Hi. My name is Sam and I was born on 24 January 2006 with my brother, Darwin. They say I’m a tortoise shell and that he’s a ginger tabby. By "They", I mean the humans. Darwin and I had fun together and were very close. Until that fateful day.

It was our second birthday and it was a beautiful summer day. On days like that, we love to chase bugs, crawl and climb all over the place and anything else that keeps us outside. So when it came time to go inside, the humans did their usual thing, calling us in. A little naïve that we would do what they want us to do, but it keeps them amused, and most of the time it suits us to come in at that time anyway. I decided to go in, but Darwin was having too much fun.

Boys are like that, fun first, responsibility second. He just didn’t want the day to end. That wasn’t too much of a problem though. We have trained our humans to get up at 1:00am and open the door for us if we don’t come in earlier (even with a cat flap). This night was different though. I woke with a start at 4:00am and realised the human had not woken at 1:00am to see if Darwin was ready to come in. That wasn’t good enough, so I howled and howled to let them know Darwin wasn’t in yet. One of them got up and opened the door for him, but he wasn’t there. "Curious" I thought. The unsettling thing was, he didn’t show up all day, or the next, or the one after that.

Those days were a blur for me. What had happened to Darwin? Why hadn’t he come in yet? The humans were also concerned (I should think so!). They took turns in staying up all night with the lights on, the doors open and the TV going to try and light up the house like a Christmas beacon for him. I hate to think what the neighbours thought, but my brother was gone and I was missing him terribly. I even tried to help by howling every night for a week. Where was he?

I helped the human check all our usual hidey holes. She then went down into the nature reserve to see if he was there. That was supposed to be Darwin's and my secret play area and I was a little shocked she knew about this place, but glad she was going to such an effort. I tore around the place while she lumbered around like a brute (humans do lack our feline grace don’t they?). She ended up with a lot of scratches, bruises, and some bee and wasp stings, while I entertained her with how one is supposed to traverse such terrain. She even stuck a camera in areas she couldn’t get to and took photos to see if he was there, all to no avail.

Then, they went door knocking. I stayed home in case he made his way back while they were away. They made up flyers and handed them out to the people in the neighbourhood and also dropped off flyers at the local vet clinics. She asked each of them to call her if they saw anything that looked like Darwin, as if they might not be able to tell one orange cat from another. Turns out humans don’t quite have the eye for detail we felines have, as they received a lot of calls from people, but it turned out to be other cats. Bless them though, they did mean well. At one stage, the human even sat out in the middle of the scrub with a magazine to read, some cat food and water, in case she saw him. She received so many mozzie bites; I almost felt sorry for her but this was Darwin we are talking about here. I’d purr and rub against her leg to let her know that I appreciated the effort she was going to.

Then came the day that someone was certain they saw him. The location was logical and both the people who lived there and their neighbours were certain they saw Darwin. This was after being gone for eight weeks. What were the odds? The people who lived there were very nice and let my humans put a trap out and they would go and check it regularly. Not one of those nasty traps, but an SPCA approved one (as if). It was used for just over a month. In that time, they managed to catch the neighbours cat several times and more hedgehogs that I have claws. The hedgehogs got to know the food would come out and would wait till my humans had gone and race into the trap for the free food. They learned quickly that the humans did not harm them when they found them there so went for a cheap meal. Hedgehogs are quite bright really. Not as bright as us cats, but bright nonetheless.

So after six weeks of trap checking, no luck. The property next to them was also being gutted by chainsaws and I know Darwin would not like that. If he had been there, he wouldn’t have hung around all that noise (he can be a bit of a scaredy cat at times). So they took the trap back. They still had the Kitty buffet out with a camera, so they could see if he in fact was in the area. Though he never got caught on the camera. He was also registered on a lost pets website. One of my humans is also heavily involved in a website dedicated to cat lovers ( www.catster.com ) and she was getting a lot of ideas and support from the people there. Apparently, many humans give up on a lost cat after this amount of time, but the support from the catster people kept them going.

But, we were back to square one. I sat there looking at the human and wailed "What now?" They kept putting flyers out to remind people, but months went by and still no Darwin. Then one day the female human hit upon an idea. Instead of lots of little flyers, why not one big one? They had put a large, colour ad in the local paper early on, and that had led to some calls, but also to no avail. The human thought "What if I make a large sign and put it up on the road?" There is always a lot of traffic on the road in the morning, and it goes very slowly, so people would no doubt see it. They say cats usually don’t travel far, so a big sign that many locals would see could well do the trick. But would that be enough?

I offered to stand up there by the sign and jump up and down. That would attract attention. It’s spooky how humans can sometimes think the same as us cats. You wouldn’t think they would have the ability, but just as I was thinking it, so was the human, because she says "I’ll stand up there and hold the sign up during the busy traffic periods. What’s more, I’ll wear a cat costume to make sure people didn’t miss it" So off to the computer to find someone that hired suits. The place she found had a Puss ‘n’ Boots costume for hire that actually was a ginger cat. What a coincidence. They wouldn’t need the boots, as the costume was pretty big. The top of the boots came to where the humans’ ankles were. No sword either, you’re just asking for trouble carrying a sword around these days. What a plan – a strange plan I’ll grant you, but a plan it was. Next, arrange time off work. Three weeks should do it. Then, ring the local council to make sure no rules were being broken. This is Darwin! They should bend the rules, or break them. Fortunately, no bending or breaking was needed. It appeared operation "Shock and Paw" was a go.

So, off to the printers to get a sign made up. It was remarkably inexpensive (helped by the printing firm giving us a good deal). Why didn’t they think of this sooner? The costume hire company also helped out by reducing the cost. "All in a good cause" they enthused. In all, the cost was less than the one ad they placed a few months earlier in the newspaper. Go figure.

Then came the day it would start. In the time leading up to the day, the human had made up a stand for the sign to attach to while she wasn’t up on the road. That way it would be there for people to see even if she wasn’t. The big picture on the sign had Darwin with a butterfly on it. It seems appropriate that they used that photo, as the human had a stomach full of them when it came time to donning the suit. She did it though and I would look up at her and think "Good on you, I really miss Darwin as well and want him back".

It was the middle of winter by this stage and the first day, while no rain fell, it was very foggy. I wondered if the humans in their cars would be able to see the sign, what with their bad eyes (compared to mine) and all. But it wasn’t long before the phone started to ring. Most of the calls on that first day were from well wishers and some thinking it was some publicity stunt. A publicity stunt? Indeed. Each morning, during peak traffic, she would go up to the road and hold the sign up. People would toot, some would call. We got some leads, but still no luck.

Then a friend from Catster, who lived in Canada, wrote to the television station informing them of the efforts the human was going to. They thought it interesting enough to put on their breakfast show. The human wasn’t sure if she came across as a dedicated cat lover or mad, but I knew which camp she belonged to. The people from the TV were sceptical about finding him back alive after six months. Then the local newspaper became interested and interviewed her. They put the story on the front page on their paper. Even a magazine rang and interviewed her. The publicity generated a lot of calls. I mean a lot! Every lead was chased up. Then after two weeks came another call. There was no reason to expect it to be any different to the others, but like all the previous calls, it was treated seriously. The person on the other end of the phone said "I’m about to head off to work, but I think I see your cat on the neighbours porch." The address was about a mile away, but as one of the humans was at home, it was a simple task to go and check. It was about a mile away, but in the opposite direction to where the trap had been placed so long ago.

Now, I was still at home at the time, so all I can convey is what I’ve been told. I have no reason to doubt the voracity of the statement. The female human arrived at the address Darwin saw her. He has always been very shy about humans, but the moment he saw her, he cried out "Hey! Here I am. What took you so long?" and trotted over to her. So overwhelmed by finding him after all this time, she didn’t even risk going back to the car to get the cage, she just scooped him up and bundled him into the car. That’s when she decided to check it was him. Colour was right. Markings matched. Then the clincher... the small kink at the end of the tail (a birth defect). It was Darwin! The human knocked on the door to talk to the owner. They said they had heard a cat meowing at night under their house, but didn’t know who it belonged to. They didn’t even know someone was missing a cat.

Darwin is back home now. He behaves like nothing happened. Apart from sometimes regaling us with his adventures, he is still the same old Darwin. I occasionally growl at him for what he put me through, but he seems to have got the message. When the door is open, he’ll pop out briefly, but never strays away too far. I just have one question. He has told us of his adventures and I wonder, how true is the bit about the Marquis of Carabas?

My assistant typed this for me. Her name is Karyn and she's old, well to me she is... she's 44 human years old. We live in New Zealand and she has worked in a few fields including working with animals. She's pretty boring really, but we like her. She does make us cat trees and pats us all the time. Sometimes it's a bit much, but we know she loves us.

Will you take action?