It was only 11 days away this time, but in she bounces fresh as a spring rabbit. A little short on grooming and hungry as a church mouse, but otherwise totally herself and unapologetic for the disruption she has caused in our lives.
She has well exceeded her annual holiday allowance. We calculate in the last 12 months she has been absent without leave for well over 60 days, that’s 1/6th of a year on her various jaunts.
Where does she go? She’s not telling. She travels silently and at night and though she is chipped to our address, that doesn’t operate for GPS like a mobile telephone would. How far does she range? Once we rescued her gratefully from Little Orchard House in West Street. Perhaps one of our readers takes her in and feeds her? Banish the thought!
I must admit we have a sneaking admiration for her independence and a sort of phlegmatic resignation, even amounting to a confident hope that she will return, until one day perhaps she won’t. Our greatest fear is that she will be locked in somewhere without food and water perhaps when a weekender goes back to town, for she often returns on a Monday.
So here’s to Milly, and in the catchphrase sign-off of John Ebdon, a BBC broadcaster from earlier days: “And if you have been, thanks for listening.”
Image Credits: Maya .
How delightful that the Rye News can make space for such a heartwarming story in these bleak times.
Many years ago, I heard of a cat-owner in a similar situation, who tied a label onto the cat’s collar asking that people ring her (the owner’s) telephone number if they have been feeding her. She had twelve replies.
You could put a tracker collar on her?
UBEE CAT GPS Tracker for cats, Lightest UK tracker (23g), Unlimited Range, Free & Shareable App, UK Support https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088X3ZFK7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_ATBKCFN8RZMS5N8VREQK
We have a visiting cat whose owners put one of these on him. It upset him so much, that one day, in trying to get it off, he got it stuck in his mouth pulling his jaw down. He was frantic, and it was a struggle to remove. Fortunately in this case, we know the neighbours, and they agreed that it wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Bless her! We use a tracker collar for our wandering Dave – it’s Pawtrack, after trying a few this is very good https://pawtrack.com/, and just the size of a collar pretty much.
It certainly made for interesting ‘viewing’ – I’m sure all the Rye News readers would love to read about Milly’s adventures!
Does she have access to a cat flap in your house ?,if not that’s when cats will wander off especially at night if she can’t get back into her home. I know cats do have minds of their own and nothing will stop them if their determined to do something.