On Mon, 10 Feb 2014 23:51:25 +0000, Christina Websell wrote:

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
On 2014-02-08 4:29 PM, Christina Websell wrote:

His own posh collar that he arrived with? I took it off when no-one
claimed him and I did make a lot of effort towards finding where he
came from. It was a seriously posh cost-a-lot collar which suggests he
was well loved in a previous home, but hey, if they cannot be bothered
to get their teenage cat neutered, he'll be off after the girls maybe
too far to find his way home,
which is probably what happened to my Boykin, and it's their own fault
that they lost him. He is so lovely they are probably missing him
still. Too bad, he's mine now!

It may be my imagination, but I think male cats are more likely to roam
off and get lost than female ones - actually, they're probably roaming
because they're searching for females. I'm certain my Sammy had a home
at one point; a good one, because he's always been so friendly and
affectionate with people he must have had good experiences with them as
a kitten. The people who gave him to me after they found him roaming in
their neighbourhood said they'd looked for his owner unsuccessfully,
and I didn't quite believe them, so I checked out all the usual local
places people report lost pets. I was also unable to find anyone who
reported missing a young adult tomcat. Maybe he hid in a car or truck
and went missing from some distant place. Maybe he'd been missing so
long he wasn't on the current lists. Maybe no one bothered looking, not
even for such a sweet cat.

Their loss, my gain.

I agree. Boyfie is a gain for me. The vet asked me how he got his
name and I explained about KFC not allowing any other cats in her garden
except him so he must have been her boyfriend and how the name stuck.
He told me that young "teenage" male cats will travel miles looking for
girls if they are not neutered and then they get out of their familiar
area and cannot find their way home. I thought like you that Boyfie had
got into a van like you did with Sammy because no-one claimed him even
though I advertised him as a found cat. But the simple truth is that
they both wandered outside their own area and got lost because their
original owners couldn't be arsed to neuter them - and they deserved to
lose Sammy & Boyfriend.
Part of me is sorry for them that they lost him but it's their own
fault. The other part of me says "It serves you right and you missed out
on the most kind and gentle boy in the world" simply because you didn't
give him the snip.

Tweed

Domestic animals aren't the only ones who go for inadvertent long-
distance trips. Some years ago, I was driving past a railroad yard here
in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, and was surprised to see a porcupine
crossing the road, coming out of the railroad yard. While Tennessee is
theoretically within the normal range for such animals, they are more
often associated with the northeast USA, so I suspect this porcupine
climbed up into a boxcar loaded with some attractive-smelling cargo, then
went on an unexpected train ride.