It’s my birthday today but I can’t shake this sadness

[u/oawow]

I’m turning 31 today and truly have so much to be thankful for. I have a sweet family, house, food, friends. Sweet pets. All except for one. Her name is Fiona and she’s been missing almost a whole week.

Long story short her and my other cat Cleo have been my whole worlds up until the last year when my son was born. They were both under weight, abandoned kittens who I bottle fed and raised into two healthy sweet girls 3 1/2 years ago. (Truly my induction into parenthood).

We live in a small town and our house is literally across the street from a local college which we frequently walk/play Pokémon go. Our cats are indoor/outdoor, and one of our girls Fiona started tagging along with us and following behind on our little walks. Well she’s started doing her own exploring and adventures since then and became a well known little kitty visitor to staff and students. Now she hasn’t been home in 6 days. She’s never been gone a whole day before.

Neither of our cats will tolerate a collar, and we’ve always tried to let people know that she’s our cat, we live across the street etc when we run into folks or see people petting her. But we think that a student may have scooped her up because she’s a beautiful solid white kitty, and is super sweet and friendly. We’ve already made flyers and put them up around the college and dorms, and have only had one person reach out saying she recognizes Fiona and will keep an eye out for her. But that’s it, no other leads.

I haven’t cried about it yet cause being a full time mom pretty much consumes my brain, but it’s really starting to hit me. She’s such a special girl with a good nature and has always been very tolerant and curious about my new baby.. I just hate to think that she’s not coming home and my son won’t get to grow up with her like I thought 😢 I know he’ll have my other kitty Cleo, who’s a total homebody and more classic skittish cat personality wise, but it’s just starting to break my heart.

I lost two cats in the same year about 4 1/2 years ago, and waited a whole year before I felt ready to adopt the girls, so I kind of have some ptsd around the subject. But with those boys I found their bodies, and at least had closure. With this situation I’m afraid I won’t ever have closure and maybe some kid is ignoring our flyers and is basically just stealing my precious cat.

I’ve emailed the dorm supervisors in hopes they may have a little empathy or a solution. Since students aren’t supposed to have pets in the dorms, but do anyway apparently. I’m just really heart broken… and now today is my birthday and she’s not here. I really feel terrible and like I took her for granted all this time since my son has been born. I’ve been showing my other kitty Cleo extra love and affection, but I know she’s looking for her sister and is confused.

I dunno what response I’m looking for here but if you read all this thank you for listening. Please snuggle your cats or dogs. I know if we find her we’re either going to find a comfortable harness or collar to keep on her and get her chipped. I hadn’t ever chipped them cause she’s just never stayed gone this long and my financial situation wasn’t good when the opportunity first arose. I’m just hoping she comes home one way or another and this sadness won’t be inside my chest forever 😭

[u/oawow]

My girls 🥺

[u/Edison-pm]

I'm sorry you're spending your birthday worrying about Fiona. Since she was familiar to people on campus, could campus security or the student housing office circulate her photo too? I'd word it as 'she has a home and we're looking for her' rather than assuming someone took her — someone may have brought her inside thinking she was a stray.

[u/oawow → u/[deleted]]

I did just share this post to the college subreddit and tried to specify which campus it is cause there are multiple. I definitely don’t want to lose hope, and I pray that if someone does see the flyers they will return her. She’s just a really beautiful awesome cat and they may not want to 😭 I don’t have Facebook but my family has shared the flyer on their pages, maybe we just need to post it on the specific college page like you said. Thank you

[u/violet-rabbit777]

Please consider keeping your cats indoors going forward, especially if you've lost two cats before due to unnecessary cruelty inflicted by others. I hope you find her.