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