well, fuck

[ysobel]

...went to let Yahtzee out and little miss escape artist did her thing. Yahtzee is back inside. She's not.

(I am alone in the house, and she doesn't respond to vocal summons.)

And I was watching her, and I figured it was okay because the back yard is fenced, right, and so sure she's eating pine needles and using the tree as a big scratching post, but it's not like she's going anywhere, right, because I mean it's not like cats can *climb fences or anything* oh fuck.

So she is I have no fucking idea where, I can't go after her, she's not really catchable (or all that visible, being mostly black)... she is microchipped, and has a tag with my cell phone number on it, but it's not like I can go get her from whoever finds her, if anyone finds her, if she doesn't get horribly lost or injured or run over or...

/sigh/ I am a horrible kittymom, I am D:

ETA she is back inside -- after like five minutes at most -- but gaah.

Comments

[wintergrey]

Kitties will do what kitties will do. You're a good kittymom. <3 A reflective strip on the collar or hung with the tags is the only other thing I'd suggest. Or an LED blinkie if there's someone to click it on and off for you in the evenings. I couldn't find one with a remote control, but I'll keep an eye out.

big kitteh icon!

[cadenzamuse]

It sounds like Suri has decided to be an indoor/outdoor cat against everyone's will but hers. Sounds like a cat.

If she keeps escaping, she will probably get a good sense of "home" and how to get back to you. So she won't get horribly lost, really.

The only other thing I would suggest is that if she starts escaping regularly or staying out longer, you check with the vet to see what vaccines an outdoor cat needs, so that she doesn't catch anything.

You are a wonderful kittymom; Suri is just being a rebellious teenage kittydaughter.

[spoke]

*belated hugs* You are an awesome kittymom! I don't even have a microchip on Dusky. :/ It's always scary when they get out.

[ephemera]

If she's really determined to explore the world, it's almost impossible to stop a cat who's really *really* committed to the idea, so I'd be thinking about risk reduction. She has a collar now, and she's chipped. Maybe add a reflective hi-viz strip to her collar, talk to the vet about any shots she might need, and start training her to go out and come back. the traditional advice is to call her for dinner within the house, and let her out right when you'd usually be feeding her, to start training her to come back to the house when you call her, and maybe take her out to explore on a harness?

(In the UK indoor-only cats are a bit of a rarity, but I recognise that both hyperlocal and regional environmental issues can make that an unsafe option, and if I'm missing something like the presence of cat-eating wildlife in your neck of the woods, I apologies. If the environment is more-than-usually risky,would she take to a harness for outside exploration?)

It's absolutely scary when they vanish and don't come back on their usual timetable, though.