So why should the disappearance of an annoying, often aggressive, selfish feline turn all of us into a silent, moody bunch of miserable gits? Because he’s a part of the family, that’s why.
Still no sign of Jack, our silver tabby, who went out for a prowl at 7pm on Friday the 13th and has still to return.
We’re now clinging to the hope that he’s simply gone off for a short weekend break, as almost all the available literature seems to say. There are lots of hopeful stories about family moggies who disappear for a week or a month or even eight years and then turn up out the blue as if just a few minutes had passed.
One observation which also gave me hope was by Kat (sic) Albrecht on her page about Lost Cat Behaviour.
The majority of the time, they are found within a 3 house radius of the owner’s home hiding and living under a deck, porch, or in heavy brush. This is often up to 7 weeks after they went missing in cases where the owners were calling for them and searching for them in the location that they were hiding, but the cat never responded. The reason the cats do not respond is again, an instinctual behavior of protecting themselves. What could have triggered this response in your kitty was just one encounter with a neighbor dog chasing him.
Simply put, our Jack is a “Scaredy Cat”. It would not be surprising if he had been frightened by one of the local urban foxes and was now hiding in some bolt hole just a few hundred metres away.
Anyway. There’s always hope. Come Back Jack