We lost our cat last week. It was dreadfully cold, and several times a day we'd stand outside calling his name. Usually if he doesn't hear us one time, he hears us the next and comes running, tail up, paws frantic, to come inside where it's warm and cozy. For three days we called, even at 6am when the neighbors most certainly swore at us from their pillows, even at 11pm. Then we finally get a phone call from our next-door neighbor, an elderly artist who had feared for him in the cold and let him inside. She hadn't seen our car to let him out again.
Now, I appreciate her concern. It was misplaced with eldest cat, who once stored a half-eaten squirrel in a snowbank and tried to bring it along when Ms. P moved. But her concern for cats is admirable.
However. Eldest cat doesn't so much like having to live with dogs, although they've got a dutiful peace going on. He's an opportunist, and he got to live for three days with an old lady with other old cats in a quiet house without dogs. So when I thanked the neighbor profusely and asked her not to let him in anymore, she put him out the back door. I called him. I shook the Pounce treats. I made little cat noises. Nothing. He just sat on her back porch and cried to be let back in. I had to climb railless wooden stairs covered with snow to scoop him up (all 17 pounds of him) and carry him home again.
He wasn't impressed. We decided to keep him inside for a while, to reset him, so to speak. Ms. P wanted to give him a treat, so she gave him mahimahi. He got tuna. He slept on my pillow every night. He repeatedly pawed at the door and meowed to go out, but we ignored him. Our goal was two weeks.
Well, first thing this morning, while I'm switching the dogs on their lead, he sneaks out. Ms. P assures me he'll come home, that he knows where his home is, that he got mahimahi for fuck's sake! And I know he will. He came home when I first let him out after having to move in with a dog. So long as the neighbor doesn't let him in again (and I doubt she will), he'll come home. But oh, it makes me nervous.