Hi,
Im new to the forum have just signed up after doing some research.

We have had toto since he was about 6 weeks old. After having his injections we let him just go out in the small back yard making sure he couldnt get out. He would be outside for about 20 minutes a time. He was castrated last friday and today we let him out of the back gate for the first time today at 12 o clock dinner time.

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6826587_n.jpg

Me and my girlfriend expected him to have a nosey around, but not go too far at first because that is what my dads cat did. And eventually ventured further after time.

He went out of the back gate and trotted off out of sight, after half an hour or so we were worried we couldnt find him, 2 hours later i was still searching everywhere. I spotted a cat with similar markings on the railway that goes under neath a nearby road. I shouted TOTO and the cat starred straight at me.

I slid down through the bushes onto the tracks but by the time i got there the cat had gone. I walked up and down for hours shouting him and shaking a box with biscuits in. Further up the track i saw a small cat walking away from us so i tried to catch up. I finally caught up with this cat and was absolutely gutted when i realised i had been wasting so much time because it was'nt even ours, but very similar.

I was back to square one and my girlfriend was hystericaly upset so i looked all around the streets again, in gardens, bushes. It was by then 8 o clock and we had been looking for 8 hours dreading the worst. We walked home, and he was underneath a car right outside our house. Came straight over to us and came inside like nothing had happened.

We had been checking back at home during the search incase he went home but until this time, nobody even neighbours had seen him. Were over the moon hes back, never seen my girlfriends face light up so much, but im worried now about letting him out again.

Is it a bit wierd for a cat to dissapear for so long on there first outing?

Sorry its a long one but not half as long as the day we have had