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[2DogsFarm]

Sigh…
I’ve posted about my Cheeto cat before.
Summary:
4yrs in hiding in my basement
~2yrs incognito upstairs
2yrs happily attached to me at the hip
Himself as of last week:

Then I had the temerity to leave him & his buddy Bounce Home Alone for 4 days last week while I took my mini to The National Drive.
My inclination was to leave mucho water & dry food out & let them be.
BUT Krazy Katlady friend insisted she’d care for them with twice daily visits.
Neither cat appears for strangers. They disappear.
And I know her 2X daily intrusions included babytalking to try to draw them out
Sure enough, she excitedly texted me on Day Two of my absence to say she saw Cheeto, but he’d then vanished.
Uh-Huh, Toldyaso
Then Friday she texted that somehow the door from kitchen to basement was left open & both cats were in the basement. Door is normally kept shut, but lock is broken & it needs to be forcefully shut to stay closed.
She most likely went down after them, trying to coax them back upstairs
Left a light on for them on the stairway because, cats can’t navigate in the dark

Got home last night & Bounce reappeared, chewed me out for leaving

He is now pretty much back to normal.
No sign of Cheeto
I did a cursory search, including the basement & nothing.
Left the door from basement to kitchen open.
The food I put out this morning was eaten & normally that’s a Cheeto job.
Litterbox has been used.
My gut says give him some time & he’ll reappear.

I guess I’m just venting that Krazy upset the Cheetocart.
Thanks for listening

[CindyB59]

Why do people do that? My friend has a cat like that. She had a gal come in to care for the horses and just check the cats food and water. Cat was traumatized for days. This happened like 3 time. I did it for her once (I lived over an hr away at the time), went in, scooped, fed, gave attention to one that likes people. Left other completely alone. She got home, cat was fine.

So other person obviously dedicated effort in catching, petting, whatever. I guess they think they know better than the owner, or they’re just that special.

[chestnutmarebeware]

@CindyB59

Why do people do that? My friend has a cat like that. She had a gal come in to care for the horses and just check the cats food and water. Cat was traumatized for days. This happened like 3 time. I did it for her once (I lived over an hr away at the time), went in, scooped, fed, gave attention to one that likes people. Left other completely alone. She got home, cat was fine.

So other person obviously dedicated effort in catching, petting, whatever. I guess they think they know better than the owner, or they’re just that special.

Agreed! And even friendly, outgoing cats don’t always behave that way when their owners aren’t around. One summer I went by a friend’s house once daily to feed and clean litter boxes for her three cats, who are always happy to see and interact with me, while she was on vacation.

But when their mom wasn’t there? Forget it? The most I saw of them over the course of the week were several “Peepy Cat” type sightings from the top of the staircase. But they were eating and using the litter boxes, so why bother them?

[Mara]

My grandmother (Dad’s side) never listened when we told her Willie the cat was mean and wanted to be left alone. He was a gorgeous, black, green-eyed DSH but boy was he a moody SOB. He wanted minimal human interaction and only on his terms. Grandmother couldn’t resist trying to pet him and always acted shocked when she got bitten and scratched.

[rubygirl1968]

Poor Cheeto. I hope he comes up soon, gives you the what for and is then back to his normal happy self.

[2DogsFarm]

He’s baaaaack!

Whew! & TG.
I believe I’ll pass on her “services” in future, unless trips are longer than a week.
Easier on all of us .

[Zu_Zu]

Please don’t let this ever happen again to your beloved ~ CHEETO !

[CanadianTrotter]

@2DogsFarm

Got home last night & Bounce reappeared, chewed me out for leaving

Lol, you got told!!! That’ll teach you!

Cheeto will come around and lay a guilt trip on you.

[rubygirl1968]

Yay! So glad he’s back!

[dressagetraks]

Glad he came around.

I believe I’d mentioned on some thread or another that I had a friend who unexpectedly was sent from the doctor’s office to the hospital with no warning, had just been going to a routine appointment. Lengthy hospital stay. From hospital to inpatient rehab. Overall, more than a month.

She had just recently moved into a new apartment building and fortunately had a saint of a neighbor. For over a month, this neighbor went in to feed her cat and service the litter box. Neighbor was quite worried, as she never saw a cat. Friend assured her that the cat was just hiding, having had her person unexpectedly disappear and not being a very friendly cat anyway. Neighbor at least accepted this. The food kept disappearing, and the litter box was used, but over a month, the neighbor saw not a whisker of a cat.

Finally, my friend came home. No cat. Nowhere to be seen. Friend gave up and went on to bed. In the wee small hours, she woke up with that “somebody is watching me” feeling, and there was the cat in the doorway to the bedroom, standing there looking at her. She greeted the cat, and the cat then jumped up on the bed and proceeded to curse her out as no cat owner has ever been cursed. Very eloquent fit. Having thoroughly expressed herself, the cat deigned to be petted and then finally curled up purring. My friend said she promised to do her diligent best to never have that happen again, although the cat didn’t seem convinced when she explained that it had been beyond her control.

[Fiesta01]

Yay, Cheeto!! What a relief. Silly kitty.
Wow, I wouldn’t want to cross Bounce in a dark alley after leaving him for 4 days if that expression is any indication.

[DMK]

I’m sure if it happens again, he will get used to it. I travel to shows all winter long and my pet sitter comes by daily to feed the cats and check on them. Zazu is the invisible cat and will be under the bed. But because I have a catio, I’m forever paranoid that someone will choose to escape while I’m gone, so she “puts eyes” on everyone when she’s there. This is not a problem for 3 individuals under her feet. Poor zazu is upstairs under the bed, even more terrified when she checks to make sure he is still there.

A few years ago it would take him a while to rejoin the crew, now he has learned the sound of my car* and is downstairs in a position that allows him to retreat if he’s wrong.

Last year my mother stayed with me for a week around shoulder surgery, and of course I was back to driving to the barn and feeding horses 2x day 36 hours after sx. My mother observed that the cats knew I was home even before the garage door opened. I hit that remote when I’m still driving up the street. Apparently they know my car.

[2DogsFarm]

@CanadianTrotter

Lol, you got told!!! That’ll teach you!

I certainly did!
Bounce has always been a Mouth on Wheels
He has that Siamese Tallulah Bankhead rasp.
Cheeto only recently started using his meow & it’s too small for the 12# of him!

Last night I slept bracketed by a cat on each side.
Not their norm & I expect tonight will be different

[ShenanAnna]

I know who Tallulah Bankhead is! And she has a lovely rasp.

[Jenerationx]

This cat’s voice always cracks me up…

Cat has a crazy deep meow

[moonlitoaksranch]

I traumatized a neighbor’s barn cat. I feed all of them and lock them up at night. Easy, right? Except one would not come in for me after the first night. I am not her normal server. My neighbor will be home Tuesday and I’m sure scaredy-cat will come popping back in after she realizes the regular ‘help’ has returned.

[dressagetraks]

I remember when I took an unheard-of 10-day vacation to WEG 2010, the cat sitter emailed updates as requested. First day, nobody was friendly but all chores done. Second day, half the outdoor cats missing. Third day, outdoor cats just plain missing. The sitter was worried about them, but I said just keep putting feed out at the appropriate times, and hopefully they will get some of it. These cats have too good a deal here to totally quit on me in just 10 days. Sure enough, when I returned home after the vacation, not a cat in sight. By the time I had put up a few things, put on my farm boots, and headed out to do chores, the outdoor cats had all arrived. Most upset they were, too, and let me know about it, but they were there to eat, and we stepped right back into routine.

P.S. The horses, of course, didn’t care. “Oh, you’re handling chores today? Okay. Munch, munch.”

[rubygirl1968]

I have never heard a cat that sounded like that. That would quite the shock the first time you heard him!

He’s a good looking kitty!

[Jenerationx]

I would think it was possessed! Very weird.

[2DogsFarm]

Is there an aural version of Photoshop?
That just doesn’t sound real!