Rejoice (and be exceedingly fluffy)
Humbug is home and well! We went out again this morning, calling him, leafletting, and putting up wanted posters (which I will now go out and take down). One of the last houses we called at was the wonderful, huge one down the road with a 5 acre garden. Should have realised he'd have taken up residence in the best house in the area. Luckily the owners are really sweet and cat-friendly, an elderly physicist and his wife who we met and liked a lot at another neighbour's New Year party.
musique_monkey spotted the Bug scampering into the undergrowth as we walked up the drive. We both saw enough to be sure it was him but then he vanished into a patch of stinging nettles where he hid and made cat in pain noises at us. Went to let the owners know what we were doing. Elderly Physicist owner came out to help and show us his badger colony (about 50 of them live in a huge set in the garden). He'd seen Humbug around a few times. By this point, Humbug had decided we weren't monsters and had come out of the nettles. He was fine. And VERY VERY pleased to see us (once he remembered who we were). But not interested in cat treats because full of BUNNIEZ. Elderly Physicist said Hummie is welcome to visit any time as there are hundreds of bunnies and he only has one cat nowadays so lots of local cats come to visit the garden. Somebody recently killed two moorhens (why yes, of course they have a pond small lake) and didn't eat them. We admitted that sounds like Hum, who is good at catching big birds but can't get past the feathers so either leaves them or trades them for gushy fudz. Even so, he is still welcome to visit! Then he let us climb out of his garden at the back so we could walk home along the side of the field/North West Cambridge development site and not have to go along the road at all.
I wasn't sure if Humbug wanted to come home and I didn't want to force him in case that just taught him to hide from us next time we get worried and go looking for him. So we just encouraged him to follow us and he did. In fact, he clearly didn't want to let us out of his sight until he got all the way home. I reckon he'd either gone a bit further than usual and got himself confused, or something had scared him and he didn't know how to get back without having to past the scary thing. Anyway, he was very pleased to be home. He's spent the 3 1/2 hours since he got here sleeping first on Squirrel's bed and then on his own (aka the spare bed). See fig 1.
He has clearly missed duvets and mattresses. But not cat fudz: he is well fed on bunniez. I don't think he has plans to go out again for a while, but I expect he'll want to go back to the garden of wonderfulness in due course. Next time he goes missing we won't worry so much, (and we can email Elderly Physicist for news of him). I think he would have found his way home eventually when he got hungry or wet, but I'm not 100% sure. He was certainly more than ready to come home and very glad to be escorted back. Let's hope he's now learned the route....
Hum has been ever so loving and cuddly, and very keen to be combed - he'd picked up a good assortment of tangles, greenery and dust. Especially after what happened to Leicester last year, we were starting to fear the worst. It's so good that he's:
a) unhurt
b) glad to be home
I hadn't thought it would be possible to have both a) and b), but we do! :)
He's been out 3 days and 3 nights, which is 3 times longer than his previous escapes and one night longer than Leicester when he got run over.
We are all very very very relieved that he's back. (Actually, Leicester isn't bothered at all. Probably he knew exactly where Buggle was all along.)
musique_monkey spotted the Bug scampering into the undergrowth as we walked up the drive. We both saw enough to be sure it was him but then he vanished into a patch of stinging nettles where he hid and made cat in pain noises at us. Went to let the owners know what we were doing. Elderly Physicist owner came out to help and show us his badger colony (about 50 of them live in a huge set in the garden). He'd seen Humbug around a few times. By this point, Humbug had decided we weren't monsters and had come out of the nettles. He was fine. And VERY VERY pleased to see us (once he remembered who we were). But not interested in cat treats because full of BUNNIEZ. Elderly Physicist said Hummie is welcome to visit any time as there are hundreds of bunnies and he only has one cat nowadays so lots of local cats come to visit the garden. Somebody recently killed two moorhens (why yes, of course they have a pond small lake) and didn't eat them. We admitted that sounds like Hum, who is good at catching big birds but can't get past the feathers so either leaves them or trades them for gushy fudz. Even so, he is still welcome to visit! Then he let us climb out of his garden at the back so we could walk home along the side of the field/North West Cambridge development site and not have to go along the road at all.
I wasn't sure if Humbug wanted to come home and I didn't want to force him in case that just taught him to hide from us next time we get worried and go looking for him. So we just encouraged him to follow us and he did. In fact, he clearly didn't want to let us out of his sight until he got all the way home. I reckon he'd either gone a bit further than usual and got himself confused, or something had scared him and he didn't know how to get back without having to past the scary thing. Anyway, he was very pleased to be home. He's spent the 3 1/2 hours since he got here sleeping first on Squirrel's bed and then on his own (aka the spare bed). See fig 1.
He has clearly missed duvets and mattresses. But not cat fudz: he is well fed on bunniez. I don't think he has plans to go out again for a while, but I expect he'll want to go back to the garden of wonderfulness in due course. Next time he goes missing we won't worry so much, (and we can email Elderly Physicist for news of him). I think he would have found his way home eventually when he got hungry or wet, but I'm not 100% sure. He was certainly more than ready to come home and very glad to be escorted back. Let's hope he's now learned the route....
Hum has been ever so loving and cuddly, and very keen to be combed - he'd picked up a good assortment of tangles, greenery and dust. Especially after what happened to Leicester last year, we were starting to fear the worst. It's so good that he's:
a) unhurt
b) glad to be home
I hadn't thought it would be possible to have both a) and b), but we do! :)
He's been out 3 days and 3 nights, which is 3 times longer than his previous escapes and one night longer than Leicester when he got run over.
We are all very very very relieved that he's back. (Actually, Leicester isn't bothered at all. Probably he knew exactly where Buggle was all along.)