Finding Gambit

Some readers may know that about 11 months ago, after we moved house last year, we lost our much-loved black cat, Gambit. Gambit was one of two we adopted from the SPCA in July 2011, aged about 5 months at the time. He had had a challenging start in life - he was rescued by SPCA staff from a flooded storm drain when he was about 2 months old, while the rest of his family was swept away. We took him in along with a tabby, Leon, who was about 7 months old - they were great friends.

Gambit was a very affectionate, loving cat - if you picked him up he would tuck his head right under your chin and cuddle in tight, whereas Leon, while affectionate, was never a cuddler (and still isn't!)  Where Leon was (and still is) a roamer, Gambit was a homebody, and would never venture far out of the garden of the condo where we lived when we took them in.

One time, we found him under the bed, shaking and scared, all scratched up around his face, with a badly injured eye and very dirty. I took him to the vet and she said he must have had a fall - his injuries didn't look like fighting injuries, and he wasn't a fighting cat anyway. He was badly frightened and didn't go out for several days after that, even when he'd recovered. We decided he really must have 9 lives - to survive a flood and a big fall he was very lucky!

Then, almost exactly one year ago, we moved to a house with a garden, right next to the nature reserve (i.e. the jungle!) We kept the cats inside for about a week, but Leon was going nuts and very quickly wanted to get out and explore. Gambit stayed in for a couple more days but eventually poked his nose outside as well, and we were fairly sure he'd be OK because he didn't really go much further than the end of the garden for several days, coming back inside every hour or so to check that we were still there.

Overnight, we would shut both of them in the kitchen and leave the back door slightly open so they could get out and explore. Most mornings we would find them scratching at the cupboard door when we got up, asking for breakfast - always Gambit, with Leon coming in later some mornings after a night's hunting.

Then, one morning, Leon was there.....but there was no sign of Gambit. We waited for a bit, went out and called him - no response. Leon was uncharacteristically clingy for a couple of days - miaowing pitifully, and all cuddly. For the first day after Gambit went missing, Leon didn't leave my side - not even to go hunting outside. The kids were in pieces, and Isabel cried until she got to school that morning. Our neighbour, Mr Goh, was almost as distraught as we were, and told us lots of horror stories about cats being eaten by snakes in the area....lovely. Just what we wanted to hear. We put posters up all over the neighbourhood as well as around our old condo, and searched high and low in both areas for Gambit. We had one or two phone calls with unconfirmed sightings, but nothing definite. I even contacted an 'animal whisperer' who told me a lot about Leon and said that she thought Gambit was still alive and in the area, although very weak. Bob thought he must have been eaten by a snake but I think he got lost, went a bit too far and ended up a stray. After a couple of months I stopped looking for him whenever I went running, and the kids stopped asking for him. It was very sad, but we had to give up.

A few more months went by. In late September, we found a straggly, skinny, dirty little kitten in the storm drain outside our house. I brought her in and we fed her, put her in a cat box overnight and took her to the vet the next day. No microchip, so we adopted her. Leon was NOT impressed with little Lila (although they rub along together fairly well now) and started spending every night outside. The kids were delighted and decided that Lila came to us because we'd lost Gambit.

Lila settled in well and Leon finally accepted her! We were a two-cat family again. We went to the UK for Christmas and then off to Australia for Easter break. We got back last Saturday evening and spent Sunday unpacking, playing Monopoly, napping....generally settling back into the house after a relaxing holiday. Mid-afternoon we decided to go for a walk in the park next door, so the kids grabbed their scooters and off we went. We were walking over the dam by the lake and Bob said "Oh look. That's a big cat!" pointing at a large black cat down on the grass below the dam. It had a long, straight tail - like Gambit's. I did a double-take. Could it be him? After all this time? I said "Let's go and have a look!" - but the kids had already scooted waaaay ahead and gone over the dam into the park, in the other direction from where the cat was. Bob agreed to go after them and I said I'd catch them up when I'd tried to get a look at the cat.

I went slowly down towards the cat. It started walking away from me. I called "Gambit!" and the cat stopped, looked back - and started walking towards me. It miaowed - just like Gambit. I stroked it and talked to it.....trying to get a good look and find Gambit's distinctive white patch on his chest, and see if it was indeed a male cat. It was missing half an ear, and was very scratched up and scarred - clearly a stray - but the white patch was there, and it was a neutered male cat. I picked him up and he tucked his head under my chin and cuddled in. It was Gambit, I was sure of it!

I stayed with him for about 15 minutes, stroking him and talking to him, and he talked back to me and purred. Whenever anyone else walked by, he hissed and walked away from them, but he let me stay with him. When Bob and the kids got back, they came down slowly and I told them to head home and get some cat biscuits and the cat box. Bob wasn't sure, not at all, but I insisted that we couldn't leave the cat there and begged him to help me bring him home. Against his better judgement, he agreed.....and off they went to get the cat box, with the kids very excited.

They got back a while later and we put a box of food down for the cat. He fell on it, clearly very hungry. Then we tried to entice him into the cat box. Well, suffice to say he wasn't interested, even with the cat biscuits. Anyone who has tried to put an unwilling cat in a cat carrier will know what I mean. I got badly scratched and Bob got a bad bite - to cut a long story short, we had to give up. The cat - Gambit (I was 100% sure by then) - shot off into the bushes after our fifth attempt and we had to go home. I was gutted.

The next two hours were spent in the local clinic getting the wounds cleaned up, and anti-tetanus shots and antibiotics. Not a good way to spend a Sunday evening. I was so disappointed, and to top it off I felt bad for Bob (who said we ought to leave him be, but went along with it for my sake, and who had taken a really bad bite to the hand - a deep puncture wound that is still really sore) and the kids (who had to sit around a waiting room while we got cleaned up, and who had been really excited about finding Gambit but had their hopes dashed). I could have cried, and nearly did.

Lesson learned, though - was it really such a wise idea to try and bring him home? After nearly a year living rough, he was feral - could he have been domesticated again? Perhaps not. And what would Leon have thought of him, after so long away from home, and Lila? How would she have reacted? Maybe it was for the best that he ran off again. Poor Gambit - it's obviously been a rough year for him, but he's survived. He'll go on a bit longer, I'm sure. We found him, and we can at least say that we tried to bring him home, but maybe it was just not meant to be.  I'll keep an eye out for him when I run in the park, and take some cat biscuits in a zip-lock bag in my running pouch, just in case. At least I can feed him if he sticks around.

Good luck, Gambit - hang in there. And don't go near any big snakes!