An awful night

[Primrose]

PS Next time, tell him he gets an ASBO and bread and water when he returns. instead of the Conquering Hero welcome !

[Suzie]

...he gets an ASBO...

and tagged!!

[Chantal]

I'd like to GPS tag him then at least I'd know where he was.

As for cracking a large bottle, I may well do that tonight, assuming I don't fall asleep first.

I'm sorry to hear about you losing your cat like that Primrose, it must have been awful. It's the not knowing that's so hard. If they die, you bury them, you grieve and you move on.

Anyway, moving on is what I must do now, once I've stopped grinning like an idiot

[Primrose]

Yes, it was the uncertainty of not knowing which was horrible, especially as he went missing the day before Christmas Eve so I had a thoroughly wretched Christmas. But actually I think I know what DID happen to him. He'd taken a fancy to lurking on the roof of a distant neighbour's racing pigeon coop. Somebody told me that he used to jump off the roof, ambush them and catch them as they flew in. A neighbour told me that the owner had threatened to shoot that bl**dy black cat if ever he caught him as his birds were valuable. Unknown to me, our cat had been bringing them home to finish them off in my potting shed area. I only discovered this much later when I cleared it out and discovered a pile of old feathers and some little ID rings. I'd no idea what type of birds they were. I sent them to the RSPB who said "Not ours" and sent them on to the Racing Pigeon Association, with the name and address of the lady who supplied them so that they could notify the owner.
So of course the Racing Pigeon owner was provided with a perfect identity of the culprit and where he lived.
So I'm absolutely certain that he DID shoot my cat but I'll never be able to prove it. This was a cat who had fought a fox and won, jumped into a river at our previous house to catch a water vole and come out with it in his mouth, and arrived home with a moorhen which he'd caught. He was a holy terror, but he was as gentle as a kitten with me so I was devastated when he disappeared. I just couldn't bring myself to go round to the pigeon owner and enquire about his fate. I might have ended up with a huge bill for the death of his valuable racing pigeons.

So count yourself lucky that your errant creature probably didn't even kill a mouse on his boy's night out !!

[Geoff]

To paraphrase - He's not the prodigal son, he's a very naughty boy.

[glallotments]

Glad he's back. Tell him he's grounded!

[Elle's Garden]

Sorry I missed this news Chantal, but I am very glad he is back for you. I trust you had a good night sleep last night . I must say your obvious joy and relief at having him back brought a tear to my eye too - we had cats all my life until I married a Game keeper so I remember the agony and joy they can bring!

[pongeroon]

So glad he's back Chantal.

When an animal disappears its the not knowing what happened thats the worst thing. And the dreams that they have come back, and waking to find they havent.

We had a 999 call to a lady whose cat had gone outside, for all of half an hour. She was distraught, and tried to get us to go and look for it (not really in our job remit!). We tried distract her by getting her to make tea but she refused to move off her bed. After about half an hour of distress (for all of us!!) we heard the catflap open; Millie walked in, saw us all sitting in a row on the bed staring at her with our mouths open, gave us a look of total contempt (as only a cat can) and almost said "What?".

[goldilox]

Chantal, so pleased he came back OK and in one piece, albeit minus one or two lives maybe
My cat never misses a meal, so if he disappeared for even part of a day I would be worried. He once got himself stuck inside one of our little turrets (if you can call them that!) before we renovated it. He'd managed to scale the wall and get inside, but then couldn't get out again. Hubby had to get a ladder, climb to the top, lower the ladder down the other side and get him out that way - he wasn't very pleased as I got him out of bed to do it

[Catherine]

I am really glad your have got your cat back Chantal. I have never had cats only dogs and not even that now. But I know how attached you can get to them. Hope he doesn't do it again.