On memorial day, 08, my sister and I took our cat, Eli, to the queens botanical gardens (we live in NYC) because we thought he should get to walk on the grass because he was always staring out of our windows longingly. We live in an apartment building. He was on a cat leash but it was too thin and weak to hold him when he started to get wild. He escaped into the bushes, leaving the leash in my sister's hand. We searched for him until the middle of July and then gave up. All the phone calls we got as a result of our posters led to nothing and there were even vandals who tore our signs and phone calls that were hoaxes.
Then a miracle happened. On August 31, we got a call from 2 women who said they see a smoky gray cat in the Queens Bot. Gdns. They waited there while we drove over and amazingly it was Eli and he came out of the bushes and got into the carrier and went home with us. Our prayers were answered. He survived 97 days in the wild.