Missing Cats – All in A Muddle

There’s not a single day goes by without me thinking about Muddle. Muddle was a very special tuxedo cat, because he was a finder, a sender – of other cats to our door…..

Muddle, one of my rescue cats went missing on 26th May 2018. Muddle had been with us over six years and was part of our animal family of cats, hens and a dog.

When we first moved in to our village we had two female house cats. These unrelated girls were also rescued. In fact, we made a 300 mile round trip from Yorkshire to collect them from the Cats Protection in Norfolk before we relocated here. It was 2005 and our old tabby girl cat named Tansie had passed away. I was adamant that I couldn’t open my heart to home another cat, but my husband saw how lost I looked each evening without a cat on my lap to relax with.

He looked on the internet and quite by accident he saw a huge ginger face, (with a body to match!), staring back at him from the website of the Cats Protection. This older ginger giant was named Tess, or rather ‘Ten Tonne Tess’ as the rescue centre staff called her. Tess needed a special home because not only did she weigh 26lb – (a normal, healthy feline weight is around 10-12lb), but she also suffered from agoraphobia due to being bullied by a neighbouring cat in her own garden. Owing to her weight she couldn’t defend herself which lead her not to venture outdoors again. For four years, with her previous owner, Tess became a recluse and gained even more weight due to lack of exercise. However, they were sensible enough to surrender the cat to the shelter for her own good. The Cats Protection were reluctant to rehome Tess out of Norfolk as they were unable to undertake a home check, but at that time I worked voluntary for Sheffield Hallam Cats Protection, so after confirmation that we’d make suitable ‘pawrents’ they agreed that Tess, along with another large ginger and white cat we named Jemima, could travel the five hour journey to their forever home with us.

Over time, we reduced Tess’s weight through activities encouraging exercise and play and her special diet was adhered to despite her many protests. As an animal healer and therapist, I gave Tess hands-on healing to help develop her confidence and this paid huge dividends as she became even more outgoing.

Fast forward nine years to 2014 and Tess and Jemima had both passed away aged fifteen and seventeen. In just a  a matter of days we lost Tess, one minute she was healthy and the next she’d rapidly declined and passed away, her lungs full of fluid from a respiratory virus.

We relocated to Norfolk in 2010 and moved to this village in 2012. We noticed a little black and white cat living at the cottage across the lane. A the cottage lived two school aged children and their parents. A little tuxedo cat would constantly follow each of them around their garden, but the family ignored his wishes for affection, walking past him without even glancing down, it made me really sad. We discovered that they fed him sporadically, didn’t allow him indoors and little wonder he always looked hungry. It was no surprise that they took off to live in another county abandoning the cat without a second thought.

Over a period of two months I managed to coax the tiny tom cat to come near me. He’d thankfully been neutered and I decided to rename him ‘Muddle’. I may have been building up trust but I failed miserably when I brought him indoors one evening when the weather started to get colder. Muddle launched himself at the French doors, yowling and screaming and trying to escape through the glass. I knew that it was going to take some time to rehabilitate him to being a loved, domestic cat, so in the meantime I set up a cosy, extra-large cat carrier in our barn, padded out with fleeces and a heated bed. Success – he was happy with this space and we respected his choice to favour this over a comfy spot indoors. It was a compromise that lasted four years because he was content to sleep in his ‘snuggle-pot’ each night.

One extremely cold winter’s night I brought the snuggle pot indoors, complete with Muddle inside. Freaky cat puss emerged once more, until we broke through his nervousness with Reiki healing, calming touch and a remedy or two from the Bach flower range. Afterwards, he relented to coming indoors each evening until Saturday 26th May 2018 when muddle was a no show.

We did everything we possibly could to locate our boy, searched far and wide, undertook extensive searches and even offered a £1,000 reward, but there were no sightings of him. At that time he was aged around 13 -14 and was in good health.

We miss him every day because Muddle was no ordinary cat, he was a ‘feline finder’. Previously, on two occasions when he’d returned back after an overnight jaunt, he returned with a feral cat each time. Each of which we managed to trap and rescue. One unneutered black tom cat, with a hip issue we’d named Willow. We now sponsor Willow to live at a local rescue because he tested positive to FIV.

The second cat, a black and white chap like Muddle was a true TNR feral with ear snip tip belonged to a feral colony. This one turned up with cancer, struggling to walk and couldn’t feed himself. Tippy, we named him is now cancer free and our indoor snuggle-puss, he and our dog are inseparable. I’ll share his story of rehabilitation from cancer through holistic healing in another post, though his story is in my book.

Just two days after Muddle went missing, a tabby cat appeared at our back door, nobody in our village owned this cat. Judging by past experiences, we think it’s highly likely that Muddle has ‘found’ a third feral, but we’d like Muddle home too!

Here are ten simple things you can do if your own cat goes missing.
1. Call the cat regularly and in all directions. Voices carry depending on which way the wind is blowing
2. If possible, go into the neighbourhood and call the cat between 1.00am to 3.00am when it’s quiet and they’re most likely to hear you. Wait a while before moving off as they could call you if injured.
3. Print our flyers and go door to door in your village
4. Put up A4 posters in busy places, like beside schools, shops, pubs, doggy poo bins, post boxes; places that are frequented by people
5. Phone around local vets in the unfortunate event that your cat has been knocked down and taken in
6. Phone Pet Log to report your cat missing (if microchipped)
7. Phone your local councils’ street cleansing department
8. Put out their used litter tray or sprinkle it around and about so the cat can pick up the scent
9. Hang out their bedding on the washing line. A cats’ nose is around fourteen times more sensitive to smell than that of a human being. Hence why essential oils and air fresheners can present serious health concerns for cats.
10. Never give up

It’s advisable to spay and neuter cats to narrow down the chances of them going missing. Un-neutered cats will wander for miles in search of a female to mate with. Most don’t get to experience their jollies because a high percentage are killed on the roads in their quest. We have two such cases buried in our garden. It should also be made law for all cats to be microchipped, for us cat lovers they ARE as important as dogs are.

Blessings,

Niki.