Pixtus - Photography Forum, Photographers, Photo Tips

CaptainTom · **Cat lovers only please -** 08-30-2009, 11:36 PM

Here's a true story.

On Thursday, my best friend noticed that one of her three cats was missing. He usually stayed close to home so this was unusual. We left for Colorado by car on Friday, and made sure the "cat sitter" would keep an eye out for the cat. Each time we called the sitter to check up on things, we hoped to hear a report that "cowboy" had returned home. No such report.
The following Friday, while sitting in a BBQ joint in the mountains of Colorado with my best friends DAD, who had met us in Denver for the ride to the mountain house, fessed up the following story.
He had stopped at my friends house on a Wednesday to leave a suitcase for us to take to Colorado for him. He's 84 yrs old, so we were happy to lighten his load and pick him up at the Denver airport and drive him to the mountains with us. After leaving her house, he drove three blocks to his sons house. When they all came out to see him off, they discovered a cat sleeping in the back seat of his Caddy. When asked where he had been, he forgot his quick stop at his daughters to leave the suitcase, and said "nowhere, cars been in the garage till now". ( he's usually pretty sharp for an 84 yr old.) They surmised that the cat must have just gotten into the car, so they escorted him out onto the street.
On the Friday a week after the cat had come up missing, DAD decides to confess the story to his daughter.

Daughter sends Emails to everyone she knows around the neighborhood and personally calls several friends and relatives to enlist them in locating the missing cat. It seems that the cat had been sighted several times in the neighborhood by various people. We told them all that we'd be back on Sunday afternoon and to keep an eye out for the vagrant.
We got home on Sunday afternoon ( today actually ) and immediately went looking for the cat. No luck at 4:30. No luck at 6pm. At 7:30 we again went through the neighborhood calling and whistling for the cat.
I hear a cat meowing in the distance. After using some well honed audio locating skills I see the missing cat in a row of bushes. He's meowing because he heard his name being called.
We gather him up and take him home, where he is now getting the most sound sleep he's likely had in ten days.

I just wonder if he'll still have the habit of getting into cars that have their windows down ???

S-Man · 08-30-2009, 11:45 PM

Good ending. We've had kittens climb up into the frame of our vehicles and then jump out miles from home. Where exactly, we don't know, but they turned up missing and that's the only possibility.
Another time we moved from one house to another house, probably 6 or 7 miles away. We re-locate our cat at the new house and after a day he turned up missing. We stopped by our old house a few days later to pick up some things and he was sitting at the front door, looking rough and skinny, but alive.
I miss having cats. We have dogs now. :o(

tc95 · 08-31-2009, 12:19 AM

Tom...great story....Sam...I found one of my cats at a mall...under a car....looks like it got stuck there and god only know how for how long...up in Lubbock...during the hottest summer while I was there...I think it was 110 that day...well to make a long story short....she is still with us...10 years later....

ramblinray · 08-31-2009, 02:09 AM

Tom, your friend needs to be flogged, well at least chastized severely for not having collars with ID tags on them. That would have taken care of the "I haven't been anywhere" portion of the story as they would have seen the tag and known it was her cat and not some stray. My cats and dogs have ID tags with my ph # so that just in case they get a bit of wanderlust, they will make it home in short order.

CaptainTom · 08-31-2009, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramblinray

Tom, your friend needs to be flogged, well at least chastized severely for not having collars with ID tags on them. That would have taken care of the "I haven't been anywhere" portion of the story as they would have seen the tag and known it was her cat and not some stray. My cats and dogs have ID tags with my ph # so that just in case they get a bit of wanderlust, they will make it home in short order.

She gets flogged (sp) regularly.

He sheds his collar on a regular basis. I'm off to the pet store for a whole batch of new ones today. If you have a suggestion for a collar that this male cat can't shed, I'm all ears.

PeteQ · 08-31-2009, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

She gets flogged (sp) regularly.

He sheds his collar on a regular basis. I'm off to the pet store for a whole batch of new ones today. If you have a suggestion for a collar that this male cat can't shed, I'm all ears.

Get a choke chain type collar and split one of the rings, adjust it so it is snug and won't come off, clamp the split ring down at that point and off you go.

ggeen · 08-31-2009, 10:41 AM

Cpt. Tom, I'm glad the story had a nice ending. In high school I had a cat climb into the engine compartment of my car. It was probably attracted to the engine heat from the night before. If it wasn't for the fact that my dog attacked the wheel well of my car in the morning...well, it would not have been pretty.

Give the kitty a big hug to welcome him home.

CaptainTom · 08-31-2009, 10:44 AM

here's a P&S photo of the reunion.

SpeedRacerSlots · 11:31 AM

I thought that was going to go where my friends story did...
His white fluffball climbed into a car in the garage with open windows...
the wife noticed the windows down, hit the "roll-up" button on the remote.
the cat went schitzo and tore up a black leather interior and black carpeting in a Vette.
he found the windows up, and rolled them down (about 45min later).
the cat got out.
the vette was trashed.
cat's still alive and with the family.
katzkin leather (no pun on the name) is about a grand richer.
he is about a grand poorer.
his wife hasnt touched the car to date.

fyi: this was my old boss...not just a random story...names were not used on purpose.

kenw · 08-31-2009, 11:09 AM

OK, various cat stories heard over the years:

Friend was emptying her dryer when she had to stop for forgotten reason (kids, phone, whatever). She returned, tossed in the next load from the washer, hit the start and turned away…when a extremely loud wail and thumping sound from the dryer said “the cat’s in there”….quickly opening said dryer, one slightly warm and not so slightly dizzy cat shot out like a rocket and years later still gets scarce whenever she does laundry.

-------------

Preacher’s opening comments a few weeks ago:

Dog says,“They feed me, they love me, they must be God!”
Cat says, "They feed me, they love me, I must be God!”

chris00nj · 08-31-2009, 01:01 PM

I wish I could find a "non-safety" collar, but that's all Petsmart and Petco sell. My cat just pulls the safety collars off in about 1-2 minutes.

ratbert · 08-31-2009, 01:21 PM

Several years ago my neighbor took my cat water skiing. He loaded up his boat that he always kept in his driveway and drove 30 miles to the lake. After he launched the boat, he reached under the bow where the life jackets were and found my very scared cat. He said he stayed there the whole time and when he came home and brought him to me he was said he was sorry. I said it was ok but I asked if the cat had a good time.