Hi I'm also having a similar problem, since the 1.2.4 update. The server went down for a few seconds and when I logged back in all my dogs and cats had teleported to me (which had previouly all been sitting in an underground room at my plot), and when I finally got home and counted them it turns out that I have lost 7 cats and 2 dogs, they've just gone. Not sure if this is a bug, but any info on the subject would be appreciated, as you can imagine losing a lot of my pets is really annoying and I don't want to try and start breeding more of them if this is going to happen again.
Yeah animals are still all messed up in MC Sadly I can't do anything to fix this... it will have to come from Mojang.
Ah, thanks for the info, I shall keep my cats in eggs for now. (BTW the 1.2.4 updated cats are REALLY annoying sitting on the chests lol)
Just push them off the chests with your feet. It works like a charm for me. And no, don't kick them. Just walk into them.