Has your cat ever "left" you?

What a mess -- we brought home two kittens over the summer. We already had an older cat who has been with us for about ten years. Well, the cats did not get along. In fact, one of the kittens started getting territorial, and pee'd all over the place in order to mark her territory. Then we had a wildfire, and we couldn't find our older cat at all. Just when I was about to call Animal Rescue, our old cat showed up...for about a day until he saw the kittens. He started hissing and walking away, making me "speak to the tail", so to speak. The kittens have made themselves at home, while our older cat visits us from time to time. He must have found some other home. But all this makes me sad. I'm thinking of getting rid of our new kittens just to have our original cat back.