Will he come back?

At the end of last summer, I began feeding a stray that came knocking on our door. A couple of months later, we bought a house and moved. I trapped "Smokey" at our old home and brought him to our new home. I set him up in a large dog crate in our backyard. I looked up information on moving a stray on Alley Cat Allies' website. I followed their directions, contacted my local shelter and got Smokey neutered through the TNR program. When it came time to release Smokey, the blizzard was coming and I could not let him go into the bad weather. I moved his crate into to my shed where he was safe and warm.

Soon after I moved him into the shed, Smokey became less scared of me even to the point where he let me pick him up. He seemed to really be sweet and trusting. I even him brought him inside my home for short period of time. I have cats and a large dog and he met them all. I did not want to keep him inside until I was able to get him tested so I'd be sure it was safe to eventually mingle with all my cats. The last day he was inside, I let him back out, left the shed and crate open for him, put out food for him and later went out to the shed to bring him his nightly warming disk. I did not see him - and I never have again. I'm so sad he's gone. It's been nearly a month since I've last seen him. I've left food out, but it seems that the squirrels have been at it. There is a litterbox in the crate and it was used once since that last night I saw him. I did find a neighbor's cat in the shed so it could have been that kitty. There's been no trace of him. Have not seen him in the yard or has he come to the door looking for food. I was able to get a collar and ID on him and I have not gotten any calls about someone finding him.

If I keep leaving food out, will he comeback? Did he try to go back to the old neighborhood, five miles away? I know I did everything I could including getting him neutered. I just got attached to him and I miss him a lot.

Yeah it is a dilemma.

I had witnessed here some cases of good rescues, where the cat did disappeared when he got the chance. No clue after himher either...

So apparently it happens. It doesnt need to be a coyote or a villain... Thanks God.


In your case, did you hang up messages "Lost" at your old place?
If not, do it. He may be there.
It may be worth a shot.



Good luck!

Originally Posted by StefanZ

Yeah it is a dilemma.

In your case, did you hang up messages "Lost" at your old place?
If not, do it. He may be there.
It may be worth a shot.

Click to expand...

That's a good idea....you may want to spend some time back at your old place, just to see if he has gone back.

Good luck. It's heartbreaking to lose a kitty, even if he was a former stray. He has captured your heart. I hope you can find him.

I can check back in the old neighborhood, which is about five miles away. I don't know how he would get there alive - there are major roadways with a lot of traffic. I wish I had not let him roam that night. I originally had intentions of just releasing him before we got attached. At least he is neutered so if he does survive, he won't be reproducing any more kittens.

Please try and go back to your old place. Last year I was able to finally bring inside a stray cat that I had been feeding for almost 2 years. It was an office park where my husband worked. In August they moved and decided to take the cat with them. After 1 week he got out and was gone. I was devastated, we looked all over, walked the neighborhood and spoke with everyone we possibly could, contacted businesses, offered rewards.

Someone on this site suggested that I go to the old office. It was over 4 miles away and crossed 2 very busy roads. Not to mention a very busy railroad with constant trains. But to my amazement, he was there!! He had never been to the new place before but he found his way from there to the old place.

I made another mistake by taking him back to the new office again, and within 2 days he got out the front door, ran into the path of a car and kept running. But 5 days later, he was at the old office again! Needless to say, he is now here with me at my home and as content as can be.

I don't have any idea how he did it, I know I prayed for his safe return and my prayer was answered. They are amazing creatures, don't give up on him.

I truly hope he comes back to you.

i just want to say I took care of a stray with 12 other ferals for a few months - he was so friendly and loving and one day took off. After awhile I started to mourn his death - since i assumed thats what happened.

14 months later.... he came back!!!! It took me a few days before i even realized it was him (i forgot what he looked like) PLUS I thought he was dead and after that long COULDNT believe it was him.

Of course i have no clue where he even went - but he did come back. So it can happen and if it doesnt..... maybe someone else is caring for him!!

PS... As of this week hes currently living with me.

Thanks for everyone's replies. I did go back to the old neighborhood to look, but I did not see him. He usually showed up between 5-6pm at the back door and I was only able to go look a little earlier in the day. I was not able to go on the property because that would be trespassing. It's a really rural type of neighborhood and there is no way someone would not see me and recognize me on the property. My former landlord lives two houses over from the place and he would see my lurking around for sure. I think he is doing work to the place in order to sell it and no one is living there.

I'm hoping that he's hiding somewhere in our new neighborhood. I've talked to some of the neighbors to keep a eye out for him. It was still very cold and lots of snow around when he disappeared. It's starting to warm up and I'm hoping he'll be back around. Been such a hard month, first he goes then another of my cats died. Not a good start to my year.

I hope that you find your rescue kitty If he's trying to go back to the old place, it may take him awhile
I once had a friend who lost a cat that had spent 2 weeks at my mom's house when the cat was very young, only half grown. Anyway, the friend divorced & moved and then moved again. During the final move, when the cat was 11, she escaped and disappeared. Lo and behold, about 4 years later, she appeared at my mom's house!!! She was a long-haired calico with very distinctive markings. My friend had moved to Montana, but her ex was still in town & remarried and had become a Christian, and had little girls, so the cat went back to him, but he was a much better, sober man than when she had lived with them before. She lived to be over 19 yrs!!! Anyway, who knows where she'd been - she had to travel over 10 miles from where she escaped, through cattle pastures and desert, among very, very rural country abundant with coyotes, owls, bobcats & mountain lions. So ever since then, I've always held out hope

Definitely don't give up looking for him! One of my cats ran away for 3 months once, and ever since that happened I tell people to NEVER quit looking! (and I know some other people just responded with stories of cats missing even longer than that.)

Did you put up signs in your new neighborhood and your old neighborhood? (I skimmed this topic pretty fast so if you already mentioned that you did - sorry!)

When Moses ran away it was horrible, but it did actually renew my faith in people somewhat. I came home late one night and he just bolted out the door. It took no more than 30 seconds for him to completely disappear into the swamp behind our house. My husband and I spent the entire night looking for him with no luck. The next day we put up signs all over the place and then went door to door to every single house in every neighborhood surrounding us, putting flyers in doors and mailboxes. I was shocked at how many people actually read the flyers and called us! We got several people who had seen a cat who looked like it fit the description we had left, but no one had caught him, and a few people described a cat that definitely wasn't him. But even so, the fact that people actually read and paid attention to our flyers made me more hopeful!

3 months to the day went by. My husband is in the Navy and we were getting ready for a cross country move. I still hadn't given up, but as I realized that we were about to move and there really wasn't a feasible way for me to stay behind, I started to force myself to accept the fact that we would never see him again. It was hard, but I did reach a point where I realized that we were leaving, my cat was gone, and there was nothing more that I could do.

Then one day, early in the morning I got a phone call. Everyone who had read our flyers started off their calls with something along the lines of "I saw a cat that sort of looked the way you described", but this guy started with "I have a cat here named Moses..." and I practically burst into tears. Just hearing that first line was such a wonderful feeling because I knew right away that it really was him! We had a collar and tag on him, but he had pulled it off so many times at home that it never even occurred to me that he might still have it on. It turns out that this guy had never even seen our flyers, but Moses had wandered into a construction site 5 miles away from us and this guy had spent about 2 weeks trying to coax him closer so he could read the tag that he could see him wearing.

So my point is - don't give up!! Put flyers out, talk to people...anything can happen!! I honestly never thought I would see Moses again, and suddenly, a good person found him and made the effort to read his tag and call us. It still makes me cry happy tears when I think about that now . We moved 2 weeks later with all of my cats.

I will keep you in my prayers...I know how hard it is to lose a cat by running away, but I also know that they DO come back sometimes! Good luck...I hope you have a happy ending

Edited to add: I should also mention that Moses was a stray born to a feral mother. The woman caring for his colony always found homes for the friendly ones so we got Moses from her. He was always friendly, but he started out with a feral family and he definitely had some feral tendencies. We had only had him for about 2 months when he ran away from us, which also made me lose hope. Knowing how his life started, and knowing that he didn't know us or the area we lived in very well made me lose hope, but we still got him back in the end .