#if you come into these replies with bullshit like she's probably dead or coyote meat now you will be blocked with absolutely no hesitation

[shadythetortie]

I need some reassurance.

How long was your cat missing before they came back/were found?

Mazda has been gone for almost two weeks now. We're switching houses, she snuck out during the night through a hole in the floor we didnt realize furniture was covering, and then bolted. The house is demolished while we wait for the other one so she literally doesnt have a home to come back to. I'm currently living in a camper, roughly 100 ft from where the house was. The new house should come in around Sept 17 or so. We live on an acreage so unfortunately I have 40 acres of boreal forest/swampland she could be in.

I did find her up in a tree three days after she went missing, but as we were trying to get her down, she bolted off again before I could grab her. The tree was like 30 ft from where the camper is, and she was the one that meowed at me for me to find her instead of the other way around. So she was closer to the camper than the spot where the house was. I like to try and make myself believe that's because she knows where I am and wants to come home.

I havent seen her since, but I keep finding cat tracks in the mud by the dugout and the sand on the driveway. I'm trying to convince myself that it is her and not the other stray neighborhood farm cats that are around here. I would set up my camera but alas, no wifi, and I cannot afford a $500 trail cam to put out there. I do have 4 cat traps loaded around the acreage, but nothing yet.

Vet tech brain is being realistic and also spouting every little thing that could go wrong. Pet owner brain is frantically trying to be hopeful and countering with statistics and happy news stories about cats that went missing and came back after long periods of time. One of my best friends said his cat came back after 4 months - both reassuring and horrifying - a client told me hers was found 8 months later. So I know two weeks isn't very long but my god it feels like a year.

So if anyone has advice for finding an 8 pound, skittish, stealthy ambush predator in a forest the size of 25 city blocks, please let me know.

#if you come into these replies with bullshit like she's probably dead or coyote meat now you will be blocked with absolutely no hesitation #my mental health is the state of a parvo ward rn #i have 4 cat traps set out but so far all that has happened is dad accidentally set one off and ace threw them all over the place #he wanted the tuna #i cant really blame him for it it probably smelled really good #as payment for reassurance i will post a video of cheeto makin biscuits #thank u all and i hope you have a better week than i am #pretty low bar at this point but hey lets keep someone above it if i cant be right?