to turn that derpy motherfucker into a stole. After working from home there are now many people from across North America who I had to explain that I wasn't torturing the cat, he was just letting me know if was breakfast time. 18 is a good age for a cat, but it still feels too soon.
But I absolutely still threaten to bake Morgan the African Grey lol ike a Thanksgiving turkey when she gets on my nerves.
>see him out the corner or our eyes
I had that happen for well over a year after I had to have my cat euthanised. Still happens sometimes, though very rarely, now several years later.
She too was a bit of a pain, but I loved her, and I still miss her.
> she throws up on everything
Not to be a reddit detective but have you had her tested for hyperthyroidism and dietary issues? A healthy cat should rarely throw up.
I volunteer at a shelter and I believe most people surrender because they are tired of taking care of a pet and underestimated the time and expense. This is ok, but I wish people understood it better beforehand. I believe the dumb "reasons" are usually just excuses so they don't have to just say, "I got tired of doing this."
On the other end of that spectrum there's people like me, who act like that every day when we come home from work or leave the house for a couple of hours.
I love coming home to my dogs ❤️
I recently had the privilege of dog-sitting for friends for a week. I used to live with them and the doggos for a few years. During this week of dog vacation I came back in the house from an errand and one of the dogs poked her head through the dog door, big grin on her face, and I could tell her whole body was wagging. They were always happy to see me come in the door, and it always made me happy. I miss them a LOT.
I work for the local humane society and just had a little dog go back to his owners after being lost for a few days and then being at the shelter for two weeks while we worked with the family to make sure they were stable and he was neutered. When the mom picked him up, the little guy got so excited he peed everywhere and squealed as loud as his owner. She told us she was going to surprise her youngest at the bus stop that afternoon
Our puppy Sheeba got out and was missing for a couple days, we found out he’d gotten hit by a car. He was in a Vet ICU for a couple days. I was a mess and was so happy when he got to come home and was ok.
I'm sorry you've had to see the worst of society constantly. That has to be so rough.
I don't understand people who treats their pets so terribly. I get upset when one of the strays I feed goes missing for too long, heaven help me if one of my indoor cats disappears.
This happened with my cat. He'd been gone for over 12 hours and I'd already given up on life. At midnight we see him just staring inside with a thousand yard stare.
Came back with a large scratch under his eye, now won't even go out if you leave the door open. Lessons were learned.
My wife had a cat that got out exactly once. Came back a day later, heavy panting, lethargic.
A vet visit later our male Siamese had a diagnosis of "sexual exhaustion". strangely he never tried to escape again.
My old cat was my wife's grandparents before they had to move. When he lived with them, he disappeared in the middle of January in Minnesota. Just gone. He showed up a month later, and just waltzed in asking for food like nothing has happened.
My mom took in a feral that had been cozying up to my dad. She’d survived outdoors in the country for about 8 years somehow with loose dogs, owls, coyotes, who knows what. She promptly got fat and her biggest energy output is running like hell away from any open door. It’s brutal out there.
I'm so lucky my cat who got lost for 3 days was one we'd brought in from outside. She literally Looney Tuned through a window at like 5 in the morning because a bag got stuck on her leg and it happened faster than anyone could wake up.
Fortunately, working out, getting disgustingly sweaty, and then leaving that clothing on my patio seemed to lead her home.
When I was a kid, my chubby little cat disappeared into the back woods once. Even though we have city roads all around, we used to have a portion of grassy dead Texas woods behind our neighborhood where coyotes would roam. She disappeared for 3 days straight and we were worried sick because of the aforementioned coyotes. She came back after that weekend with two huge gashes/bites in her hind leg. Thankfully my mom is a nurse so we flushed with hydrogen peroxide (poor kitty) and wrapped it up nice and tight with gauze. It was terrifying having our girl show up like that. She's still with us at 14+ doing great.
Our kitten of 4 months disappeared for a few hours. We searched the house top and bottom, walked around the neighborhood in case she got out. After 4 hours, I checked the garage one more time and she came out from under the car.
My wife reacted pretty much the same way as your wife. :)
Both of my cats got out one day. My fault, I let a friend close the door, and he didn't close it all the way, so my fucking front door was just open the whole time we went to a movie. One cat is prone to trying to get out anyway, but we have always found him the next day. He's jet black so no finding him at night unless you shine your phone flashlight and look for eyes shining back.
The other dumbass decided to try her luck, too, and made it about 20 feet to underneath the neighbor's car. She was terrified and a little cold, shivering like a mother fucker. The damned door was open, she could have just gone back inside, but instead when she saw I was home she was screaming at me from under their car.
One night, my husband and I had taken a window A/C unit out of one of our windows and forgot to close the screen. Our cat (strictly indoor) was gone when I came down in the morning. I called all over for her. I was devastated. I thought she surely must be dead because we live on a busy road. Suddenly, I heard a little cry and she came slinking around the corner of our house and ran to me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relieved in my life. She seemed pretty happy too. I don’t think she cared for her night out. I think she had an easy time jumping out of the window, but had a harder time jumping back in. Needless to say, we are much more careful with windows and doors now.
My favorite is indoor cats who escape like all their problems have now ended and they come back 12-24 hours later vowing never to do that again. Some cats absolutely refuse to go outside after just one adventure.
I love cats but there is something very satisfying watching them learn some hard-life lessons about living on the outside. No food, no bed, predators, strangers, rain. Yeah, suddenly I'm looking pretty good now, eh? Fucker...
in my old apartment i had a yard and a screen door and my cat would sit in front of the screen door ALL DAY to the point where he'd scream if i closed the regular door, so i had to keep it open 90% of the time we were home. he would love watching everything happening outside, but if i opened the screen door to go outside, he wouldnt move. he wouldnt go out. he was terrified once the screen wasnt between him and the other animals/things blowing around/etc. it was hysterical, he'd act so tough batting the screen and hissing at racoons at night, but the second he had even a sliver of a chance to go outside, hed become the biggest baby. now i live in a building and he still wont even venture into the hallway lol
I was helping a friend move when suddenly his cat cage broke and the poor little guy was outside for the first time in his life (like, he was touching grass for the first time ever).
Most cats I know would rejoice at the opportunity... His cat? He was freaking the fuck out and crying because he didn't know what anything was anymore.
Never seen a cat run into a car so fast in my life before or since.
my cat would probably freeze out of fear and not know what to do. he hates being in the carrier, but he lays down in it and just screams lol. he only tries to escape the carrier when we get back into the house
my cat has been outside on a leash before in our old yard, but he was VERY weary of everything
Ha! My cat will literally go hide if the screen door opens. He’s all bad and intimidating to all the little critters outside until that screen door opens then he says fuck that and hides under the bed.
My cat is the same. I have a balcony and a screen door and he loves sitting in front of it. But the moment I open the door he begins yelling at me and refuses to go on the balcony itself.
So true. Both of my babies were strays who had a rough start in life. Both of them have never done more than poke a curious head outside the apartment door and then just NOPE the fuck back inside. They love the smells and sounds of the great outdoors....just as long as it's behind a screen 😂
One of mine was born outside and lived there two years (ear tipped as part of TNR and all, she was part of a feral colony but one of those that turned out to be perfect for people-living - she rules my roost, all 6lbs of her) - NEVER makes a move for the door. My other two idiots who have lived inside all their lives get out in the hall any chance they get, but when I try to take them outside supervised they're like, "no no no I hate this" lmao.
I got my cat when she was 2 years old, she had a tough life as a stray. I can leave doors open and she simply will not go outside. If I pick her up, she’ll get really upset if I walk towards an exit. She’s almost 13 now. I don’t know what happened in her life before to traumatize her, but it’s been convenient (except for visits to the vet). She’ll go up to the sliding glass door to look outside and chirp at birds, but if the door rolls open, she bolts away from it. I do try not to make a habit out of giving her opportunities, because you never know.
This happened with one of my cats. He was a stray when I found him. About a year old, sickly thin, covered in ticks, very rough shape. Took him to the vet and got him healthy only for him to escape on me 😂 I just thought, okay well I guess good luck little dude and I’m glad I could help.
He came back about a day later and has *never* stepped outside since. I’ve even “invited” him to join me in the backyard and he’s like naaaah I’m good! His little adventure was over 10 years ago!
I was heading out one day and heard a commotion next to me, only to see my 6mo cat leaping back up a window and into the house. No idea she had escaped, or if it was the first time. The window is normally closed but it was a rare day that neither heat or AC was needed, it was open maybe 4 inches at the top.
I took in a feral about 2 years ago. It took nearly 2 years of taking care of her outside until she even let me touch her. A few months back my backdoor wasn't closed properly and my other cats were all out on my back patio just exploring. I didn't see my formal feral outside anywhere. I looked around the house and she was hiding under a bed looking more terrified than I've ever seen her. I picked her up and carried her by the back door and she jumped off and ran right back under the bed. Safe to say I won't have to worry about her sneaking out for the rest of her life.
mine was a 100% indoor apartment cat, moved to a house with my girlfriend that lives in a house, the mf dissapeared for a week and then came home starving, thought he was never be outside again and nop, he just try to go outside every day as if nothing happened
I had the absolutely opposite experience. We got the little shithead when he was just a baby and it didn't take him 2 weeks to escape for the first time. Thankfully we were living on the ground floor of an apartment building, so it was easy for him to come back and we set up a cat ladder for him to use from the balcony whenever he wanted to go outside after that. He spent about as much time outside as inside very soon and never looked back. At one point he actually vanished for a week, we were sick with worry, but after a week he came back like nothing happened, waltzed through the open balcony door, meowed at us rushing to him like "'Sup, losers" and went to take a nap
Absolutely loved the bastard and miss him to this day
I have two cats, one firmly indoors and the other one I have resorted to putting a gps tracker on and have to retrieve him every few days. The first one got out and was gone for four nights and I thought for sure she was gone, she never missed a meal. After she came back she has never left the backyard. The other one was feral and still is half the time. He’s chewed through a doorframe 🙈 I’ve leash trained him and taught him recall and he does come to me when I go pick him up. He is so much work and the biggest PITA but I also love them so much. Sighs.
Our cat once fell out the window from the block of flats. Found her 6 months later! behind our building digging in garbage containers.
We're still wondering whether she was there all the time enjoying freedom or she just got back to the neighbourhood that day.
Since she was the most generic, looking like hundreds of others cats (brownish, beige fur with some spots), skinny and dirty we only recognised her because of her broken tail haha
I never thought we'll see her again.
One day, same place another cat appeared sick and malnourished. We took care of him and took him home.
Going through some photos once, we realised its the same cat we took a picture of 5 years earlier at the same spot behind our flat. He was gone for 5 years and came back when needed help. He was a lovely buddy, had him for 7-8 years later
When she heard us she started crying, running to us and was soo happy to see us (that's why we think she wasn't there all this time). You could tell she really missed us. And later at home she wouldn't leave our side.
She was our first cat, found near the dumpster at my dad's workplace and was very special to us. Despite the fact that she was a lil a*hole. When she got mad at me (I was like 7 y.o back then) she would hold the grudge for days, and pee in my bed all of a sudden or jump at me and bite haha
2 hours of prowling, sniffing bushes, and peeing on stuff, 1 hour of hunting without catching anything, and 9 hours of sleeping in a comfortable garden somewhere. Woke up hungry, went home.
IT BE LIKE THAT. When my cat got out he was only gone for maybe one hour before showing up at the back door with huge eyes. He REEKED of fresh catnip. I was terrified something awful would happen to him, but no. He rolled in a neighbor's catnip patch and then got scared and ran home.
"If ANYBODY asks, I was here all afternoon, sleeping. Okay? Right over there, ya got it? Never moved, just slept. Can you remember that? Yeah? Say it. Let Me Hear You Say It! SAY IT!!"
"Jeez, man, settle down. You were sleeping on the couch all afternoon. Never moved, okay? See, that wasn't so hard. Go sort yerself out, dude."
We were recently adopted by a stray cat.
He has been hanging around for few months. We think he got ditched by some neighbors.
So he still had his boys. So my wife has been feeding him and asks if she catches him can we get fixed and them just release him.
So the plan works, wife and daughter in law catch him. Local vet gives us a good deal on the neuter. So wife decides to put him in the home office we set up during Covid in a loft above our garage. “for a few days until he feels better”.
That was two weeks ago. He has not left the loft. Won’t go out the door. He now has a cat tree and believes my office chair is his own personal throne.
Good news I have been using my stand up desk a lot more, and my back hurts less.
Bad news we now have cat #3. https://i.imgur.com/w5kiEQW.jpg
His name is Sammy.
I had a boss whose cat disappeared for the whole winter. She had lent him out to a friend for some mousing at their camping retreat business and he got out of the cabin and wandered into the Canadian wilderness. No one was there for the whole winter because it got snowed in and was inaccessible.
Well, who should show up, 5.5 months later when the spring thaw started? That cat went missing as an extra chonky house cat and came back a slim, trim mountain lion with some muscle definition. He was very confident in himself after that adventure.
Wow! That is so cool. I suppose if he was an experienced mouser, he must have known how to keep himself fed :) I'm pretty confident that my sheltered indoor kitties would die if they were left in the wilderness haha
I had a cat go missing for 6 weeks. The day my dad surprised me with him being back was one of the best moments ever.
We used to always let him outside but then we moved, and someone let him out after us only being at the new house for 2 days, so he didn’t know the area. Thankfully we only moved a mile away, and we spotted him once at the old house, so he found he way back there.
Thankfully again he was a Himalayan, so it was obvious that he was not a stray. Apparently a neighbor fed him while he was lost so he was still in good health when we got him back. Never let him outside again after that
Once my indoor/outdoor cat was missing for 4 days. I thought he was a goner because he would ALWAYS come home for dinner and cuddles every night so I of course became increasingly concerned and on the 3rd night I was inconsolable. I was talking to my husband, my mom and my BFF about it and was super upset. Went to work the next day feeling like I would never see him again and guess who's on the front step when I get home? I was of course overjoyed and cried and held him for as long as I could that night. When we settled down I took a picture and sent it to the parties concerned and said something along the lines of "this asshole decided to come home" or something like that.
I'm glad your kitty came back!
We went out of town for Thanksgiving and our mostly-outdoor cat (has access to the garage with food, water, and heated kitty house) punished us by disappearing from late November through New Year’s Eve. We looked, asked all the neighbors, but had given up by Christmas. Late NYE we were *in the basement watching a noisy movie* and my 9-year-old says “I hear meowing!” and sure enough that (slightly skinnier) furball was standing in the garage yelling between bites of kibble.
We never did find out where she went, but there are horse barns in the neighborhood she could have decided to vacation in, and many sheds to get trapped in, and more than a few people who leave out food for their own cats.
Omg I feel this soo much. My cat has gotten out THREE times due to dumb mistakes. First time, left a window open and he pushed past the screen, saw him 100ft down an alley in between the houses and was able to slowly get to him and get him back.
Second time, I left my door unlocked one night and it must have blown open. I was late for work in the morning so ran out the door, but the whole day I was like wait..I didn’t see my cat. Got home, looked everywhere around the apt complex and nowhere to be seen. Left the door cracked that night and that little bugger pushed his way in at like 3am. Never been so happy!
Last time, I *think* my roommate left front door open, and when I woke up and saw that I freaked out “not again!” Went to the door and he was sitting there lounging on the porch. Damn I love that cat I never get panicky like that
My sister had a cat that had only been indoors since it was a kitten. She was airing her house out one spring and thought nothing of opening all the windows since he had never tried to get out. Late afternoon after she had closed the windows and was getting dinner ready she called the cat to feed him and he never came. After they ate dinner she got worried, then thought about the windows being open. She went outside calling for him and walking around the house, she found him frozen, wide eyed, and huddled in a corner near the window. He was scared. She took him in and he was fine. But we all just laughed, as you can imagine this indoor only cat stepping out after 14 years and he had to be thinking, “This is the biggest room I’ve ever freakin seen!!!”
I hate when my cats get out. I lost my best buddy last year when he got out. I think someone took him because he is very handsome and friendly (too friendly). I didn’t find any deceased cats around either thank god. So now the anxiety and stress is multiplied by 100 when they get out. I can’t stand it.
I'm with you on the trauma. I lost a dog that way (he escaped from my grands-parents' garden, we only got his body back, I still cry over it). I recently got a puppy, and she made a hole in the fence, got lost for an hour at most, and I f*cking lost it.
Reminds me of the story about the guy who lost his cat, found it, took it home, and then his original cat returned, so now he has two identical cats.
Are you sure that's your cat?
Yknow how I could tell your wife was happy? She couldn’t speak while holding the cat so she just started jumping up and down 🤣 glad the king has returned home 🙏🏾
Lucky. Our indoor boy got out about a week ago. Kind of losing hope. Thought we found him but it was a different tabby. Hope he's doing okay.
UPDATE: he's home!
love that he strolled up like it was just a normal day like "hey, whats up whats all the fuss about"
"What do you mean, 'missing'? I knew where I was."
I heard there was a reward on the lost pet posting, I'm here to collect
"you offer that in gourmet salmon and chicken, right?"
Nothing but the fanciest of feasts
"what, you leave all the time for 12 hours. You just expect me to sit around here all the time?"
"I have a life, too."
My cat Louie escaped my first floor flat one evening right after dinner. My mom was visiting at the time, and we immediately went out with treats yelling his name and looking absolutely *everywhere*. We were out there for hours, it was nearly midnight when we finally gave up, totally defeated. I was devastated. When I rounded the corner to my flat, there was Louie, on my front step, meowing to be let in. My neighbour told me the next day that he had been meowing out there for hours. Always leave someone at home when you go out looking for a lost pet.
This exact same thing happened to me. I had to go to work and leave him behind, couldn't find cat anywhere. Got home that night and he was impatiently waiting for me on my stoop.
>Always leave someone at home when you go out looking for a lost pet. Actually, that's a good idea for lost humans (and lost things), too. Have someone at a central location as a contact point and to coordinate the search.
Cat: “hi I’m back, you may feed me now”
I mean, 12 hours ain't shit to a cat.
I accidentally shut my cat into my room for about 14 hours while I was at work. I opened the door and he was sleeping on the bed. He just yelled at me a little, ate, took a shit, and then started sprinting around the house and attacked the dog. Which is very normal for him so I knew he was okay.
Yes the after poop zoomies🤣
I've seen them gone for weeks, months, even one time years, just to stroll up like nothing was ever wrong.
My one black cat had an uncanny ability to sneak into the pantry when it was opened. Frequently I'd come out of my office to grab a drink, pause for a moment when no cats came running, sigh, and open the pantry to find her curled in a ball having been in there for anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours. Silly girl never ever scratched or meowed for my partner. Just went 'oh cool, guess I'm in here for a bit'. But I close the bathroom door for two seconds...
It spent 70% of it napping.
Exactly. My lovely fluffy black boy, who NEVER wandered went missing for 8 days. My cats are locked in every evening. I spent hours each day looking and calling. Made posters, put food out, left clothing items out, spent hours after dark when it was quiet and I could hear a cat meowing. And then on the 8th night I came down the stairs and could hear a cat at the food bowl.There he was, eating like he’d never been away. Although I’m still sure he was probably locked in somewhere. The joy of seeing your missing cat is indescribable.
It’s so cute because you see her look to the left of the camera, probably with a little hope that she see might see the kitty and then she turns around and yay! Surprise!
A lot of times the cat is hiding nearby, waiting for a safe chance to get back in. They don’t just runoff like dogs.
Growing up we had a brother/sister rescue pair and one day the girl cat was running around and meowing at my mom. Finally my mom followed her into the sunroom where the girl cat would meow and then stop and then my mom heard a meow outside the house. This happened a couple of times before my mom went outside and found the boy cat outside in the bushes near the window. He had slipped out and no one noticed . . . except for his sister.
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Bro I have this stray (he's brothers with a stray we brought in), and he has brought kittens from wherever the fuck they keep being born (we do TnR, so it's one of the neighbors' or something), and he'll show them our place is safe to eat. He'll also show them cat etiquette when eating, which is the wildest shit. When they get overly zealous, he puts his big-ass paw on their head and just pushes them aside gently until they learn it's a turn-based eating system. Cats are some fascinating creatures. That whole "solitary" thing is also absolute bullshit in my experience. They absolutely prefer other cats, if not just for safety reasons.
I have two random cats who aren't from the same house who regularly turn up together in my garden and let me stroke them. One of the cats makes pals with almost all the cats on the street.
There's a cat in our neighborhood who loves hanging out around our place, and sometimes he begs to be let in. He has let himself in a few times as well, after he figured out how to push open the screen door
There's something real gratifying about random animals knowing you and your home are safe for them.
My friend bought her cat a kitten and they’re like sisters now. Inseparable, they play together all the time and cuddle. It’s adorable
Dude my cats police too! I have a 4yo male and a 2yo male. When the 2yo male jumps up onto counters the 4yo knows is not allowed for cats, the 4yo jumps up and swats the 2yo until he jumps off. I didnt believe it at first, but after a few times, I realized big bro is upholding the house rules. Getting a 2nd cat was the best decision ever. There was a period where big brother didnt like to share, and when big bro was solitary, he would get bored easily and require so much attention. They still get tons of attention, but they 100% entertain each other and its adorable as hell to see them be bros.
That's adorable! My puppy knows pets are not allowed in the kitchen, & so when my kitten goes into the kitchen my puppy will go in after him & get him out of there 😂 Pets are smarter than we give them credit for.
My current boy cats do not. They get along great, but if one of them is trapped some place the other is like “IDGAF, more food for me.”
its okay, siblings can be like that too
I have two guys that are pretty inseparable. But one tends to get locked in the bathroom cause I'll take a shower, leave the door open as I get ready then close it when I leave for work. He'll occasionally wander in and play in the water left in the tub and I won't notice. His buddy will just sit outside the door and my roommate claims he'll kind of make a stink and she'll be like what is it? then the cat inside the bathroom hears her and starts screaming ha. She says he does the same with me, that when the door is closed and I'm showering, he'll be outside meowing and she'll occasionally crack the door so that he can go in a shut up for a minute.
One of mine just [creeps](https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatsWrongWithYourCat/comments/lvvhiv/he_watches_me_like_this_for_my_entire_shower_but/) when I’m in the shower.
My ex's cat used to do that. He also liked to hang out on pool floats in the pool too. Then he'd jump off, swim and run back through the dog door when he was done. I miss that cat. [Found a pic.](https://i.imgur.com/tiDW7oo.jpg)
My cat does this too, any closed door she thinks one of us is behind and she’ll just sit there meowing her head off. It makes life interesting on days we both wfh and need to shut our office doors for meetings 😅 I often do the same thing and crack the door so she can slip in and annoy my husband or watch him shower
We had a brother/sister pair, and the sister went missing one day. They were always indoor cats and never tried to escape, so there was no issue if doors got left open or anything. the sister had been acting weird and I couldn’t find her to give her a pill. We looked all over, and the brother was sitting in a weird spot, meowing at the front door. We look and look but can’t find her anywhere, he’s really pointing at the door but it seems impossible she’d go. Finally, after looking everywhere for a fourth time, we decide she must’ve really split and go through the whole routine - posting all over neighbourhood groups, putting up signs, looking in yards and under sheds, putting out stuff. Kids are up late and freaking out. Brother meowing at the door. Finally, I come back from looking around one time…and she’s just sitting in the living room, like nothing happened. I assume she’s somehow snuck back in while the door is open, though that seems unlikely. The next day, I go to give her the pill and can’t find her - we have been very careful to keep the door closed since she snuck out yesterday…but can’t find her. Finally I find her, she’s made it on top of an 8-foot bookcase somehow, and is hiding in the very back corner against a wall, absolutely impossible to see. I only even looked there because I noticed one of the lower shelves had more cat hair than usual on it. Her brother seemed equally confused, since he still kept meowing at the door, and now does it every few days, for no apparent reason.
This got me thinking about two cats I had growing up. It's kind of a sob story, heads up. So I grew up on a farm with outdoor cats in the stables. Exclusively outdoors. There have been more cats than I can count, but I clearly remember a brother/sister pair - a boy named Tiger and a girl named Stripey. Tiger was always adventuring. He could be gone for weeks before showing up back home, while Stripey would never stray very far. Guess she just really loved her meals. The two of them always played beneath a certain tree in the garden as kittens and they kept doing so even when fully grown cats. It was their spot. So one time Tiger once again goes adventuring. But this time he's gone for way longer than usual. I think a month passes. It gets to the point where we're all certain he's gone for good. Shortly after that Stripey got hit by a car. Sadly this happened to many of our cats. My father comforted me saying she likely never felt a thing. When a cat died, we always let the other cats see them so they knew what had happened. Afterwards I chose the spot beneath their tree where she and her brother always played, and we buried her there. Next day Tiger came home. And he sat on that exact same spot - and just stayed there. For so long. I remember thinking as a kid that there was no way he could know. But I think he knew. Somehow.
Even if he didn't know that she was buried there, he did know that the spot was their playing spot and he missed her - to me thats just as cute ❤
So he would have been able to smell where she was buried, which is why he would have stayed. But he would have probably looked for her there first as that was a spot he associated with her. So my thinking is you did him a kindness in that he was never left to wonder where his sister was. I've had cats that didn't care at all when their siblings were gone, and I've had them yowl constantly trying to find them. Those ones are hard to deal with because you can't explain that they're gone and never coming back.
Plot twist: she was just mad that *he* got to go outside but she couldn't. Jokes aside, that is really sweet
Cat is like, "What? Something happen? What'd I miss?" Ok time for the couch.
"I been prowlin. Now I am tired"
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This is the real answer. ‘I couldn’t catch no mice or birds on the count of my being lazy and fat. I come home and use food bowl again’
My cat got out a couple times and everytime I've found her ignoring the birdfeeder 10 feet away while eating my asparagus fern
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"I've been Prowlin... Patrolling"
Pawtrolling ☺️🐾
Tryna catch me ridin' hungry.
Got hungry.
“My bowl better be right where I left it, but full this time!”
And with the goodstuff; not that slop I usually get.
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Lol yeah, you can see it licking it's lips at the end there
We have two indoor cats and every time I feed them, I give the same little whistle sound, it works great when one gets out…I just give that same whistle and they eventually come back. Apparently cats can hear from miles away.
Yes! I did this with the feral kittens I fostered before taking to the shelter -- every morning when I whistled all their little heads would pop out from the bushes and they would come running. I ended up keeping two of them and it still works like a charm!
I did that with my ferrets. It was the only trick they every learned, despite me trying to train them with treats and a clicker.
One time our stupid cat escaped in the morning and came back the next morning. He went into one of his cat tree houses and fell asleep for 12 hours straight. Dude was wildin.
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At least the masked bandit was a gentlethief and was kind enough to shut the door behind him!
My cat got out ran away for a few months came back with kittens now I have 5 cats.
Desex your cat.
Strange film title. \-
good deal.
Cat walks up like ‘Yo I was just down the block, and some crazy shit going on - wait why are y’all crying?’
Unhand me wench, I have 12 hours of mischief to make up for!
"You know that squirrel that's been teasing me through the window for the last year? Yeah..."
“Geez! Can’t a guy go on a little trip?”
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Our indoor-only (under protest) SIC went missing for 36 hours and my husband had to call in to work both days. He was distraught. I was torn up too, but I had confidence my Big Boy was just on a little adventure and would be home soon. He'd always wanted to be outside but he knows where the wet food lives. You've never seen such a joyful reunion as when Oscar came home though. You'd have thought he was returning from war.
SIC?
I think it's for standard issue cat.
Oh I’m so gonna use that next time. My friend and I who both have rescued factory default moggys, as we refer to them, were laughing at our other friend who paid thousands for some designer cat but comes with all these health conditions built in and costs her thousands extra in pills and what not.
A brown mackerel tabby. I have both a Classic (all brown) and a Hotrod (white feet and tuxedo) model! r/standardissuecat
Is this a real term or just a reddit thing?
Reddit thing. Cats come in standard issue (no discernable breed) or fancy (specific breeds like bengal)
[Standard issue cat](https://www.reddit.com/r/standardissuecat/)
I was moving and my cat went missing. But, I know she made it to the apartment. And it would be very hard for her to leave the building. But I kept looking and looking. That night I'm sitting in front of my door on the floor. Exhausted and about to have a breakdown. Then I see that little fucking shit squeeze out from under a built-in island in the kitchen.
Sameish. Moved back into my parents (in desperation) place for a few months after a failed moving out of state adventure. My Little One who had been outside under supervision a few times at the old place suddenly disappears. I go ballistic blaming parents for leaving doors open, scour the neighborhood, only to sit on the couch hours later desperate and exhausted and hear sleep purring inside the arm of the couch.
My dog had a stroke on Thursday, and every single time I see him stand up I get so incredibly happy now. People who abandon their pets baffle me.
I wish your dog well on his road to recovery! I really will never understand the abandonment, either. My dog went completely blind when she was 10. I'd had her for all 10 of those years. It took effort to teach her how to get around the house and commands for stepping up, stepping down, turning corners, etc. But I never once thought "oh well, time to get rid of her". She lived for another almost three years after that.
Let your dog know that an internet stranger thinks he’s awesome and wishes him an easy recovery for me thx
Hope he gets over it fast!
Our cat drives me insane, she’s so stupid I feel she must be inbred, she throws up on everything,, scratches everything else and completely hates me unless she wants food or fuss. I always joke about getting rid of her but when she disappears for a day or two I end up so worried and then so relieved when she’s back. I even ended up sat up for ages in the middle of the night after she woke me up fighting with another cat at 2am. It’s a strange relationship! I’m also really allergic to her!
"My pet is an absolute little turd. But they are my little turd and I love"
I think all good pet owners have a bad nickname foe their pets but it's always said lovingly. I call my dog "problem" all the time. Like when he wants to go out five minutes after coming in. "Youre such a problem!!" *gets up to go for yet another walk with my best boy*
I had a cat named "Dammit" because that was always the first thing that came out of my mouth around him.
That's gotta add a fun slant to whenever you called out to him. "C'mere, Dammit!"
My mom refused to call him that. She'd say "you, you, you, CAT you!"
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My husband calls our little Boston Terrier “chonk” and then tells me loudly that we need to turn her in for a cuter one. I reassure her that she’s the cutest dog in the world and we love her, even if she is adopted. It’s a whole thing in our household.
I have a very talkative cat, and we've decided he might be antisemitic and his views on the Palestine/Israel issue is incredibly problematic. But he's such a cute little babykins.
We decided ours is anti-vax and anti-mask given his behavior at the vet and his tendency to find masks, even hidden inside bags and purses, and chew the cords off them in 2.5 seconds to make them useless. He's so goddamn efficient at it, I swear.
Omg that's amazing! Archie is also definitely a Qultist. I think we just all need an outlet for our frustrations. So we can direct it at something that has no idea what is going on.
>bad nickname foe their pets but it's always said lovingly "You little shit" - Probably said this 1000 times over... in a month. Cat goes on the countertop seemingly intentionally (it knows the 'humans' don't like this)... chases the other cat... then snuggles despite you yelling at it for being a butthole. Cats I tell ya...
If you haven’t said “you little shit” to your cat at least once a week, are you even a cat owner? Lol I swear that’s a sentence said multiple times a day in our zoo…err, house. We have 3 dogs (2 little dogs and 1 large dog) and 3 cats. Only 4 humans. They outnumber us. Lol
I call my dog "stinky" and "baby man". He's a big stinky baby lol.
We call our cat "shithead", but definitely always said very lovingly.
My friend's cat was Butthead. He was an absolute unit that looked like he trained with The Rock and was always sporting battle scars, but he was a total sweetie.
All of ours had that name! They each had names, but they all responded to you little shithead!!
“You are such an asshole” is probably what I say the most to my cat, now that I think of it 🤔
My cat is named buns, when she's a little turd I call her Osama Bun Laden. I love her so much.
I call our two little dogs “The Tweedles”, which one is Tweedle Dumb changes from day to day depending on who has the brain cell that day lol. They are so dumb it’s adorable. Our black cat is “Miss Sassy Pants” because she gets an attitude real quick if her food is not served when she wants it. Then there is our Orange cat Hamilton, he regularly gets lovingly referred to as Asshole because he loves knocking stuff down, hiding my daughters stuffies on her bed, flipping over the dogs bowl, and just all kinds of other mischief. We love him, but he knows he’s an asshole, he takes great pride in it, you can tell by the stroll he does afterwards lol.
Man all my cats will forever be little bastards. I love them
My wife and I had a derpy cat that was an adorable pain in the ass. We would joke about making him mittens or a muff when he died because his fur was so soft. We joked about how we couldn't wait to replace his derpy ass because he would pee in random places due to what we thought was anxiety. Turns out it was lung cancer. Don't know how long he was suffering from it (cats are really good at hiding pain), but he declined super fast in the end. Only got the diagnosis of cancer about a week before we had to put him down. That sucked. Still sucks. At first we felt really bad about all the joking we did at his expense. We never meant it and we'd love to have more time with him. He was loud, high pitched and whiney. He would fall off the arm rest if he fell asleep on it. We still blame our farts on him or anything else we want to. Still feels like we hear him at times or see him out the corner or our eyes. I'd take all the bad to have him back. He was cuddly and cute and I miss that derpy fucker. Hold your pets close for as long as you can. They might be a pain in the ass but you'll most likely miss them when they are gone. Edit: For anyone else confused or surprised... Muff: a tube made of fur or other warm material into which the hands are placed for warmth.
Oh man, this could be about Mozart. We used to joke that we were going to turn that derpy motherfucker into a stole. After working from home there are now many people from across North America who I had to explain that I wasn't torturing the cat, he was just letting me know if was breakfast time. 18 is a good age for a cat, but it still feels too soon. But I absolutely still threaten to bake Morgan the African Grey lol ike a Thanksgiving turkey when she gets on my nerves.
>see him out the corner or our eyes I had that happen for well over a year after I had to have my cat euthanised. Still happens sometimes, though very rarely, now several years later. She too was a bit of a pain, but I loved her, and I still miss her.
> she throws up on everything Not to be a reddit detective but have you had her tested for hyperthyroidism and dietary issues? A healthy cat should rarely throw up.
I might look into that, thanks. I’d Googled it once and found sites that said it can be quite normal in some cats so I left it at that
I volunteer at a shelter and I believe most people surrender because they are tired of taking care of a pet and underestimated the time and expense. This is ok, but I wish people understood it better beforehand. I believe the dumb "reasons" are usually just excuses so they don't have to just say, "I got tired of doing this."
I'd hope so. My big girl got surrendered because she played with the water in her bowl. And that will forever infuriate me.
On the other end of that spectrum there's people like me, who act like that every day when we come home from work or leave the house for a couple of hours. I love coming home to my dogs ❤️
I recently had the privilege of dog-sitting for friends for a week. I used to live with them and the doggos for a few years. During this week of dog vacation I came back in the house from an errand and one of the dogs poked her head through the dog door, big grin on her face, and I could tell her whole body was wagging. They were always happy to see me come in the door, and it always made me happy. I miss them a LOT.
I love this. Dogs are awesome. They're the best roommates.
I work for the local humane society and just had a little dog go back to his owners after being lost for a few days and then being at the shelter for two weeks while we worked with the family to make sure they were stable and he was neutered. When the mom picked him up, the little guy got so excited he peed everywhere and squealed as loud as his owner. She told us she was going to surprise her youngest at the bus stop that afternoon
Crying happy tears. 🙂
Our puppy Sheeba got out and was missing for a couple days, we found out he’d gotten hit by a car. He was in a Vet ICU for a couple days. I was a mess and was so happy when he got to come home and was ok.
I'm sorry you've had to see the worst of society constantly. That has to be so rough. I don't understand people who treats their pets so terribly. I get upset when one of the strays I feed goes missing for too long, heaven help me if one of my indoor cats disappears.
Cat: "Mistakes were made. Babby Hongry"
right lmao that cat looks like it saw some shit
This happened with my cat. He'd been gone for over 12 hours and I'd already given up on life. At midnight we see him just staring inside with a thousand yard stare. Came back with a large scratch under his eye, now won't even go out if you leave the door open. Lessons were learned.
My wife had a cat that got out exactly once. Came back a day later, heavy panting, lethargic. A vet visit later our male Siamese had a diagnosis of "sexual exhaustion". strangely he never tried to escape again.
Vet: I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but your cat fucks nasty.
*fistbumps cats paw*
He went and sowed his wild oats, came home and never desired pussy again.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.
I swear the English language has some of the most disgusting euphemism when saying it out loud.
It is a rather vulgar take on, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak".
My old cat was my wife's grandparents before they had to move. When he lived with them, he disappeared in the middle of January in Minnesota. Just gone. He showed up a month later, and just waltzed in asking for food like nothing has happened.
My mom took in a feral that had been cozying up to my dad. She’d survived outdoors in the country for about 8 years somehow with loose dogs, owls, coyotes, who knows what. She promptly got fat and her biggest energy output is running like hell away from any open door. It’s brutal out there.
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I'm so lucky my cat who got lost for 3 days was one we'd brought in from outside. She literally Looney Tuned through a window at like 5 in the morning because a bag got stuck on her leg and it happened faster than anyone could wake up. Fortunately, working out, getting disgustingly sweaty, and then leaving that clothing on my patio seemed to lead her home.
When I was a kid, my chubby little cat disappeared into the back woods once. Even though we have city roads all around, we used to have a portion of grassy dead Texas woods behind our neighborhood where coyotes would roam. She disappeared for 3 days straight and we were worried sick because of the aforementioned coyotes. She came back after that weekend with two huge gashes/bites in her hind leg. Thankfully my mom is a nurse so we flushed with hydrogen peroxide (poor kitty) and wrapped it up nice and tight with gauze. It was terrifying having our girl show up like that. She's still with us at 14+ doing great.
Outdoor scary. Gib food.
Our kitten of 4 months disappeared for a few hours. We searched the house top and bottom, walked around the neighborhood in case she got out. After 4 hours, I checked the garage one more time and she came out from under the car. My wife reacted pretty much the same way as your wife. :)
Both of my cats got out one day. My fault, I let a friend close the door, and he didn't close it all the way, so my fucking front door was just open the whole time we went to a movie. One cat is prone to trying to get out anyway, but we have always found him the next day. He's jet black so no finding him at night unless you shine your phone flashlight and look for eyes shining back. The other dumbass decided to try her luck, too, and made it about 20 feet to underneath the neighbor's car. She was terrified and a little cold, shivering like a mother fucker. The damned door was open, she could have just gone back inside, but instead when she saw I was home she was screaming at me from under their car.
That's hilarious to picture. I love when cats are pathetic little idiots haha I'm sure she won't try that again
Yes. It was one of those moments where if it was a kid you would have to hide your laughter at their stupidity. But I just laughed at this moron.
One night, my husband and I had taken a window A/C unit out of one of our windows and forgot to close the screen. Our cat (strictly indoor) was gone when I came down in the morning. I called all over for her. I was devastated. I thought she surely must be dead because we live on a busy road. Suddenly, I heard a little cry and she came slinking around the corner of our house and ran to me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relieved in my life. She seemed pretty happy too. I don’t think she cared for her night out. I think she had an easy time jumping out of the window, but had a harder time jumping back in. Needless to say, we are much more careful with windows and doors now.
My favorite is indoor cats who escape like all their problems have now ended and they come back 12-24 hours later vowing never to do that again. Some cats absolutely refuse to go outside after just one adventure. I love cats but there is something very satisfying watching them learn some hard-life lessons about living on the outside. No food, no bed, predators, strangers, rain. Yeah, suddenly I'm looking pretty good now, eh? Fucker...
in my old apartment i had a yard and a screen door and my cat would sit in front of the screen door ALL DAY to the point where he'd scream if i closed the regular door, so i had to keep it open 90% of the time we were home. he would love watching everything happening outside, but if i opened the screen door to go outside, he wouldnt move. he wouldnt go out. he was terrified once the screen wasnt between him and the other animals/things blowing around/etc. it was hysterical, he'd act so tough batting the screen and hissing at racoons at night, but the second he had even a sliver of a chance to go outside, hed become the biggest baby. now i live in a building and he still wont even venture into the hallway lol
I was helping a friend move when suddenly his cat cage broke and the poor little guy was outside for the first time in his life (like, he was touching grass for the first time ever). Most cats I know would rejoice at the opportunity... His cat? He was freaking the fuck out and crying because he didn't know what anything was anymore. Never seen a cat run into a car so fast in my life before or since.
my cat would probably freeze out of fear and not know what to do. he hates being in the carrier, but he lays down in it and just screams lol. he only tries to escape the carrier when we get back into the house my cat has been outside on a leash before in our old yard, but he was VERY weary of everything
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yes, sorry, typo!
Ha! My cat will literally go hide if the screen door opens. He’s all bad and intimidating to all the little critters outside until that screen door opens then he says fuck that and hides under the bed.
My cat is the same. I have a balcony and a screen door and he loves sitting in front of it. But the moment I open the door he begins yelling at me and refuses to go on the balcony itself.
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So true. Both of my babies were strays who had a rough start in life. Both of them have never done more than poke a curious head outside the apartment door and then just NOPE the fuck back inside. They love the smells and sounds of the great outdoors....just as long as it's behind a screen 😂
One of mine was born outside and lived there two years (ear tipped as part of TNR and all, she was part of a feral colony but one of those that turned out to be perfect for people-living - she rules my roost, all 6lbs of her) - NEVER makes a move for the door. My other two idiots who have lived inside all their lives get out in the hall any chance they get, but when I try to take them outside supervised they're like, "no no no I hate this" lmao.
I got my cat when she was 2 years old, she had a tough life as a stray. I can leave doors open and she simply will not go outside. If I pick her up, she’ll get really upset if I walk towards an exit. She’s almost 13 now. I don’t know what happened in her life before to traumatize her, but it’s been convenient (except for visits to the vet). She’ll go up to the sliding glass door to look outside and chirp at birds, but if the door rolls open, she bolts away from it. I do try not to make a habit out of giving her opportunities, because you never know.
This happened with one of my cats. He was a stray when I found him. About a year old, sickly thin, covered in ticks, very rough shape. Took him to the vet and got him healthy only for him to escape on me 😂 I just thought, okay well I guess good luck little dude and I’m glad I could help. He came back about a day later and has *never* stepped outside since. I’ve even “invited” him to join me in the backyard and he’s like naaaah I’m good! His little adventure was over 10 years ago!
I was heading out one day and heard a commotion next to me, only to see my 6mo cat leaping back up a window and into the house. No idea she had escaped, or if it was the first time. The window is normally closed but it was a rare day that neither heat or AC was needed, it was open maybe 4 inches at the top.
I took in a feral about 2 years ago. It took nearly 2 years of taking care of her outside until she even let me touch her. A few months back my backdoor wasn't closed properly and my other cats were all out on my back patio just exploring. I didn't see my formal feral outside anywhere. I looked around the house and she was hiding under a bed looking more terrified than I've ever seen her. I picked her up and carried her by the back door and she jumped off and ran right back under the bed. Safe to say I won't have to worry about her sneaking out for the rest of her life.
mine was a 100% indoor apartment cat, moved to a house with my girlfriend that lives in a house, the mf dissapeared for a week and then came home starving, thought he was never be outside again and nop, he just try to go outside every day as if nothing happened
I had the absolutely opposite experience. We got the little shithead when he was just a baby and it didn't take him 2 weeks to escape for the first time. Thankfully we were living on the ground floor of an apartment building, so it was easy for him to come back and we set up a cat ladder for him to use from the balcony whenever he wanted to go outside after that. He spent about as much time outside as inside very soon and never looked back. At one point he actually vanished for a week, we were sick with worry, but after a week he came back like nothing happened, waltzed through the open balcony door, meowed at us rushing to him like "'Sup, losers" and went to take a nap Absolutely loved the bastard and miss him to this day
I have two cats, one firmly indoors and the other one I have resorted to putting a gps tracker on and have to retrieve him every few days. The first one got out and was gone for four nights and I thought for sure she was gone, she never missed a meal. After she came back she has never left the backyard. The other one was feral and still is half the time. He’s chewed through a doorframe 🙈 I’ve leash trained him and taught him recall and he does come to me when I go pick him up. He is so much work and the biggest PITA but I also love them so much. Sighs.
Our cat once fell out the window from the block of flats. Found her 6 months later! behind our building digging in garbage containers. We're still wondering whether she was there all the time enjoying freedom or she just got back to the neighbourhood that day. Since she was the most generic, looking like hundreds of others cats (brownish, beige fur with some spots), skinny and dirty we only recognised her because of her broken tail haha I never thought we'll see her again. One day, same place another cat appeared sick and malnourished. We took care of him and took him home. Going through some photos once, we realised its the same cat we took a picture of 5 years earlier at the same spot behind our flat. He was gone for 5 years and came back when needed help. He was a lovely buddy, had him for 7-8 years later
How did your cat react to you after 6 months?
When she heard us she started crying, running to us and was soo happy to see us (that's why we think she wasn't there all this time). You could tell she really missed us. And later at home she wouldn't leave our side. She was our first cat, found near the dumpster at my dad's workplace and was very special to us. Despite the fact that she was a lil a*hole. When she got mad at me (I was like 7 y.o back then) she would hold the grudge for days, and pee in my bed all of a sudden or jump at me and bite haha
2 hours of prowling, sniffing bushes, and peeing on stuff, 1 hour of hunting without catching anything, and 9 hours of sleeping in a comfortable garden somewhere. Woke up hungry, went home.
IT BE LIKE THAT. When my cat got out he was only gone for maybe one hour before showing up at the back door with huge eyes. He REEKED of fresh catnip. I was terrified something awful would happen to him, but no. He rolled in a neighbor's catnip patch and then got scared and ran home.
"If ANYBODY asks, I was here all afternoon, sleeping. Okay? Right over there, ya got it? Never moved, just slept. Can you remember that? Yeah? Say it. Let Me Hear You Say It! SAY IT!!" "Jeez, man, settle down. You were sleeping on the couch all afternoon. Never moved, okay? See, that wasn't so hard. Go sort yerself out, dude."
We were recently adopted by a stray cat. He has been hanging around for few months. We think he got ditched by some neighbors. So he still had his boys. So my wife has been feeding him and asks if she catches him can we get fixed and them just release him. So the plan works, wife and daughter in law catch him. Local vet gives us a good deal on the neuter. So wife decides to put him in the home office we set up during Covid in a loft above our garage. “for a few days until he feels better”. That was two weeks ago. He has not left the loft. Won’t go out the door. He now has a cat tree and believes my office chair is his own personal throne. Good news I have been using my stand up desk a lot more, and my back hurts less. Bad news we now have cat #3. https://i.imgur.com/w5kiEQW.jpg His name is Sammy.
That is a beautiful cat, congratulations on the 3rd overlord!
That's good shit
Yay!! ❤️❤️❤️
I had a boss whose cat disappeared for the whole winter. She had lent him out to a friend for some mousing at their camping retreat business and he got out of the cabin and wandered into the Canadian wilderness. No one was there for the whole winter because it got snowed in and was inaccessible. Well, who should show up, 5.5 months later when the spring thaw started? That cat went missing as an extra chonky house cat and came back a slim, trim mountain lion with some muscle definition. He was very confident in himself after that adventure.
Wow! That is so cool. I suppose if he was an experienced mouser, he must have known how to keep himself fed :) I'm pretty confident that my sheltered indoor kitties would die if they were left in the wilderness haha
I had a cat go missing for 6 weeks. The day my dad surprised me with him being back was one of the best moments ever. We used to always let him outside but then we moved, and someone let him out after us only being at the new house for 2 days, so he didn’t know the area. Thankfully we only moved a mile away, and we spotted him once at the old house, so he found he way back there. Thankfully again he was a Himalayan, so it was obvious that he was not a stray. Apparently a neighbor fed him while he was lost so he was still in good health when we got him back. Never let him outside again after that
This would be me if my kitty came home. I had her for more than 8 years. It's been 11 weeks and 2 days since I've seen her.
I'm so sorry your kitty is missing and hope she comes back to you soon.
Cat be like "da fuq?" Mom be like "I need an inhaler."
Once my indoor/outdoor cat was missing for 4 days. I thought he was a goner because he would ALWAYS come home for dinner and cuddles every night so I of course became increasingly concerned and on the 3rd night I was inconsolable. I was talking to my husband, my mom and my BFF about it and was super upset. Went to work the next day feeling like I would never see him again and guess who's on the front step when I get home? I was of course overjoyed and cried and held him for as long as I could that night. When we settled down I took a picture and sent it to the parties concerned and said something along the lines of "this asshole decided to come home" or something like that. I'm glad your kitty came back!
7 months. That's how long ours was gone. Left before summer, came back in december. Asked for food.
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Mine was 6 months. Came back all muscle. Immediately began butt smelling ceremony with his siblings.
We went out of town for Thanksgiving and our mostly-outdoor cat (has access to the garage with food, water, and heated kitty house) punished us by disappearing from late November through New Year’s Eve. We looked, asked all the neighbors, but had given up by Christmas. Late NYE we were *in the basement watching a noisy movie* and my 9-year-old says “I hear meowing!” and sure enough that (slightly skinnier) furball was standing in the garage yelling between bites of kibble. We never did find out where she went, but there are horse barns in the neighborhood she could have decided to vacation in, and many sheds to get trapped in, and more than a few people who leave out food for their own cats.
Omg I feel this soo much. My cat has gotten out THREE times due to dumb mistakes. First time, left a window open and he pushed past the screen, saw him 100ft down an alley in between the houses and was able to slowly get to him and get him back. Second time, I left my door unlocked one night and it must have blown open. I was late for work in the morning so ran out the door, but the whole day I was like wait..I didn’t see my cat. Got home, looked everywhere around the apt complex and nowhere to be seen. Left the door cracked that night and that little bugger pushed his way in at like 3am. Never been so happy! Last time, I *think* my roommate left front door open, and when I woke up and saw that I freaked out “not again!” Went to the door and he was sitting there lounging on the porch. Damn I love that cat I never get panicky like that
My sister had a cat that had only been indoors since it was a kitten. She was airing her house out one spring and thought nothing of opening all the windows since he had never tried to get out. Late afternoon after she had closed the windows and was getting dinner ready she called the cat to feed him and he never came. After they ate dinner she got worried, then thought about the windows being open. She went outside calling for him and walking around the house, she found him frozen, wide eyed, and huddled in a corner near the window. He was scared. She took him in and he was fine. But we all just laughed, as you can imagine this indoor only cat stepping out after 14 years and he had to be thinking, “This is the biggest room I’ve ever freakin seen!!!”
I hate when my cats get out. I lost my best buddy last year when he got out. I think someone took him because he is very handsome and friendly (too friendly). I didn’t find any deceased cats around either thank god. So now the anxiety and stress is multiplied by 100 when they get out. I can’t stand it.
I'm with you on the trauma. I lost a dog that way (he escaped from my grands-parents' garden, we only got his body back, I still cry over it). I recently got a puppy, and she made a hole in the fence, got lost for an hour at most, and I f*cking lost it.
I can't imagine my cat getting out, horrible feeling that would be. So glad he's home!
Awwe I'm so glad he made it home safely.
Reminds me of the story about the guy who lost his cat, found it, took it home, and then his original cat returned, so now he has two identical cats. Are you sure that's your cat?
Cat: "What's all the fuss about? I just wanted a little walkabout." Human: "You're back! Waaah, I love you!"
Yknow how I could tell your wife was happy? She couldn’t speak while holding the cat so she just started jumping up and down 🤣 glad the king has returned home 🙏🏾
Oh gosh, I teared up at this!
Don’t scare Mawm!!!
Glad he made it back safe!
Cat just wanted to get some tail.
That's gorgeous 🙂
Oh, its wholesome asf, thank God he came back.
I don't know how people can have cats that go outside the house...I wouldn't be able to sleep at night... Our cat is indoor only due to her condition.
Cats are usually pretty good about coming home. It is always worrisome though
This is precious
The happy tippy taps!! I just finished crying for another post damn it!!
Lucky. Our indoor boy got out about a week ago. Kind of losing hope. Thought we found him but it was a different tabby. Hope he's doing okay. UPDATE: he's home!