When I moved into my own place I temporarily left my cat living with my parents. Whenever I visited he wasn't around. 2 months later my mum slipped up that he'd been missing since I'd gone and she not only never looked for him, she'd also been pretending to feed him so that I didn't suspect anything when I visited.

I'd missed a vital window of opportunity to find him, but I called the vets to check his chip details were up to date. Turns out she lied to me and had never taken him to get chipped, either.

He's been missing for almost 7 years now and I literally cried just last night about how I'll never know what happened to him. He likely died all alone and I'll never, ever have closure. Don't do this to your fucking kids.