Found!

Mary, Simone and I were on a walk this evening - to feed the horses in the field down the street.

While approaching the field we both noticed a black cat standing in the dirt road that runs alongside the field. Mary wondered aloud, "Could it be Milo?"

For those of you not familiar with Milo, he's the cat that went missing over 3 years ago when Mary and I were in Australia. He loved him very much - putting up fliers and knocking on all the neighbors doors. After a while we just figured he was gone, hopefully to a loving home. Though I secretly figured he'd been caught by a coyote. You see, he was just too happy a cat to not come back home to us.

Anyway, as we got closer, the cat looked up and walked toward us, showing of a white patch under his neck. Milo had a white patch under his neck. He then flopped out, and we saw the white patch on his belly between his hind legs. Milo had a white patch on his belly there.

Long story short, we think it's him.

It's been three years, and he seems very healthy - a good thick fur coat. The horses spooked him a little bit, but he was pretty friendly other than that. He growled a couple of times while we pet him, but he kept coming back for more lovings.

But, he didn't seem to respond to his name (it has been three years), and we don't really know we'd integrate him back into the home. We now have two other cats, and there are three cats in the two houses next door, so we couldn't really pen him up in the back yard during the transition.

We've got high hopes, but still aren't sure what to do... at least we know he's alive and healthy.