Certainly not the happiest thread, but what are your experiences with this? A couple of years ago around Christmas my older tabby cat ran away. She was a really good friend since I was a young boy, so as you might understand, I spent a couple of days out in the freezing cold on black ice putting up leaflets everywhere, and also submitting information to online pet databases.
Unfortunately, no one got back to me. Even to this day, I refuse to believe she is dead. I know in the future I'll need to accept that, but today it isn't an option. It's very possible she was taken in somewhere and she's still alive and being well looked after. Now, one of the main things that comes to my mind is why our pets choose to do this. My cat, like most cats, didn't venture far outside of the neighbourhood, or at least that was the assumption. As a child, she often tried to follow me to school, but I sent her back home.
I sometimes wonder if perhaps she wanted to finally explore the world outside of our neighbourhood, realising she didn't have too long left. Perhaps she had an intention to return home, but got lost somehow. There are many possibilities, but it pains me to think of the most negative ones. I think a lot of people underestimate the intelligence of most animals. Cats are such intelligent creatures, and I thought my cat enjoyed living here, but she must have had some kind of motive.
What are your thoughts regarding pets that run away? Despite advising my parents to do so, they didn't give her a collar or a chip which is ridiculous. Due to the experience, I'll do one better than that. When I get a cat when I move into an apartment, I'll be putting a GPS tracker on it!
My favourite colour is green, my favourite number is 19.
