I feed my cat in the morning and let him out, he lays about for an hour or so on top of the oil burner then disappears all day appearing home at dusk to be fed, 10pm he came in last night.

He's 1 year old and neutered, this has only started happening as past week or so

He is enjoying the sunshine. Summer is one long cat holiday.

He'll have found a nice spot to sunbathe and then cool down in a shady spot undisturbed, and as this weather if set to continue for a week or so more, I'd pack your cat a little picnic basket to take with him

My cat had lived in the garden this week, moving between sunny spots and then cooling himself in the centre of Iris foliage.

My cats get let out between 4:30-5am, one comes backwards and forwards during the day to "check on me," the other comes in about half 7 for his breakfast, doesn't then return until after 5pm for his tea, and then he buggers off again until about half 9 when he comes in for bed.

I'd love to know where he goes for all that time. As he's an utter chicken around anyone but me, I don't think he has another home he's going to, I've just come to accept he's a wanderer.

You can buy "catnavs" which track their movements, but as he's not worn a collar for over a year now, I don't think my cat would tolerate one. Might be worth a try for your cat though, so you can see where he's off to

Na my cat takes collars of. My wife pulled in just now and out he came from the neighbours hedge. Perhaps that's where he's hiding out. I notice in this heat he's very lazy, perhaps he just hides in shelter all day.

Get a gpaws tracker and you can find out exactly where they go.

Now, if you'd said he'd been doing this for a couple of years and you'd lived a few doors up the road from me, I could have answered that question. He'd have been spending the whole day dozing underneath a bush in my garden.

Your cat is probably doing something similar. Either that, or he's persuaded another neighbour that he's a stray, and he's getting some extra food out of it.

Same here! We have one of a pair who live down the road who arrives every morning at 9am. I know she has just been fed because she comes in and washes herself for half an hour. She then moves upstairs to a spare room and spends the day there. We are definitely NOT feeding her at all - its not fair on the owners - but it doesn't stop her coming in for a cuddle. If its hot, she spends the day on a chair in the garden or under a bush.
According to the disbelieving owners, she's terrified of everyone, but obviously not us..!.

I get a stream of local cats spending the day at my place. If a window is open some will let themselves in and turn up asleep somewhere. I don't feed them either, but they will beg for attention at the window if they see me inside, and will hang around until very late, maybe imagining they can take up residence if they persist - but I know they have local owners. I guess they like the surroundings, no dog, no kids, interesting garden with water (pond) and faint whiff of roast chicken now and then...

Tom cats will wander off further and for far longer than female cats, who tend to stay quite close to home and are often still visible to their owners evev though still outside. Tom cats are often absent for long periods, even if neutered.

I thought a Tomcat was an un-neutered male?

It's normal cat behvior, especially in this weather...Sorry, only just noticed the rain and the Bandit was sheltering outside (Motsy waits for the inevitable blame, guilty verdict and earache...There, I knew it..)

One of my cats recently went missing overnight for the first time ever this weekend. He always comes home and they're locked in for the night. However he came in for some food about 9pm, went back out (he normally stays out for another hour or two) and never came home until gone 9pm the next evening.

Then he just casually sauntered in, without a care in the world (I'd been having a nervous breakdown for several hours by now) stuffed his face full of food, yelled at me for more, ate another bowl of food, and then passed out on the bed.

The little sod!

Sounds like he got locked in a shed or garage, dollymarie. Lucky for him it seems to have only been overnight!

We have 3 cats. One of them spends most of her time indoors and when she goes out she comes in frequently. One of them stays out for about an hour or two and then comes in, finds out if there is a human about, asks for Dreamies, doesn't often get them and goes out again for another hour or so. The youngest, who is a year old has her breakfast and then disappears all day.

We didn't know where our youngest cat went until a friend of ours was working on a roof near the river which is about two roads away from our road. He was up a ladder and looked at the river and saw our youngest over there, stalking mice or something no doubt.

Cats are like people, they are all different. Maybe your cat just likes to wander. When our little wanderer didn't come home one evening OH went to the cul-de-sac which is next to the river and asked if anyone had seen her. When he described her he discovered they all knew her over there and made a fuss of her. As he was chatting she came running up to him, purring and happy to see him, so he carried her home in his jacket.

Scuse me while I stop myself from pissing myself laughing..
Know how you feel about the earache for more but I told Bandit straight that my two weeks off revolved around me and any whinging for more food, despite a fresh bowlful and she was out for the day/night.

No idea. Neutered male then if it makes you happy.

Wasnt being arsey it was more of a querstion as I thought that was what an un-neutered male was called. More of a dog person myself, dont know much about cats.

I dont know if anyone watched this programme, it was really interesting - even for non-catty people.

http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sc...ret-lives.html

Not sure if it's still available to watch - it wont tell you where your cat goes but it might give you an insight into what sort of things they get up to.

That sounds like the sort of thing my present cat does !

We used to have a very timid Tortie, she rarely went anywhere. One summer evening, she didn't come in for the night, I went all round the culd de sac calling her- nothing !

The next morning, just as I was walking up the road looking for her, the neighbours were going out for the day, they opened their garage door, & out shot my Nortie Tortie, like a bat out of hell & legged it back to our house

I hear horror stories of cats being shut in neighbours garages or sheds, for days, as the people have gone away on holiday Sometimes the police have to be called to break in, if it's known the cat is in there.

A couple of years ago I got home from shopping around 2.30pm to find the police outside my door as my alarm had gone off ! they checked the whole house found nothing -next morning at 7.30 I went downstairs to get the papers and next door's cat came sauntering out of the front room I nearly jumped out of my skin
he had been in the house all those hours never made a sound or made a mess
he's normally "chatty" if he comes in the garden or the kitchen if the back door is open so don't know why he didn't start meowing during the night