While preforming ferret and cat litter maintenance I left the door leading outside from the ferret room open and Max made a break for it. My best guess is that he thought the outside world is full of food because whenever I come back through one of the magical doors to the Outside I come back with something he wants to eat.

I haven't really talked about it because there really wasn't anything anyone could do about it, and if I started talking about it all I would have been able to say is that I miss him and he's a little jerk of a fur monster for sowing his wild oats like this.

It's happened before and he's much bigger and more confident than the last time he made a break for it, but I was getting worried since he's been gone for four days. Two is his usual rebellious time limit. More than once I had been sure I could hear his sad meow, but I could never find him outside. I even checked the attic. The annoying bit of it is that I always seemed to be the only one that heard him until tonight.

There is a door outside that leads to a crawl space under the house, but that door was shut and I didn't want to open it on the off chance that he would get under there and get stuck. The irony is that apparently he found a way under there anyway, and then couldn't get out again. I had gotten desperate enough to check the roof, so I thought I might as well look under the house.

He's happy to be back, he wouldn't even keep eating if I stopped petting him or walked away, but he certainly needs a bath. I'm just so happy to see him I can't really put him through that tonight. He's just gone to sleep next to me on the bed on some of my laundry, just the way he likes it.

So very relieved.