Sockers Has Vanished Options

[Sockers]

Hi everyone,

I found this sight in my search for information and encouragement in trying to find my beloved cat Socks (or Sockers) who has been missing since 10/21.

She is now about four years old, and I found her and her sister at four weeks old under our shed in the backyard. They came into my life at a time when I really needed them, after my dog of seventeen years went to sleep, and I fell in love from the beginning. Never having been able to have children of my own, my pets have always been my "kids". Their kitty mother nursed them until they were old enough to eat kitty chow, and they lived the first eight or nine months of their lives outside. Both of them have always been extremely timid, but self reliant, and won't voluntarily get near any other humans other than me and occasionally my husband. At this time we lived in a subdivision in town, and they were always close by when I'd come home from work. They had plenty of places to hide from things that spooked them, under the shed or under our or the neighbors decks. When the weather turned colder, they came inside and got used to being indoor/outdoor cats, and during the winter rarely stayed out more than an hour or so at a time.

We moved about eight months ago in the spring to a new town, and after about three weeks I let them venture outside a bit. We now live in a semi-rural area in that our house backs up to a small horse farm and then a wooded area, although we are still in a subdivision. Right now there are just a few houses here, and we are off by ourselves as no one has built around us yet.

When Socks and Sassy first started going out, being as timid as they are, as soon as they heard or saw anything unfamiliar they would shoot into our garage and go through the cat door back into the house. We don't have a deck or any shrubbery here yet for them to take cover, so I would leave the garage door cracked for them. We got into a routine where, they would be inside all night, then I'd let them out in the morning before work, (it is still dark when I get up) and when I got ready to leave, Sassy and sometimes Sockers would be waiting by the back door ready to come in for the day. At times I'd have to go get Socks from the field across the street where at dawn she liked to hunt for mice. I eventually had to close the garage door because she started bringing the mice through the cat door and depositing them on the living room floor for me! I would let them back out at dusk in the summer, and they would always be around to come back in for the night when it was bedtime.

So that's how it went for about 7 months. Within the last month, Sockers has wanted to stay out later and later at night, so when I went to bed she wasn't always around. However, she was always there in the early morning, more than ready to come in and eat. Until last Sunday. I tried to get her to come in that night but she kept moving away from me (which she had done before) so I thought, I'd just get up early and let her in. Well, Monday morning came and it was like she had vanished into thin air. At first I wasn't too worried and checked the field across the street but she wasn't there. I started to get upset when daylight came and she still didn't show up. She ALWAYS came in before daylight because she wasn't comfortable being out when it was too light. Add to this, that afternoon it started to rain, and rain, and rain. It rained for almost three days straight and we got almost 6 inches during that time. I was pretty much inconsolable thinking about her out in that weather.

Since then I have been a mental and physical wreck. The anguish of not knowing where she is, is tearing me apart. I feel like if she could come home she would, because in her four years she has never wandered off for more than a few hours at a time. My husband and I are the only people who she will come around. She LOVES to take a cat nap on my lap when I get home from work. When we have company, (even my family who they've seen hundreds of times) they always hide until everyone has left before they venture out of the back bedroom. I know she wouldn't go up to a stranger.

I think we've done everything we possible can to help her come home. She had a collar on when she vanished (although no tags) but she does have a micro chip in her that I put in both of them when we moved. I've made flourescent posters, put hundreds of flyers anywhere they will let me put them, contacted and visited all the shelters etc., put an add in the paper, left out food and pieces of my clothing and her kitty litter every night, search the woods, get up at 3 and 4 in the morning calling for her - and still no sign of her. I am exhausted and just sad all the time. Her sister misses her terribly too, and I haven't let Sass out since Socks went missing. Some people tell me to just accept that she's gone, and move on but I can't. I feel like she's hurt and needs my help but I just can't get to her. It's a total living nightmare. Is it normal for a cat who has never wandered like this to start suddenly? Is there still a chance she'll come back on her own?

Sorry to ramble on so long but it helps to talk about it. I've read some of the success stories here that have given me hope, but hope is hard to keep when you are disappointed hundreds of times each day that she doesn't come home.

Thanks for listening,
Jacki

[Sockers]

Well, day nine is almost gone and still no Sockers. It's strange now, I still expect to see her but at the same time I don't. She used to be so visible out in the yard and in the pasture behind us, patiently waiting for a mole or a mouse, or whatever those small rodents were that she'd plop on the living room floor. I know there's a chance she will still come home but I worry about her being able to hold her own out there. She is a small cat, last time we weighed her about 8 1/2 pounds. There are much bigger scarier things all around and I don't know how she would do in a fight, even with another stray cat. She's been pampered for a long time so her survival does weigh heavy on my mind. I do know she wouldn't go hungry, if she's not too scared to hunt.

I checked with the shelter in the city where we used to live (18 highway miles, so less as the cat travels I guess) today after work, and that was another heartbreaker to pile on. Three big rooms with wall to wall cages of poor, sad kitties who don't have any one to call their Mom. It made me want to turn and run for the door. But I had to check, and there was one there who had Sockers' markings, almost identical, and I called to her and she even meowed like Socks, but it turns out it was a male, and when he finally rose up, I could tell for certain - not Socks.

After that I walked another neighborhood with more flyers. It is a beautiful day here today and there were lots of people out in their yards so I talked to as many of them as I could along with a couple of groups of grade school kids out playing ball. I then found a few more businesses that were kind enough to put my flyer in their windows.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but a couple down the street lost their (indoor) cat about a week after they moved in, and another lady who had two (outside access) cats lost both of hers. Out of the three, the first one has not come back home and they moved here in July. Of the second two, one (Henry) was found at her old house across town, but she has not seen the other one since, and this was sometime in early summer. Very discouraging to hear all this. For three cats to go missing on the same street just seems very strange, and downright scary. Then again, I don't know how much effort they put into finding their pets. The lady said she called the shelter but I think that was about it.

When my husband got home we passed out the rest of the flyers. One good thing that happened - there was a group of ladies standing on the sidewalk and we stopped to hand them a flyer and tell them about Socks. She said, "Oh yeah, I've seen these signs all over town. You have a big one at the entrance to the subdivision and another one down around the corner." So people ARE seeing them, and that made me feel confident that if Socks is hanging out in any one of the nearby neighborhoods and not off into the wild, we'll know about it.

Now Im going to try to unwind. I think I've done all I can for another day and it would be nice to get some sound sleep tonight, at least until 4:00. Oh, there was one thing I was going to ask about - the traps. Is it likely that if Socks was back home that we would need to trap her to stay here? It does seem like if she was able, she'd waltz right through the cat door like she always has, (please God) but at this point, I'm not sure of anything anymore.

You all are keeping me going, please know how much I appreciate each of you and your compassion. To know there are such caring, good people out there who want to help is a blessing in itself.

Jacki