Thanks for the support, i'm new to this forum and everyone seems so helpful.
Its great to hear about success stories like Basil's return.
I have put posters up in the vicinity of where Alfie dissapeared, but listening to your advice i will produce smaller leaflets and post them. Early this morning a lady phoned to say she thought he was in her garden, but when i got to the house about half an hour later, the mystery cat had gone.
I hope it was Alfie. After work i returned to the area but again, no ginger cat to be seen. The lady who called me was very nice and allowed me to put a blanket of Alfies and some food in their garage. Another hope is that the lady said the ginger cat was playing with an cat she was familiar with, if it is Alfie, hopefully a new friend may keep him in the area.
Alfie was being 'looked after' at a friend's house whilst i was on holiday, but their idot boyfriend let Alfie out almost straight away. My firend's house is a good few miles from my house but the place where the possible sighting of Alfie was in the right direction of my house, so my baby boy could be trying to make his way home. If it was him, he has already travelled about a mile, but is only about a fifth of the way home, with the city centre main roads in between. I will do all i can to get him back these next few days could be cruicial.
Thanks again for everyone's support and i will keep you posted.
Obviously if anyone reading this lives in the Shipley to Bradford area, please let me know if you see my Alfie.