A woman has been left “sick with worry” after her globetrotting celebrity cat vanished without a trace – sparking a search among thousands of fans around the world.
Seven-year-old tabby Max is notorious for disappearing on adventures, letting himself into strangers’ homes and even gatecrashing a wedding.
He has previously hitched rides as far away as Ipswich and Luton and has more than 6,000 followers on his Max’s Missions Facebook page, including fans in Australia and New Zealand.
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But owner Georgie Dunt has now been without her adventurous pet for around six weeks – the longest he has ever disappeared.
Max was last seen near All Saints Church in Brightlingsea, Essex, at the beginning of July, shortly after losing the tracker attached to his collar.
Georgie had ordered a replacement after being unable to find the old one in heavy undergrowth.
But before she could fit it, Max vanished.
At first, Georgie assumed the notorious wanderer had simply headed off on another adventure.
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“I wasn’t worried at first; it’s typical of him to go off wandering for days at a time,” Georgie told What’s The Jam.
“After two weeks had passed with no one having seen him, I decided to put a post up on his page saying that we were getting worried.”
The appeal was shared more than 1,000 times, and Georgie expected someone to recognise her feline celebrity almost immediately.
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But weeks later, there has still been no confirmed sighting.
Max, who has even starred in his own calendar, is well known around the seaside town for behaving as though virtually everywhere belongs to him.
Georgie said: “He’s a very friendly and entitled boy and will often just jump onto people’s shoulders for a hug or let himself into people’s houses and curl up on their bed like he owns the place.
“He loves playing with dogs too, so he’s often spotted playing in people’s gardens wrestling with dogs.”
And Max’s adventures have previously taken him considerably further than his neighbours’ bedrooms.
The cheeky cat is notorious for climbing into vehicles and has previously ended up as far away as Ipswich and Luton.
Georgie once had to travel to Luton after a family found Max and mistakenly believed he was homeless.
They kept him before eventually taking him to a vet, where his microchip revealed he had already been reported missing.
On another occasion, Max was photographed playing with a Staffordshire bull terrier in somebody’s garden.
A woman in Hartlepool spotted the picture online and contacted Georgie to tell her where he was.
But perhaps his cheekiest adventure came when he gatecrashed somebody’s wedding.
Georgie said: “The funniest thing was seeing him invite himself to a wedding and walk down the aisle during the wedding procession.
“Fortunately, they were all Max fans.”
But behind his comedy adventures is another side to Max that Georgie believes explains why so many people have fallen in love with him.
She regularly receives messages from people who say the cat appeared during particularly difficult moments in their lives.
Georgie said: “My favourite thing about him is when I get messages from people saying that Max appeared out of nowhere at their lowest point or when they were feeling lost or hurting mentally.
“Max has comforted people after they have lost someone.
“He spent a long time lying with a lady who was on end-of-life care, and he spent days with a family after they had suffered a family loss.
“He just seems to appear when someone is in need of a reminder of how precious and beautiful life can be.”
The hunt for Max has now spread far beyond Brightlingsea.
Georgie has posted appeals in numerous missing-cat groups, while his disappearance has featured on local television and radio.
But the constant stream of possible sightings has taken an emotional toll.
She said: “I’m trying to stay busy and not think too much about it, as it’s made me so sick with worry in the past.
“I try not to let my mind wander too much about where he could be.
“I’ve had a lot of similar-looking missing cats sent to me, which naturally makes me hopeful before realising it can’t be him.
“Every message I get, my heart skips a beat.”
And despite six agonising weeks without him, Georgie already knows exactly what she would do if the town’s most audacious resident simply wandered back through her door.
She added: “Part of me would crack up laughing at the audacity of him for doing this to me and everybody else – again!
“I would wonder where on earth he’d been before sticking his new collar and tracker on and welding it in place.
“The relief of him coming back would be the world to me.”
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