My wife and I have to move to a smaller place that would only allow 2 of our three cats. We initally though of adopting out 2 of them and keeping our middle cat, who wouldn’t adapt to new owners at all. But I was told that our oldest, TC, would be hard to adopt, since he was 8. So we decided to keep TC and his “brother”, Othello.
TC had been marking on and off for the last couple of years. Our vet suggested (as a last resort) giving him traquilizers. So together with the move, we hoped we could break him of his spraying. I took him back to the vet, since she had to check his blood and urine again to make sure he could handle the drug. All together, $138 dollars, which included exam, blood test, urine test, pills, and a second cat carrier.
After his appointment, my wife and I took over a load of stuff and TC. We initially let him loose just in the back bathroom, but then decided to let him out to explore the apartment. But as I was shuttling stuff in, he somehow slipped out. (It’s a garden-style apartment, so he was immediately outside.)
My wife told me she couldn’t find him. I thought he was just hiding well. But after a thourough search, I concluded that he did indeed slip out. Our new dog-owning neighbors didn’t see him, but he could’ve easily gone out the other direction. We looked around quite a bit, but ne was nowhere to be found.
So I just spent $138 to keep a cat that ran away 15 minutes after he got to our new home.
Sorry to hear that AWB. My cat did roughly the same thing when we moved. He pretty much went nuts. Starting spraying, acting weird (or at least weirder than normal for a cat). He even crawled out of the room we had him locked in at night, through a hole in the wall ment for ventilation. Did I mention the hole was approx 8 feet off of the ground? There were some boxes under it, but it was easily 5 or 6 feet he had to clear.
Eventually he did wind up running away, much like in your case. He was gone for a good two months in the dead of winter (during which the temp went down to -30C several times) until one day he just showed up at our front door again. That was about two years ago, and he’s never left after that.
So, while it may be gone now, there is a chance that it will return. Cats are nothing if not tempermental, with an emphasis on the mental part.
AWB remember to check at your old place for him. He may not have approved of the move. Put up posters at both old and new places. One of my kitties slipped out the door on me, stayed away for like a week, strolled back one day…
Years ago I had a litter of feral kittens that I tamed & found homes for. (Well I mean mama cat had them…not me…) One of them went to a home six miles away. A week later he was back at our house! How do cats do this?
A newly discovered chapter in the Book of Genesis has provided the answer to “Where do pets come from?”
Adam and Eve said, “Lord, when we were in the garden, you walked with us every day. Now we do not see you anymore. We are lonesome here and it is difficult for us to remember how much you love us.”
And God said, “No problem! I will create a companion for you that will be with you forever and who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will
accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourselves.”
And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve.
And it was a good animal.
And God was pleased.
And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve and he wagged his tail. And Adam said, “Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.”
And God said, “No problem. Because I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG.”
And Dog lived with Adam and Eve and was a companion to them and loved them.
And they were comforted.
And God was pleased.
And Dog was content and wagged his tail. After a while, it came to pass that an angel came to the Lord and said, “Lord, Adam and Eve have become filled with pride. They strut and preen like peacocks and they believe they
are worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught them that they are loved, but perhaps too well.”
And God said, “No problem! I will create for them a companion who will be with them forever and who will see them as they are. The companion will remind them of their limitations, so they will know that they are not always worthy of adoration.”
And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam and Eve.
And Cat would not obey them.
And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat’s eyes, they were reminded that they were not the supreme beings.
And Adam and Eve learned humility.
And they were greatly improved.
And God was pleased.
And Dog was happy.
And Cat didn’t give a shit one way or the other.
Our oldest kitty, Silky, had been with the family since I was a child. We had to move a few times during those years and we always had her with us. All the moves didn’t seem to bother her much, except for the second to last one. I had just turned 15, we drove from New York to Illinois to meet Dad at a wedding. He had gone on ahead to Louisiana to his new job and secured us a place to live. After the wedding, while Dad was driving us down to our new home, Silky tried to jump out the window. Good thing it was closed!
There was nothing in the apartment except 3 boxes in the kitchen.
We left that night wondering if he’d be found. He had tags with our old number, but that number would be disconected.
The next time my wife went out there, there he was. He had hidden behind the washer and dryer somehow. I say somehow, because he’s a big cat (14 lbs) and (I didn’t think) agile enough to jump down there without making much noise.
I’m glad he’s OK, but he’s still a stupid cat. :D:D
Feline physics.
Cats seem to have their own branch of physics that allows them to hide in plain sight. There isn’t a cat owner in the world that can’t recount a time when they searched for their cat only to find them in a spot that they’d already checked thoroughly.
