The Cat Came Back! (a true story)

Allow me to introduce Milo. A bit of a character if ever there was one. He really should be the subject of a McCavity style poem.

As a kitten, Milo was always lively. His father was a farm cat, mum was a stay at home pampered cat. Milo inherited traits from both parents. He has always loved his bowl of cat food rather than hunting, but he enjoys a noctural lifestyle, frequently waking his owners at four in the morning.

Milo is rather cheeky. He befriends anyone soft enough to indulge him in an extra plate of food. A weigh in at the vets by his concerned owner gave a diagnosis of 'The Cat is too Fat', resulting in a low fat cat food prescription. In spite of strict feeding by his owner, Milo persistently remained on the larger side of life. He also was a frequent visitor to a neighbour's house - any connection here?

This summer, Milo moved to a new area. His owners, (Do you ever really own a cat?) planned to keep him inside for a few weeks to allow him to become used to his new home. Milo had other ideas. After a week, in the depth of the night when everyone was sound asleep, Milo head butted his way out of a locked cat flap.

On waking, his mum and dad found the cat flap pushed outwards and an empty cat basket.

Milo was missing. His owners called the local area, walking the streets, checking gardens, garages, fields and roadsides. The local council was telephoned in case a dead cat had been found, ( a horrible job but it had to be done), plus local vets were contacted. Posters were posted in shops all over the town and over a thousand leaflets delivered through doors. Milo's name was added to missing pet registers on the internet and by telephone. One huge reasurrance was that Milo had been micro chipped, if he arrived at a vets surgery or animal rescue centre we stood a high chance of him being returned.

After three weeks, numerous telephone calls from kind people who hoped they had seen him and many trips only to view the wrong cat; Milo's owners were becoming despondent. Time for hubby and I to put in an appearance for moral support if nothing else.

We assisted with the posting of leaflets through doors, searching the streets, driving around putting up posters and placing newspaper ads.

As we were leaving to return home, Hubby and I had one last ditch attempt to recover kitty. Darkness had spread across the local gardens, hedges were black, and children safely tucked away for the night - excellent cat prowling potential here. Especially for a cat with particularly nocturnal habits.

I had last seen Milo a couple of weeks before he went missing. Knowing he knew my voice, I called his name. No reponse. On a hunch, I crossed the road outside of Milo's home, I have no idea why. I walked over to a large garden area which surrounded flats, several buildings away. Hubby had gone down the road to call out again over the fence of a local school field.

As I called, I heard a meow. It didn't sound like Milo. A beautiful long haired black and white cat emerged from under a car. It was so friendly and sweet, Long haired cat and I had a catty chat, then I called again across the garden.

Unbelievably, as I called, I heard another meow. This meow sounded familiar. I called Milo's name again; another meow came from the other side of the garden. This scenario was repeated again and again. I really was unsure of what was happening as it could have been any cat and was so unlikely to be Milo after three weeks.

Then, from underneath bushes, a cat appeared. It padded towards me, slowly at first, then gaining pace. On realising it was black and white, I held my breath. This cat couldn't be ours as it had a white ruff around it's neck, ours was a shorthair.

As the cat approached, I realised the 'ruff' was a white paper bag, obviously from where the cat had tried to eat out of it. This could be Milo! Apprehensively, I quietly called my husband to confirm this indeed was our missing pet. In the darkness, I checked the features. Shape of face - correct, markings around eyes - correct, markings on legs - correct. Unable to reach Milo due to a fence between us, I kept talking to him as he meowed at me.

It took four of us several minutes to 'capture' Milo. He was terrified, having been outside for so long therefore it was difficult to put him into his carrier basket, but once he was safely home he was sooooooooo grateful.

At the time of writing, Milo has been home for four weeks. Unsurprisingly, he is demonstrating no interest whatsoever in venturing outside. He loves to sit at the window watching the world and has put back on the weight he lost. Now we just need to butter his paws, (just in case this works, you never know), spread catnip around the entrance to the catflap indoors and out and introduce him to his new territory gently.

After all our efforts, our darling cat was just about a hundred yards away.