Where is Socks???
One thing I discovered whilst travelling is that humans are born to roam, just look at the Romans, Vikings, Celts, Polynesians etc, history tells us that they were all travellers.
Well the same most definitely goes for cats too, but having just relocated from Worthing to Wokingham one of mine has decided to go AWOL
It was of course my intention to keep both my cats indoors for 3 weeks when we moved house, but Socks immediately had other ideas. He was screaming and scratching at the windows from day 1 trying to get out and on day 10 made a beeline for the back door when I let the dogs out. Of course I panicked and immediately poured the contents of his litter tray in the garden.
30 minutes later he returned and was sniffing in the exact place I poured the litter. Two days later after a lot more protesting and window scratching I decided to let him out again but keeping a watching eye on him, after about 5 mins he lept over a neighbour fence, but was again home within 30 minutes, the same was repeated the following day, so I was getting confident in him returning, although I still hadn’t let me other cat out as I wasn’t so confident in her and in any way, she showed no interest in going outside anyway.
At 8am on 15th April I let Socks out again, he sniffed around by the back door for a while but then spotted a squirrel on the back fence (having just moved from the south coast to the forest he had never seen a squirrel before and had been mesmerised watching them in the tree outside my bedroom window). Anyway, like a bullet out of a gun he launched himself down the garden and onto the back fence and within a moment both he and the squirrel had vanished over the back fence! I didn’t panic too much at first but after 30 minutes when he didn’t return as usual I started calling him, but he didn’t come back.
I called all day and by the evening was walking the neighbourhood calling him and listening out for his cries but still nothing. We are now 24 days on and Socks has just vanished without trace.
I have done absolutely everything that people advise for missing cats; put litter outside, sprinkled hoover contents around, hung used clothes on the line, hunted night and day, even setting my alarm at 3am to search in the dead of night.
Finding Socks has become a bit of a community project now, over 300 flyers have been posted through neighbours doors in the immediate vicinity, posters put up a bit further afield and I am on numerous social media pages and websites, but no one has seen him. I have been sent numerous photos of tabby and white cats who have been sighted locally but none have been Socks. His front legs are very distinctive with one short white sock and one longer one.
Socks will be 2 in June, he is very long and is both neutered and microchipped. I hope somewhere some crazy cat lady had found him and is feeding him fresh sardines, my fear of course is that he is trapped somewhere, scared, alone and dying of starvation/dehydration.
The good news is that we haven’t had the worst news, no one has found him deceased by the roadside, and all the time there is no bad news there is always hope.
Two weeks ago however I did contact Pet Detective Robert Kenny, https://www.happytailsdetective.co.uk/. Robert is currently in Ireland but was on the phone to me within minutes of my making an online enquiry. Personal instinct told me this man really knows his stuff and with 15 years experience in recovering both dogs and cats I felt comfortable in trusting him. He is calm, rational and genuinely cares not only about the animals but their owners too.
That same evening Robert did a google maps search, learnt about our neighbourhood and told me the areas where I should be looking. I have focused my search in this area but as yet I am still to find Socks. My most limiting factor is time, with a full time business and a young son it is hard to spend all day door knocking but I am still hopeful.
I have had further telephone conversations with Robert and he still believes that Socks is within 200 meters of home and that time will not be a factor in finding him again. Whilst I am frantic with worry, Robert is constantly reassuring and consistently gives me a feeling of hope.
Robert will be returning from Ireland shortly and has promised me that a search for Socks will be first on his list once he returns here and should start within the next two weeks – so I am hoping that my little wandered will return, although unlike Cameron and myself I doubt he will be unable to to retell the stories of his adventures.
So I will follow up this blog with a further review of the search and results of the pet detective, but in the meantime if anyone else has a missing pet they may want to look Robert Kenny up on facebook at https://www.happytailsdetective.co.uk/
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