Wonderful story! This reminds me of our cat Millie. She would also just leave and not come back. The first time she was gone for almost 3 months. We had feared the worse and then one day she was at the back door, purring and waiting to get in. I think she had found a new home to hang out at in the area. We also had one of our cats, an older Persian, who was very old and whose mobility had deteriorated with her age. One day she must have found an open door and decided to take a walkabout through the neighbourhood. We had been searching in hiding places through the house until we got a call from a vet clinic where she had been brought and her microchip checked. This independent cats I say. Thanks for sharing.