Glad you got your cat back.
I can feel your pain. Recently our daughter left her cat here as she went to university. We've already learned that we can no more leave our doors and windows open. The cat will be gone in few seconds and then there's a risk that it gets killed by the wildlife.
Luckily home cats do not usually ran far but stay somewhere close in the neighborhood. Once the cat went damn high in the oak that's close to our house and then she couldn't come down. I was about to climb there to get her down, but then i remembered that i have a son. Why should i climb up there and look ridiculous when i have a healthy 17 yo kid to do such things?