Smokey Comes Home - A Cat Rescue Story

by Robert Barrow
(Vanceboro, NC )

When Smokey was about 6 months old he disappeared for about 8 days. We were grief stricken & I had not gotten over the grief due to the passing of my Mother about 3 weeks previous. This really made it much worse. We had given up hope of ever seeing him again & we live on a major highway, so the posibility of him getting run over was quite possible.

My wife was at home one day and all of a sudden Smokey jumped up to the kitchen window. She was startled to see that he had come home. Smokey was skin & bones & looked emaciated. He ate 3 cans of Tender Vitals & a bowl of dry cat food & begged for more. She wouldn't give him anything else. She immediately called me at work to give me the good news. Our home is situated in a triangle with highway frontage on both sides of the house. He will be 17 on this Memorial Day. In all of these 17 years Smokey has never been near or crossed the highway. He has stayed in out triangle and has never ventured more than 500 ft. from the house to a wooded area nearby to hunt. He has brought home his prize catch of rabbits, squirrels, birds & mice numerous time over the years. We have always been puzzled as to what happened to him over those 8 days. He must have had an awful harrowing experience while away or perhaps been up a tree & didn't know how to get down. He was always being chased up trees in our yard when he was young by neighbourhood cats & I would have to get a ladder & rescue him. He has been a real joy all these years and he will surely be missed when he passes.

Comment from Kate
Thanks for telling us your cats story. It’s funny how cats can often do these sort of disappearing acts during their life for no apparent reason.

My guess is that yes they get stuck somewhere, a tree, a shed etc Anyway thank goodness he came home.

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