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By Rachael O'Connor
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A woman excited to adopt a cat and give her a loving home was forced to take to the internet for help hours later.
In March, Stacey, 28, adopted an orange tabby rescue cat, Fergie.
After bringing the cat back to her apartment and getting her settled in, Stacey left for a short while to pick up some food and treats for her new pet.
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But when she returned, the cat was nowhere to be found.
"I checked outside a lot, but I knew logically she couldn't have gotten out," Stacey, from California, told Newsweek. "I just have anxiety from past experiences of escaping cats—in particular a cat from college that actually looks exactly like my new cat Fergie."
When she checked her apartment and found no sign of Fergie, Stacey took to her TikTok account, @sober.hag, to explain the situation to her followers—and got some great advice.
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In the video, Stacey explained that Fergie was under the bed when she left, so she shut the door and all the windows. But now that she was back, she couldn't find her.
"It's been an hour. I've torn the place apart," she said, admitting she felt "like I hallucinated this morning. There has to be some secret portal in my house."
While on one hand she was confident that the cat couldn't have escaped, she was baffled that Fergie could have disappeared in her less-than 700 square foot apartment, and admitted in a comment she was "freaking out."
"I'm checking things that physically make no sense, like a cat would not fit into that or be able to get into that. I have checked everything," she said, even "getting the ladder out" to try and check every possible nook and cranny.
TikTok users responded in droves, garnering the video more than 33,000 likes as users commented with their own stories of their cats' disappearing acts.
"One time I thought I lost my cat from a motel room driving across the country. Tore the room apart, the whole property for hours, about eight hours later she climbs out of the back of the dresser," one recalled.
Others suggested places Fergie could be hiding, as one commenter predicted: "She's in the spring box of your bed," and another wrote simply: "Dresser drawers."
Stacey told Newsweek, "Ultimately, I found her thanks to the TikTok commenters," revealing in a comment that she had hidden for hours in the back of her dresser drawers.
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"Today marks one week since Fergie's adoption and she has completely come out of her shell," Stacey said. "She loves balancing on her hind legs and has the loudest purr I've ever heard on a cat."
For others preparing to bring a cat home for the first time, she offered some advice: "Secure your home before you bring home an animal—which I did—and...stay calm and be patient if your cat wants to hide!"
Her advice echoes that of Paws.org, which advises that cats should have several weeks to adapt to a new home and be carefully confined indoors to become used to you as their owner.
It's common for cats to hide for hours or even days before becoming confident in their new home.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
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