Missing cat

[Jilly_in_VA]

Vicky has gone missing. I last saw her when I gave her dinner on her "gotcha day" which was Tuesday of this week. Later that evening we heard some unpleasant "cat conversation" outside the living room window, but to us it sounded like the usual "Get off my lawn!" that has been going on for weeks between her and a large unfriendly black cat who appears out of nowhere and tries to muscle in on my girls' food etc., so we thought nothing of it. However, she did not appear for breakfast or dinner the following day or yesterday, or for breakfast this morning, and I haven't seen her anywhere. I looked all over the property and even in the workshop on the off chance that she might have gotten locked in there...no Vicky. And Winnie has been sticking pretty close to home. I'm worried she may have encountered a coyote or something.

[2naSalit]

1. Oh no!

I hope she comes back. Is your property the extent of her wanderings outside?

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. Would you believe

that the wee wretch showed up for dinner this evening? Just waltzed in as if nothing had happened at all? She did seem nervous however, which leads me to suspect that the black interloper is behind it all. Never mind, I brought a trap home from the shelter today and will bait it and set it out for him......

[femmedem]

3. I'm so glad she's back!

I can just imagine your relief.

Are you sure about trapping the black cat? He may be someone's pet or he may be feral, in which case he would be euthanized if you brought him to a shelter. Or if you relocated him out of his territory he would likely starve to death.

No chance your cat could be an indoor cat? I realize some cats just don't adapt to staying inside.

Or just feed her inside and the black cat likely won't keep coming by.

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. He would not be euthanized

when brought to our shelter. He will spend some time in the stray jail where I volunteer, being evaluated. then he will go to surgery and be neutered. After he settles down from that, he will either go to Adoptables, if his temperament is deemed suitable (that happened with the last cat I trapped that was trying to move in on my girls) or he will go to our Barn Cat program, which places "unsocial" cats with people who are looking for working cats for barns, workshops, warehouses, etc. (That's actually the program I adopted my girls from, and they are still only minimally social and mostly only with me; they're outdoor girls and huntresses.) Or he might transfer to one of our partner shelters, most likely Charlottesville, in a similar program. In any case, he would not be killed unless he became too sick to live while with us, and that almost never happens.

My hunch is that he's a barn cat from one of the farms around here and he's trying to move in. He sees the food I put out as "free lunch" and thinks he can push my girls around because he's bigger. Sorry, dude. Not in my yard. Mama don't play that.

[femmedem]

7. That's wonderful, Jilly, and I apologize for thinking otherwise.

I also trap, neuter and release, feed a few ferals, adopted out maybe a dozen strays, and have brought five inside, but I live in an urban neighborhood--no barn cats here, and no shelters nearby wouldn't euthanize a feral. It sounds like the shelter you volunteer at is just fantastic.

[niyad]

4. Oh, thank goodness. I just this minute saw your OP, and instant dread. Next thing I

saw was this. Huge sigh of relief.

[Random Boomer]

5. We just went through this

Our cats go in and out of the house all day, but we round them all up in the evening and bring them inside. They rarely go beyond our fenced-in backyard, but they're all rescues from the alley behind our house, so they've got some degree of street savvy.

Last week one of our cats -- the one who doesn't get along with all the others -- was on our back porch, about to come inside, and at the last minute she veered away and that was the last time we saw her for four days. We called for her constantly through the days and nights, we drove around the neighborhood, we walked through the back alley, nothing.

Then the afternoon of the fourth day she showed up out of nowhere. We have no idea where she's been or what she was doing, but it must not have been a fun adventure because she hasn't left the house since her arrival. She spent most of the first two days of her return sleeping, as if she was exhausted, and even now that she's moving around a bit, she shows no interest in going outside.

I'd be just fine if she decided to be a full-time indoor cat. Now, if she would just get along with the other cats....