The Cat Came Back

Okay, so he didn't come back... I had to go and fetch him and force him to come back.... but he is back, nonetheless.

I feel a little weird about it. Like I've been snubbed by my own cat... We have had Tigger since he was 6 weeks old and we got him more than 11 years ago. He has been a constant in our changing lives. He was Erin's cat - well beloved by us all. He was born in the Toporchuk barn and was always a mainly outdoor cat. And always very loyal. Although he roamed far and wide, he was always home for dinner at 5pm. He loved it when we moved here and spent hours in the fields catching mouse after mouse - gorging on them until he would throw up....

Then something happened. He disappeared for a couple of days and then he was back... then it was a few more days.... and then a week... and then he didn't come back. His food sat on the back porch uneaten. I didn't feel like he was dead... We called and called and called and reported him missing to the lost cat registry. Nothing. We look for him around the neighbourhood. Nothing. 2 months go by and I still don't feel like he is dead but I am beginning to think that he has moved in with someone else...

Then I get a call from the cat registry. There is a cat near us. Someone has been feeding him for 2 weeks. Turns out it is him. He was just across the field from us. I have a hard time believing that after spending a lifetime outdoors, he got lost across a field and couldn't find his way home.... I have to believe that he chose to leave. Why? After all these years? Was it the new dog next door that was harrassing him? The black male cat that he was fighting with at night? Unlike him to back down in a fight with a dog or a cat... Was it the addition of Coppelia and Sampson? Was it that Sampson turned out to be a male, too? But we have had so many other cats - some male - and he has never left before; he always makes friends with them.

So it is kind of weird to have him here. He runs to the back door where we have always fed him when it is feeding time. But he is slow to come to his name which he always ran to before. It annoys me that other people took him in and fed him without trying to find out who he belonged to for so long - he's fat for the first time in his life - he's been fed a little too well... He has an obvious tattoo in his ear but no one called it in for 2 months to find out who he was. So, is it safe to let him outside again? Will he run away? Do I make him come back? What do you do when your cat wants to move out?