Have you tried putting the litter box outside?
My old cat escaped a couple times and always managed to get herself lost. The vet recommended putting the litter box out. His theory is a lost cat will recognize a familiar smell before a familiar sight.
Hope your kitty comes back soon.
Hey, margin, does it look like someone is eating the cat food that’s outside? Sometimes cats that get out are too scared to come when you call. He could be somewhere very near by, terrified to move.
You might want to try setting out a trap (you can rent them from your local humane society for only a few dollars) with stinky food in it (like tuna, or something your kitty adores). Some people have real success with this. Put it near whatever door he escaped from.
I once had a 10 year old cat with arthritis and cancer turn up after escaping. I wish you the best of luck.
Oh, God, I hadn’t thought about that! I’ll do it right away!
First, let me add to the chorus of “thanks, man.” I mean it. More than I can say.
And that sucks the big hairy one about the cat. Eons ago our in/outdoor cat climbed into a dim-witted visitor’s car in the evening. The doddering old fool got several blocks away before realizing there was a cat in the car, upon which he stopped and put the poor thing out on the side of the road and drove off. We discovered this a couple days later after calling everyone who had been at the house.
We put up signs all over the neighborhood offering a reward for her safe return. My goodness! I had no idea there were so many Siamese cats in the neighborhood! We had kids bringing them to us from all over. “Nope, not mine. Better give her back.” Finally, when we had given up all hope, and my husband had gone into town to play pool and drown his sorrows, a scruffy youngster appeared at the door and insisted our cat was at his house, but he wanted to see the money first. Sure enough, Kitza was huddled up in the bushes by the little money-grubber’s house. She was really, really hungry, and had a cold, but recovered and lived to be an old lady.
I hope your story has a similarly happy ending, and I know we’re all sending virtual hugs your way.
Man, margin, your OP almost brought me to tears. I have three sisters. The one I’ve always been closest to lost my cat in Buffalo, NY, and did absolutely nothing to find him. I had to find him myself, from Chicago. When I did, he was put on a plane by a generous stranger and needed $400 in vet care, due to injuries he’d sustained. My sister had acted exactly like your exfriend, telling me I had no right to be angry that the she hadn’t even left word at the motel where she’d lost him to notify her if the cat showed up. And she refused to even split the cost of the flight and the vet. It escalated to the point where we haven’t spoken to each other in eight years.
I hope you find your cat: my sister’s attempt to console me with the fact that there were some decent restaurant dumpsters in the neighborhood notwithstanding, for the couple months it took to find him all I could think of was my cat, alone and afraid and hungry, in a strange place. I hope yours is found soon.
FWIW, I’m an extremely experienced and trustworthy cat/housesitter. Depending on your location (I work from home, so I’m relatively flexible on that account) I’d be happy to help you out if you have trouble finding someone else.
margin, kick that bitch out now. Have as much care for her as she did for you. Put her out on the street if you have to, so she can see how your kitty feels. There must be some way to get rid of her, unless you had a written agreement or a lease, which might take you a week to be rid of her.
Do it now. Do it for yourself. Do it for cat lovers everywhere.
Do it so this self-entitled “it’s all about me” generation will get a reality nudge.
Actually, you’d be doing her a favor in the long run, but don’t tell her that.
Keep your head down brother. It’s another fucked-up war our country got us into, so watch your six and come home whole.
Best of luck. I know the pain.
Kick her ass out and send her to Iraq.
Kick her ass out, send her to Iraq, and then lose her kid!
If we ever meet, I’d like to shake your hand. Thanks.
Check out Tuckerfan, he found a kitty.
margin
Of course this is going to hit you hard. For one, you came home expecting to relax. In Iraq, you expect shit to happen. Here you expectations and your reality are different. Plus I’m sure some of the emotions that you are having are sort of ‘saved up’ from your time in Iraq.
The suggestions for finding your cat sound good. I hope they work.
BTw What is your cat’s name?
Exactly. Which is why you should show no remorse in putting her out on her ass.
Good luck both in Iraq and with your cat.
I don’t know you margin, but it sounds like you deserve better than you’ve been getting. Especially considering you’re putting your neck on the line. Hope it gets better for you.
margin , I hope you find your kitty and stay safe in Iraq…and thank you 
So let me get this straight… you ditched your SO over your ‘kitty?’
:eek: :smack:
Dude, you really have some serious issues, and I get the feeling that your story is not entirely truthful. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that at best you have some emotional issues, and at worst you’re a wife beater like a many soldiers. While she doesn’t sound like a great person and it’s a shame about your cat, I find it disconcerting that you constantly refer to her as ‘bitch’ and seem to expect some kind of special treatment for what you went through in Iraq. And I’m not saying that what happened to you over there was a good thing, but it was your choice to be there after all- it’s not like someone forced you to join the army, right?
Reading comprehension is not your strong suit, eh? It’s his best friend/house sitter’s babysitter who let the cat out.
Dude, YOU have some reading comprehension issues.
First, Margin is a she. And it was not her SO, but a friend she asked to cat sit.
Second, she just came back from putting her life on the line for her country (thanks, btw, Margin-stay safe!) to find her friend lost her cat and didn’t even care enough to look for him, and just shrugged it off!
Fuck you.
Margin, I’m so sorry. I hope you find your baby. If someone lost one of my cats, I’d fucking kill.
Spoilsbury, what the fuck?
Can you possibly make any more insulting assumptions about the OP in one post?
Bad form.
margin, thanks for your service and good luck to you! Sorry your leave is so messed up. I’ve had kitties wander, but all of them (with the exception of one feral kitty I adopted) came back.
Nah, Apricot, he can read allright. He just saw “soldier” and “Iraq” and decided it gave him free rein to be an obnoxious little twit. I’d call him what he is, but darned if I’m getting banned for the likes of that.
"Margin, me and Ember send good kitty finding vibes, prayer and hugs and a purr.
Hang in there.
Uh, asshole? Fuck off. I’m female, and my best friend was supposed to do ONE FUCKING THING while I was in Iraq. She doesn’t pay rent, she doesn’t do shit, and that was all I asked her. I know other people have asked you this, so I’m really curious as to whether or not you’ll have the balls to show up here again. If you don’t think going through this war entitles someone to some recognition, then fuck you. Also? I’m a Reservist, but thanks to Bush and company, Reservists are serving more time than Regular Army, and we can’t get out. They also didn’t pull this stunt till after they’d started the war. No matter; I volunteered to go, because for a while at least I believed in what they said. Now I know they’re lying. I laid my life on the line for lies, and all for a bunch of draft-dodging chicken hawks.
So fuck you again, for not reading, and for being so completely clueless. Learn how to read, you asshole, and try to learn how to think.
Fuckwit.