Almost wo weeks ago, Chester cat went missing. He was pottering around in the back garden; one minute he was there, the next he was gone.
We thought we'd cat-proofed the garden to keep him safe, but it turned out a storm had blown down one of the planks. Chester has no street-smarts at all. Before coming to us, he'd never been outdoors, and we had only started letting him out that week.
We've spent the last two weeks frantically looking for him, putting up posters, posting flyers through letterboxes, knocking on doors, and posting on every local social media site we could think of. We've spent hours and hours walking the neighbourhood calling his name and rattling snacks, hoping he'd hear us and come out of hiding.
After nearly two weeks, we'd almost given up hope. With so many large and fearless foxes in the area, we assumed he was yet another cat they'd taken, and that we would never see him again.
Then yesterday, while my wife was up in London for the day, she called me to say she'd had a call from a lady who thought she had him in her house.
I rushed straight down there, wondering if it really was Chester, or just another false alarm. It was !
It turned out he had somehow climbed up a wisteria and in through an open upstairs window. Then hidden at the back of her wardrobe, coming out when no-one was in to find something to drink. The lady didn't even know she had a cat in her house, she assumed the paw prints on the bathroom mat were from a fox who had wandered in and then back out again !
When I got him home shortly afterwards, Duncan cat was over the moon to have his friend back. They did a huge amount of nose-rubbing, and have been stuck to each other like glue. Chester cuddled up with us all night, and Duncan even got up and lay on the end of the bed, which he's never done before.
It feel like a miracle, and last night I slept properly for the first time in a fortnight. He's lost a lot of weight and needs to go to the groomers to get some knots out, but we're all happy he's back home. We're definitely building a fully enclosed catio before letting him out again !
All photos by me