(The “him” is our cat Winston, who went missing on Monday, as we were moving out.)

The cats hadn’t been allowed in the basement for the last couple years, but we let them roam freely down there on moving day, and Oliver immediately rediscovered — and christened — the unused litter box there, multiple times. We thought nothing of it. But over the past few days, as we went over to clean up the place, GoddessJ mentioned that the box looked like it had been disturbed.

When we went back yesterday, it had definitely been disturbed — there was a patch of waste that had definitely not been there the day before.

There wasn’t much left in the house, but we tore apart what there was, looking for Winston. We’d already checked everywhere we could think of, multiple times, but he had to be there, so we started digging into places that we didn’t think he could have gotten.

Sure enough, that’s where we found him. He’d wedged himself under the bottom-most step of the basement stairs, behind some junk left behind by the previous owner of the house. We still have no clue how he got in there, but after five days, he was hungry enough that we had no problem tempting him out with some cat-treats that I’d been carrying around while trying to find him.

(GoddessJ says it’s the best diet he’s tried yet. He does look noticeably slimmer, but he had plenty of fat to carry him through the ordeal, and still has a goodly amount left over.)

When we took him to the new place, he immediately found a new hidey-hole. We’re not sure where yet, but he comes out every now and then. So long as we know he’s safely in the house, we’re not complaining.

Thanks again to everyone who shared our concern while he was missing.