How long would cats run away

Mocca was missing after Monday night, 7ish. I remembered seeing her coming home to eat 'dinner'. The she did not return before midnight when the door was closed. It was not very unusual for either Mocca or Rocca to run outside all night long. I have no idea what they were doing out there, and always wondered where they slept?

Tue. morning I did not see her coming home either. After I went home from work, I left door open until midnight again. No shadow of Mocca. Rocca was constantly in and out though. I started to worry, none of them have been away for more than 24 hours so far. I wonder if Rocca noticed her sister was missing.

Still no Mocca on Wed. night. I started looking online to see any news in local shelters, looked on craigslist, and searched for other peoples' experiences about how long cats would be gone and what might have happened and where I could possibly find them.

Thur. noon, I took a lunch break from work and drove around home, calling her name. I droved slowly and stopped by frequently to listen if she was miou-miouing for help somewhere.

(When she was little, she used to get trapped in back door neighbor's high fences. She could not get back and would cry at night when she heard me calling her name. But she is a big girl now and seems to go just everywhere she likes.)

I drove around and called and called, no replies. Even Rocca did not show up, so I guessed this would not work.

Thur. night, I was about to start making flyers to post around neighborhood and shelters, even though big part of me really wondered about the odds of getting her back... :(

Just right before I started, wo-waaa, I heard miou-miou... and there she was, Mocca came back home! It was like a miracle :D Though people may say cats can go away for days, even weeks or months. But it is really case dependent. Most often, they were just gone I believe.

I had absolutely no idea where she went. She looked alright, no hurt, not particularly starving, not extra dirty. I let her eat and bathed her and applied flea medicine. She was probably feeling annoyed being greeted with 'torture' after she finally returned after 72 hours.

But she was all clean and cute and tired and fell into asleep shortly after, lying next to me :) Who knows how long she would be gone next time? I don't think there is any way I could prevent her from going somewhere farther away either. After all, she is free. I hope she would always remember to come home, and travel safely...

(Perhaps I would look into possibly put a GPS device on her, heh.)