Is shooby a tom? If so, it's not unusual for them to wander for a few days at a time. Even if he is not a tom, my ex has a cat who used to take off for a couple of days if he'd get miffed for whatever reason (usually because of not being able to go out some night).
I also had a nieghbor who had a cat that wandered off and he wound up finding the cat cat two weeks later, and a mile down the road (at a house where someone had found him).
It's only been three days, don't give up hope yet...good luck!
Yes, Shooby does occasionally wander for a few days at a time. But he's been missing since Tuesday (dunno where you get the "three days" from), and this is the longest he's ever been gone... and he was staying at Delphine's house when he disappeared.
Back when I was a kid delivering newspapers, there was one guy on my route with the most beautiful white cat with silver tipped hair. I had always wanted a cat like that. So eventually the guy moved a few cities away and I forgot about it...Until the cat showed up in the neighbourhood again. The point is, this cat survived a journey across two major cities and one of the meanest highways in this country to get back to the home she knew. They have amazing sense of direction.
She ended up living out the rest of her days with us. {=)
If Sheba could make it home, Shooby will show up sooner or later. He isn't missing because he is lost. Maybe he simply doesn't want to be found right now. As Random suggested, he may be out tomming.
Those stories are usually total bullshit. James Randi recently recounted a tale of one cat which could have showed up in the Reader's Digest "Amazing Stories" section if they hadn't figured out what *really* happened...
Cats only know their local neighborhood, and don't typically have any spatial memory when they're driven anywhere.
She lives a mile away, and there's two busy major streets between us. No chance Shooby will show up here. If he shows up anywhere, it'll be back at Del's house.
Obsidious, there's more reasonable explanations for that happening.
Perhaps the owners decided they didn't want the cat with them, and just left it behind (possibly with another friend in town), or threw it out of the car as they were leaving or similar.
Perhaps it's another similar-looking cat.
Perhaps it's something else nobody bothered to consider. Amazing possibilities are so much more romantic than the truth that people often decide on the most interesting explanation as the most likely.
"Amazing possibilities are so much more romantic than the truth that people often decide on the most interesting explanation as the most likely."
True enough, but it is also just as easy to dismiss as balderdash simply because it seems outside the realm of reason. It was the same cat. I knew the guy for four years. So I was used to seeing his dog and two cats every day. When we found the cat roaming around, my mother made some calls and eventually found his sister, who gave us his new address and number. He confirmed that he let his cat out of the new place about three weeks earlier and she never came back. He thought she had been hit by a car.
Anyway, he told us we could keep her, and that was that.
I don't know exactly how she got home - And I've never really questioned it, because quite frankly it didn't matter. I loved the cat all the same.
> Eh, okay. It must have been a pretty short move then, and a pretty apathetic owner.
If I remember correctly, it was about 34 miles.
Don't worry, you're not the only one who has trouble believing it. But we confirmed everything(or I probably wouldn't have believed it myself) with her previous owner.
Either way, it wasn't intended as a topic of debate, but rather a note of encouragement. Give him some time. Even after a few weeks, he could still come home. =)
I know it's probably little consolation. I've lost a few of my own over the years, so I hurt very much for you and Shooby and what you're going through. I just wanted to send you some encouragement. {:)
btw, have you tried putting up little wanted posters around Del's area?
See, you're putting a lot of faith in what the owner says being truthful, but it doesn't seem to me that someone who actually cares about a cat would just say, "Oh, but you can have it."
Del has been feeling extremely guilty about this and has been going all over her neighborhood asking everyone if they've seen him. Nobody has.
> See, you're putting a lot of faith in what the owner says being truthful
And you seem to be trying hard enough to debunk/dismiss the story. ;p
Have a little faith, man. Because some people think it's implausible, doesn't mean it is. Remember that old kids song, the cat came back? =D
I don't really care if you believe me or not. I'm just asking you to have a little faith. These animals are not stupid or helpless by any means.
I know he felt bad about losing his cat, but he figured she would only get out again. He wasn't some animal abuser or the type who didn't care - I knew the guy for a long time. Whatever his reasons, I'm still glad we ended up with her.
If it were a case of abandonment, he would have abandoned both cats along with his dog. Not to mention, the cat would have shown up a lot sooner and in a lot better condition(she had lost quite a bit of weight). Also, his live-in girlfriend would have kicked his ass if he tried to drop a cat off.
> Del has been feeling extremely guilty about this
David felt extremely bad about losing his cat as well, but after three weeks you tend to accept it.
> Nobody has.
Not during the day, of course. If cats are common in the area, people aren't really going to take notice. It's like a local bum sitting on a street corner..He's just there. You know he is, but you don't really pay attention to him. If she wants to find Shooby, she's going to have to go out at night when the neighbourhood cats are on the prowl.
I wasn't saying that Del's guilt was in absence of David's guilt, just that Del feels bad about "losing" Shooby, who wandered off on his own damn feet anyway.
He is an outdoor cat who spends all his time indoors anyway.
> I wasn't saying that Del's guilt was in absence of David's guilt, just that Del feels bad about "losing" Shooby, who wandered off on his own damn feet anyway.
I wasn't relating the two. They're two different people. But I know how she feels nonetheless. =\
How is she doing now?
Any updates about Shooby since last night?
She is doing okay. Other people in her life are creating quite the soap opera. No Shooby updates. He only seems to return from his little forays whenever everyone has totally lost hope (so the sooner we all lose hope, the better his chances of survival are!)
Cats are too cautious for that sort of thing to happen. They generally stay the hell away from wild animals. It's dogs that you have to worry about losing. Wolves, for instance, are damn smart. A lot smarter than any dog. Up North, hunters are always losing their hunting dogs because the wolves will come out of hiding and act like they're injured to get a dog's attention. The dog sees them walking with a limp, so he goes after him thinking the hunter already bagged him and it's his turn to bring in the kill(that's what they're trained to do). Next thing you know, the dog is being lured into the forest where an entire pack is waiting for him. The dog doesn't even stand a chance.
Hunters I've talked to won't even let their dogs off a leash anymore, because the wolf population in this area has really come back in the past few years.
I know this has nothing to do with Shooby, per se. I'm just chatty tonight.
Comments
Is shooby a tom? If so, it's not unusual for them to wander for a few days at a time. Even if he is not a tom, my ex has a cat who used to take off for a couple of days if he'd get miffed for whatever reason (usually because of not being able to go out some night).
I also had a nieghbor who had a cat that wandered off and he wound up finding the cat cat two weeks later, and a mile down the road (at a house where someone had found him).
It's only been three days, don't give up hope yet...good luck!
Yes, Shooby does occasionally wander for a few days at a time. But he's been missing since Tuesday (dunno where you get the "three days" from), and this is the longest he's ever been gone... and he was staying at Delphine's house when he disappeared.
I've heard that cats will find their way home even when droped off out in the middle of nowhere. How far away is Delphine's house?
Back when I was a kid delivering newspapers, there was one guy on my route with the most beautiful white cat with silver tipped hair. I had always wanted a cat like that. So eventually the guy moved a few cities away and I forgot about it...Until the cat showed up in the neighbourhood again. The point is, this cat survived a journey across two major cities and one of the meanest highways in this country to get back to the home she knew. They have amazing sense of direction.
She ended up living out the rest of her days with us. {=)
If Sheba could make it home, Shooby will show up sooner or later. He isn't missing because he is lost. Maybe he simply doesn't want to be found right now. As Random suggested, he may be out tomming.
Those stories are usually total bullshit. James Randi recently recounted a tale of one cat which could have showed up in the Reader's Digest "Amazing Stories" section if they hadn't figured out what *really* happened...
Cats only know their local neighborhood, and don't typically have any spatial memory when they're driven anywhere.
She lives a mile away, and there's two busy major streets between us. No chance Shooby will show up here. If he shows up anywhere, it'll be back at Del's house.
Obsidious, there's more reasonable explanations for that happening.
Perhaps the owners decided they didn't want the cat with them, and just left it behind (possibly with another friend in town), or threw it out of the car as they were leaving or similar.
Perhaps it's another similar-looking cat.
Perhaps it's something else nobody bothered to consider. Amazing possibilities are so much more romantic than the truth that people often decide on the most interesting explanation as the most likely.
"Amazing possibilities are so much more romantic than the truth that people often decide on the most interesting explanation as the most likely."
True enough, but it is also just as easy to dismiss as balderdash simply because it seems outside the realm of reason. It was the same cat. I knew the guy for four years. So I was used to seeing his dog and two cats every day. When we found the cat roaming around, my mother made some calls and eventually found his sister, who gave us his new address and number. He confirmed that he let his cat out of the new place about three weeks earlier and she never came back. He thought she had been hit by a car.
Anyway, he told us we could keep her, and that was that.
I don't know exactly how she got home - And I've never really questioned it, because quite frankly it didn't matter. I loved the cat all the same.
My family's had many, many cats, and we've lost some, inevitably, during that time. It never gets any easier.
I hope he shows up.
Eh, okay. It must have been a pretty short move then, and a pretty apathetic owner.
> Eh, okay. It must have been a pretty short move then, and a pretty apathetic owner.
If I remember correctly, it was about 34 miles.
Don't worry, you're not the only one who has trouble believing it. But we confirmed everything(or I probably wouldn't have believed it myself) with her previous owner.
Either way, it wasn't intended as a topic of debate, but rather a note of encouragement. Give him some time. Even after a few weeks, he could still come home. =)
I know it's probably little consolation. I've lost a few of my own over the years, so I hurt very much for you and Shooby and what you're going through. I just wanted to send you some encouragement. {:)
btw, have you tried putting up little wanted posters around Del's area?
See, you're putting a lot of faith in what the owner says being truthful, but it doesn't seem to me that someone who actually cares about a cat would just say, "Oh, but you can have it."
Del has been feeling extremely guilty about this and has been going all over her neighborhood asking everyone if they've seen him. Nobody has.
> See, you're putting a lot of faith in what the owner says being truthful
And you seem to be trying hard enough to debunk/dismiss the story. ;p
Have a little faith, man. Because some people think it's implausible, doesn't mean it is. Remember that old kids song, the cat came back? =D
I don't really care if you believe me or not. I'm just asking you to have a little faith. These animals are not stupid or helpless by any means.
I know he felt bad about losing his cat, but he figured she would only get out again. He wasn't some animal abuser or the type who didn't care - I knew the guy for a long time. Whatever his reasons, I'm still glad we ended up with her.
If it were a case of abandonment, he would have abandoned both cats along with his dog. Not to mention, the cat would have shown up a lot sooner and in a lot better condition(she had lost quite a bit of weight). Also, his live-in girlfriend would have kicked his ass if he tried to drop a cat off.
> Del has been feeling extremely guilty about this
David felt extremely bad about losing his cat as well, but after three weeks you tend to accept it.
> Nobody has.
Not during the day, of course. If cats are common in the area, people aren't really going to take notice. It's like a local bum sitting on a street corner..He's just there. You know he is, but you don't really pay attention to him. If she wants to find Shooby, she's going to have to go out at night when the neighbourhood cats are on the prowl.
btw, was Shooby an indoor or outdoor cat?
I wasn't saying that Del's guilt was in absence of David's guilt, just that Del feels bad about "losing" Shooby, who wandered off on his own damn feet anyway.
He is an outdoor cat who spends all his time indoors anyway.
> I wasn't saying that Del's guilt was in absence of David's guilt, just that Del feels bad about "losing" Shooby, who wandered off on his own damn feet anyway.
I wasn't relating the two. They're two different people. But I know how she feels nonetheless. =\
How is she doing now?
Any updates about Shooby since last night?
She is doing okay. Other people in her life are creating quite the soap opera. No Shooby updates. He only seems to return from his little forays whenever everyone has totally lost hope (so the sooner we all lose hope, the better his chances of survival are!)
Would you feel better if we said, "I'm sure he was eaten by cayotes" ?
No, of course not.
Cats are too cautious for that sort of thing to happen. They generally stay the hell away from wild animals. It's dogs that you have to worry about losing. Wolves, for instance, are damn smart. A lot smarter than any dog. Up North, hunters are always losing their hunting dogs because the wolves will come out of hiding and act like they're injured to get a dog's attention. The dog sees them walking with a limp, so he goes after him thinking the hunter already bagged him and it's his turn to bring in the kill(that's what they're trained to do). Next thing you know, the dog is being lured into the forest where an entire pack is waiting for him. The dog doesn't even stand a chance.
Hunters I've talked to won't even let their dogs off a leash anymore, because the wolf population in this area has really come back in the past few years.
I know this has nothing to do with Shooby, per se. I'm just chatty tonight.
We always thought all the cats were getting et by the coyotes--until we found the great horned owl's nest full of cat collars.
Not to be a downer, or anything :)