#we ended up plastering the neighbourhood in signs and pestering all our neighbours

[pangur-and-grim]

I didn't want to talk about it until the whole horrible thing was over, but Wednesday slipped out an open door last week and (with the help of a motion-activated camera on the porch) we finally got him back last night!

he’s acting so sweet and cuddly today, it’s clear how happy he is to be home and safe inside.

#god though the day it happened was so scary #I've never physically exerted myself to the point where I thought I might fall over before #but we thought he might be hiding under a car so I walked around the neighbourhood from 8pm to 11:30pm checking under cars #which was sometime a bending/squatting motion if the car was high enough off the ground #and sometimes involved actually lying on the ground if it was a fancy low-rise car #I very quickly grew to loathe the low-rise car #but yeah I still getting back into shape after the 6 month book contract so doing 3 and half hours straight of adrenaline-fuelled squats was #very inadvisable. for three days afterward I had a hard time bending my legs bc of the muscle pain #but like literally did not notice the exertion while it was happening bc I was in 'oh fuck we need to find this cat' mode #we ended up plastering the neighbourhood in signs and pestering all our neighbours #which lead to several texted sightings that let us know he wasnt straying far from the house #so we set up a raccoon trap on the porch that DID NOT WORK #like he kept getting inside and eating all the food without tripping the trap? #so we'd adjust the sensitivity and the same thing would happen 💀 shitty trap #on night 5 we set up a motion activated camera so that we could make sure it was him eating the food #and holy shit. the stress of seeing him on the camera and not being able to open the door and grab him bc we knew he'd run and not come back #we literally WATCHED HIM ON THE CAM enter the trap and eat all the food without triggering it #and then he sat on the steps and groomed his face for 8 minutes straight while we whispered about what to do #eventually when he left the porch and started walking off we decided we could open the door without scaring him #(bc he was far enough away) #and so my housemate did that and started calling his name and opening cans of wet food to make the Good Food Sound #and holy shit. it worked #when we heard him meow back it was such a relief #they were such horrible distressed meows that we thought something had happened to injure him #but I think he was just vocalizing the emotions of being lost for 5 days and finally hearing his owner's voice #it took a few more minutes of coaxing for him to actually enter the house #he was a stray before my housemate took him in so the fear instinct is STRONG #but now today he's been cuddling up to us and letting us hold him for way longer than normal #and like I'm trying not to anthromorphise. but he's clearly so so happy to be back home and with the people he knows