oh, the poor cat's homing instinct

I was too optimistic. Our problem is that we still have builders finishing off here so, added to the trauma of moving, the resounding voices, the banging, and the power tools, obviously don't make a cat feel at home. And the bloody builders do NOT KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED. So of course our male cat, though relatively calm when shut in the 'civilised part' of the house, shot off again at the first opportunity. This time he went missing for 5 days. So the routine started again: twice or three times a day I would drive up to the old house, call, walk around, ask the old neighbours - nothing. But his paw-prints in the snow showed he was repeatedly trying to get into the old house via the locked cat-flap. Problem is that the new owners of our old house are not there - the house sits empty and locked up, so we can't even ask them to notify us when the cat turns up. Anyway, during one of my visits he suddenly appeared, miaowing and running towards me - allowed me to take him in the car, let me carry him into the new house and ate, and ate, and ate.... He has a nasty tear above his eye, so he must have had a scrape somewhere along the way. But he is with us again. How long for, we'll have to see.