Naughty kitty

Kitty gave us quiet a scare today... he was nowhere to be found from getting up around 7:30 until about 2:30 in the afternoon. He's 17, has cancer and is getting pretty frail. He's always been an outdoor cat, so it seems mean to keep him in now... he never seems to go further than the neighbours garden over the road, as she puts food out, but I went looking and shouting for him and nothing... I asked all my neighbours and even looked in wheelie bins, in case he had been found and dumped! He turned up eventually, without a care in the world. I tried to keep him in for the rest of the day, but he sat at the cat flap, trying to scratch his way out for about 2 hours, so I eventually relented and let him out again!