cat-sitting and cat absence

When I lived on our school compound in Kenya, I had a black cat which was a one-woman cat. I went away for a short trip, leaving him to be fed by my cook. However, he took up residence in a colleague's roof, refusing to come down until I came home and called him, whereupon he was down like a shot and charged in the door with me.

How kind of them Charlotta

Cats do disappear for weeks,some get locked in a garage and they can turn up after a few days. Next door's cat loves to stay away when her owners are not at home.
We came home once from a holiday in France about 20 years ago to find the neighbours waiting for us. I immediately sensed the worst and they told us our cat had died suddenly, perhaps had a knock from a car, and they had put the corpse in our spare fridge in the garage. It was the May weekend and hot as well so we understood why, but I have never forgotten it.

You can only hope for the best. Leaving an animal in the care of someone else is always a risk but most cats turn up immediately when their people come home.

The children across the road from me were looking after my neighbours' very elderly cat while they were on holiday. One day, the kids arrived at my door asking if I had seen Snookie. I hadn't but I knew where - under a bush in my garden - she liked to lie during the day. Sure enough she had gone there to die peacefully.
A happier story - my son's partner got two new kittens last year. Early this year, one of them, almost fully grown, just disappeared in the space of a few minutes. She put up posters round the neighbourhood and delivered flyers round the doors. She had given up hope when, five weeks later, she had a phone call - 'I think we have your cat in our garden.' And there she was, none the worse, and so glad to be home that she's hardly moved out of the garden since then. No-one knows where she was all that time and she's not letting on.

One cat we had disappeared for weeks. We were frantic, searching everywhere. Then he turned up one monng at 5am, kicking off because he couldn't get in the house. He hadn't lost any weight. Probably been on his holidays!