He just had places to go, and people to serve his wishes....cats :)

(yeah ok so I graduated from redundancy college of redundancy.)
I've had a few feline 'visitors', who stayed longer than they ought to have. No worrys.

One of my cats disappeared for many days but came back. Probably got trapped in a garage. A bit feral and died early from sudden kidney failure. Strange.

The other thinks he's a dog but is mostly perfect. He is definitely daddys boy. I tried to teach him to heel when crossing the street and he'd lay down in protest. Bugger. Survived being hit by a car and a near fatal neck abscess probably from a scratch. He will charge large dogs if he doesn't like 'em. He and the dog compete for the top of the bed next to me. If he chose a better home I'd almost be ok with that.

I don't understand cats...who does, but that dawg ain't going no damn where :)

It turned out, our cat had 3. She liked to visit other neighbors who had cats.

Friend and his wife have 5 cats. At on time on another they just show up because they put dry food outside all the time. It also feeds local raccoons and opossum but they try to not leave food out at night. They let the cats come and go as they please so they are not "keeping" them. The cats basically hang a their house. The cats all show up at dinner time when they break out the canned cat food. Bet someone somewhere thinks they are missing a cat or two. Everyone in their neighborhood knows they are the cat people.

When a stray starts hanging around their house they do make sure it is fixed.

That would be weird. Your cat doesn't come home for a few days. When it does it's been fixed.

Oops! Now hold on a minute! There were some differences with my wife's dog. For example, we held the dog ransom and demanded large sums of unmarked bills from the next store neighbors. When they failed to pay, we kept the dog and her puppies to make a new coat for my wife!!!!! When their meddling kids came up the driveway to take him, we hit em' with the power washer!!!! :D

Yeah, there were some differences between our story and the cats. For example, this dog was wandering the neighborhood for several months and living at various houses the whole time. After "found dog" signs, calls to the dog pound, lost and found type adds, and talking to various neighbors, the dog ended up staying between two houses, and eventually ours. The neighbors were supportive, and everyone assumed when the dog would go missing, she had merely gone home (in reality she was vacationing at various other neighbor's houses- never an owner). People were concerned as the dog was wandering onto some busy rural highways and was going to get hit in a matter of time. After about 6 months, I guess we fed her the best, or had the best furniture. She got tired of walking around and plopped on our couch for good!
That is what got my wife calling about ownership laws. In Va. (I think) it is only 7 days of possession and if the "adopter" spends money on the dog and can provide receipts (vaccinations, etc- which my wife did /checking for implant ID, etc..), the original owner would be required to pay the new owner or relinquish control of the pet. I remember thinking how lax that seemed, and concerned that could lead to a lot of "situations", but evidently it doesn't.

Edit- since typing my original comment, dog has not moved off couch and is still snoring away. If you want a free "grey market/fully laundered" dog, please pm me.
Upon re-reading Noah's story I saw the thing about the cat originally (until recently) having a collar, which blows some holes in my theory. Weird!

Cats will visit other houses, not by exception but almost regulary.
I have 2 idiots, and suddenly the neighbours ginger kitten shows up.
At night, scared the **** out of it when I came down and did not see it for over a year.

One year later, the ginger kitten now pretty big and strong spends more and more time in my garden.
And suddenly i notice at night when i go down, that he runs out the house and there's a warm spot in the coach. Right next to where my oldest cat still sits.

I also know from my neighbour that mine, Boris occasionally goes there to eat.
And when they have BBQ, he sits right next to it and pretends to be starving.

FFWD some more. Neighbour says to me, have you see my cat?
I'm like yeah, he's been in and out my house regulary, every so many days he visits.

She goes, oh, that's good, haven't seen him in 3 weeks and was worried he died like my other one.
At least he's ok, i guess he's lonely since his brother died.

Boris behaves like he knows Ginger all his life. (he probably does since he's been going over there).

Neighbor lady got a Chihuahua the next week, so i says, you do realize the Ginger is not coming home now with that dog yapping his nuts off all day?

She shrugged
I have a new cat.

Max Cherry in the back
Jacky Brown in the middle
Boris the Blade up front.

Yep, they have their own coach, gotta make sure they don't run off to a better hotel.

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...2e&oe=5835C880

https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...31&oe=58CEA22D

Cats are not like dogs, they make up their own mind...

Just don't feed them sausage. It confuses them.

http://gif-finder.com/wp-content/upl...at-Sausage.gif

It doesn't confuse mine, mine will snatch and grab entire sausages from the frying pan if i don't pay attention..

The one in the gif looks pretty young. Yours are seasoned veterans.

Boris is 8
JB is 2, the Ginger, unknown but i think around 2 as well.

Boris is OG, found him on the streets, very hungry.
And the hunger never left him.

Gone in 6 seconds, i've seen him race through the catflap and out in the garden at speed with a full size steak dangling on both sides of his head.

2 minutes later the smeghead returns to the house, because he prefers to eat indoors,
even if it's the steak he stole from me. Dumbass.

The neighbour said she went to bed and found my kitten very comfortably sleeping on her bed. Her cat was furious and chased Tomtom around the room but neither she or her cat could catch him LOL He wasn't concerned in the slightest according to her.