When I was a toddler my cat Athena ran off, after a while she was deemed dead :(
Happened here when I was a baby. Obviously, I don't remember it, but my parents had a cat named Baxter. He originally belonged to my mom's family when she was a teenager. Apparently, since he was declawed, he started to hate using the litter box, so he starting crapping on the floor. My mom caught me crawling towards one of his piles and evicted Baxter from the house. He was sent to live with my dad's friend who loved animals. While he was there, he got out of the house and ran away. No one ever heard from him again.
I have several stories about pets running away, but almost all of them had happy endings.
