LEWISTON – Baby Boy is a mysterious cat.

Born in a garage, the tomcat with Siamese coloring refuses to come into the house. He prefers to eat in a shed with his sister – and it appears he prefers long vacations.

On Saturday, Baby Boy slipped away from Phyllis Fitzpatrick, the woman who cares for him and who had just arranged for him to get rabies shots.

Perhaps it was the lure of the Tall Pines area, where he managed to bolt from his cage outside the animal clinic. Maybe it was the promise of a nice November afternoon.

Baby Boy wanted gone and he was gone.

“He shot down Strawberry Avenue, going all out,” said Fitzpatrick. “He seemed like he had places to be.”

And that was that. For five days, Baby Boy was among the missing, in spite of Fitzpatrick’s attempts to find him. Her attempts were thorough and they lasted for days.

“It was pouring rain out. I called and called to him day and night,” she said. “I rode around and rode around, shining my lights into fields and calling for him. I’d cup my hands and yell down the river.”

Fitzpatrick scoured the area around Tall Pines and every road leading to her Upper Main Street home 2 miles away. The weekend passed. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, too.

No sign of Baby Boy.

Fitzpatrick put up signs in hopes that someone might find her elusive cat, but it didn’t happen.

Then on Thursday, it was business as usual at the Fitzpatrick household. Baby Girl, the missing cat’s sister, came to the shed for food first thing in the morning.

“She came out and my back was to the door. I heard this ‘thunk,'” Fitzpatrick said. “When I turned around to look, Baby Boy was sitting there at my feet.”

Six days and 2 miles later, the cat was home as though returning from a business trip or maybe a feline version of spring break.

“He was very nonchalant, like nothing had happened. He lost some weight, maybe 2 or 3 pounds,” Fitzpatrick said. “He was walking all hunched.”

No clues to where he had been or what he had been doing. Just characteristic Baby Boy mystery.

“I guess maybe he just knows where he can get a good meal and plus, his sister is here,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not like I can sit him down and ask him.”