I am worried

My oldest surviving cat, Moe, is missing tonight.

He started acting strange a week or two ago. Changed his sleeping spot of more than a decade in the master bedroom to a treadmill downstairs in the basement. He used to love being held but now not for more than a few moments. He has started running at full speed when going anywhere in the house. As if he is racing something or being chased. For the past decade(s) when outside he would rarely be more than 30 yards from the door, often in plain sight and always when I called him he would come quickly. Usually he would go out for only a few hours, then come back in. Never, ever, did he miss a 6:30 dinner call. Let out after dinner he would usually be back within 40 minutes. Until a few weeks ago he had the most affectionate look on his face when laying on me or at my feet. He has lost over 10 pounds in the past decade, but the vet says that isn't unusual. He is pushing 20 years old and has shared all of the events in this household of that period. It isn't unfair to say he is a part of who I am. Some may remember a video I posted this year of him making sure my blood sugar is acceptable or how he probably saved my life by biting my nose to awaken me the night my blood sugar suddenly dropped to 33 while I slept. Sudden changes.

In the past week or so he has begun acting sometimes when I come in the room like, who are you?; No immediate recognition and it takes him a few seconds to calm down. He has suddenly in the past week begun drinking a lot of water. At the sink he will put his head under the faucet and drink until I wonder where he is putting it. He no longer likes the bedroom and if carried into it, runs away as soon as he can to the basement and hides. He has suddenly stopped coming into the bed to check on me. That was of course the most noticeable thing as until last week he would lay on my chest for hours. Let out, he vanishes into the woods and takes hours to come back. Yesterday he was out from 8AM to 5PM and not a trace of him did I find when I wandered around calling his name. Then at 5 he showed up like nothing was unusual, ate his dinner and went out as normal afterwards and came back 2 hours later. Unusual, but not a calamity.

Today at 3PM he wanted to go out and I let him and the other cat out. At 6:15 PM the other cat was waiting at the door for his dinner but no Moe. I fed the one and went out looking for Moe and calling his name. No trace of him. He has never before missed dinner. After sundown I began wandering my woods with a flashlight calling him and looking along the game trails. Not only is his fur snow white (stands out pretty good, even in the woods, but he has a reflective collar on and I expected the flashlight to at least pick up on that. Nothing.

It is pushing 1AM now and I am very worried for him. There was a light rain at 9PM and I certainly expected him to show up at that as he hates rain. I don't know what to think. Did he have a heart attack? Did a coyote or fox get him? Are the changes in behavior I have noted in the past two weeks the result of a stroke or alzheimers (yes cats get it too, in cats it is called feline cognitive disorder (FCD)? If I am not finding him with the flashlight and he isn't responding I know he went at least several hundred yards away, if not more. I am hoping that he didn't get lost. I am reading tonight on FCD and getting lost in familiar places is one of the symptoms. So is forgetting who a human owner is. Also their hearing goes. I haven't really seen a sign of hearing loss, but I am now worried. Not coming when called is a total departure from two decades of prior behavior.