Our cat came home after being gone 54 days.

[surgtech1956]

Just had to share. We went on vacation July 7th and on the 9th a raccoon chewed through a screen and got into the house - a friend of mine looks after the 'crew'(7 cats) while we're away. Three cats got out - the biggest male was stuck in the screen, got 2 back, but Murray(2 1/2 yo male tiger) was missing, we thought he was hiding in the house, no Murray. We looked out in the woods behind us, no sign of him, checked with the neighbors, even went door to door on the next road, checked at the animal shelter, every 4 days, put an ad in the paper, no Murray. We thought he was either dead or found a new home. He is a big baby, went and hid went we ran the vaccum. Well 2 weeks ago, Sunday night, I'm on the couch with my laptop, DGF is packing up some Ebay stuff in the kitchen, I hear a cat meowing outside, one of our cats in the window, I go outside and its Murray, runs towards the back to the woods - its 11pm - called DGF to bring cat food, cat nip, finally get him, but as we're bringing him up the porch steps, he freaks, we get bit - a trip to the ER for the bites, just to be on the safe side. We put Murray in the garage to calm down, he's thin, he ate like a pig and drank tons of water, hid quite a bit the first day and a 1/2. We bring him back into the house after a week, took him to the vet, checked out find - weighed 9#. All is happy. He was gone 54 days, we think he was probably just hiding in the woods, maybe in the next door neighbors garage(its like a junk yard and they don't live there during the summer). Don't know why he decided to come home that day, except that we were outside more than usual. Just wanted to share this with all of the animal luvers here. This is Murray

[badgercat]

I'm glad to hear he found his way back after all that time. Welcome home, Murray!

[Eden]

Wow - that's amazing. Good for him finding his way home again. I find it interesting how cats seem to get temporary amnesia.... my Koji, who is an indoor only cat, once got out through a hole, basically in our foundation... was only out for one night, but treated us like dangerous strangers for 1/2 a day. He came back in through the hole he exited from - which we promptly boarded up tight. We knew exactly where he was and even coaxed him out once. I got a hold of him and everything, but yup as soon as I tried to move towards the house he totally freaked. I did not get bitten, but he thrashed around and gave me a pretty good scratch on my nose.

[invsblwmn]

So happy that your Murray came home. A similar thing happened to my friend's sister. They lived next to a wooded area. They caught their cat in a humane trap about a week after he went missing. He was crazed, trying to scratch and bite anyone that got near. They thought he might be sick so they took him to the vet. Turns out their neutered male miraculously became intact again. They had caught a feral cat that wasn't theirs. Their cat came home two days later like nothing was wrong. $250 later, that feral cat had all of its shots, got neutered, and sent back to the wild. All's well that ends well, I guess.

[wackyjacky1]

I love happy endings!

I'm going to have to tell this story to a co-worker of mine -- her cat went missing a couple of weeks ago, and she's pretty much given up hope.

[makbike]

Glad this story had a happy ending. Hope the bite wounds have healed. Murray looks like a wonderful furry friend.

[chicago]

wow... that's incredible!!... and he remembered his home!!

Was he an outdoor or indoor cat?... I'm just curious.

I always have that fear that one day Sampson will jump from the balcony and then I wonder if he'd ever make it back home. He's an indoor cat but I let him out on the balcony where he loves to lay in the sun and chatter at the birds I'm on the 3rd floor condo... he probably wouldn't jump, but you never know.

Congrats on Murray coming back home... that's an awesome story

[Biciclista]

I love cats coming back home stories. What I know from years of missing cats, they don't go far, and if they can, they'll come back.

I especially enjoyed the story about the mistaken identities here.

In my life, i have been very fortunate. Lots of my cats have gone missing, but we've found them all (or they came back home!)

[lph]

Aw, great cat Gotta love that way they take care of themselves. My in-laws had a cat who disappeared from their cabin in the mountains and was luckily found almost 3 months later, right before winter set in.

Heh. When I was a child we had a grey cat suddenly turn up and precociously try to come right into the house. We chased him away, had enough cats of our own and figured some other cat owner would be missing him. He tried several times, until it suddenly dawned on me that he did look a little familiar. It was our orange cat Bailey who had been rolling around in some grey ashes, and couldn't understand why we wouldn't let him in. Poor guy, he was a bit paranoid from before, this didn't help.

[Tuckervill]

I'm glad your cat came home.

I had a cat named Cooler the First. I was single living in Little Rock, and he disappeared while I was planning my wedding and getting ready to move to Nashville. He was gone for 3 months and we didn't think we'd ever see him again. He was known for making himself at home on other people's front steps (I got phone calls), so I figured he found another family.

On moving day, I heard my mother say, "Guess who's here?" There he was, sitting on his favorite chair, in the back of the moving truck! We moved twice in Nashville, and he frequently went back to our old house several miles away. I guess he liked it better over there.

Cooler the Second leaves town whenever I do and only comes back a few days after I return.

And my dad buried my "dead" cat once, and he came back to life, just like Tulip's.

Karen

[NoNo]

Welcome home, Murray!