oh my god!!! i think the last two 48 hours count for the most stressed i've been since 2022!!!

my cat cookie got out yesterday morning after a collection driver rushed my wfh sister, but cookie is an indoor cat and we've also only just moved to this area, which he's unfamiliar with. so he panicked and ran into someone's garden to hide ...(｡•́︿•̀｡)

i was really really worried since he didn't know the area and he wasn't responding to calls or food at all, and i was scared he would try to go back to the area he does know... like i've been imagining finding him on the side of a road dead or never seeing him again, it's been killing me...

it doesn't help he's half blind so he doesn't have a great field of vision or see very far, i've hated the idea of him being an outdoor cat so i never let him normally. i can't deal with the anxiety of not knowing where they are at any moment or if they're safe.

i know normally cats are very good at surviving, and cookie must have done so for a bit before we adopted him, but he's very anxious because of that life and he gets bullied by other cats ;__;

we think that he hid out most of yday and today in someone's garden, since he didn't turn up at all while it was light, but when it got darker he found his way back to our front door last night. he didn't really want to come in yet though because he was still scared?? it's kinda like he reverted back to stray cat mode and wouldn't let us near him. i tried so much last night to lure him back in with snacks and food but he kept running each time i tried to grab him or shut the door behind him. :(

so today our plan was to wait for him to pop up again at the door. we had a ring cam pointed at the open door and have been watching it sm... he popped up about 9.30pm-ish, but it started to rain and he spooked and hid again for about an hour. the thing with cookie is we can't chase him it makes it worse, he'll hide and not come out. so we had a stash of food, we tried to rebuild his trust with us a bit, and we had this silly string set up on the door. like my sister had to sit motionless to the side with a string, waiting til i gave a signal!!

look at this ridiculousness.

he was so scared when the door slammed shut (sorry cookie!!! and the neighbours!!!) and hid under the sofa (see he loves to hide and i get it yk), but 15mins later he was rolling over and purring for pets again....it's like he flipped back to his normal self once he realized he had come back home. :3

the quality is terrible sorry, it was dark and he wouldn't stop wriggling about hehe.