I had two tamed cats that I went through three villages to get the right color for. I sat them down in the middle of the village I was in so I could build my house and logged off. I logged back on and I checked and both were there sitting, I went out to different villages, raided a desert temple and dungeon, and worked on my house. I passed by my two cats multiple times and they were still there but I finally found a spot for them in my newly constructed home and to my surprise only one of them was there (I am in peaceful, as I am not usually in survival, so there isn't a reason it could have been killed by a mob or me fighting a mob). I also cleared the area of cacti so they wouldn't die. It isn't a big deal but it is a possible bug that I noticed and thought I should share. There are similar cases that I can see, however those involved going through portals which I have not done yet. The red circles in the image indicate the general location of the cats, I had already moved the one into the house by the time I realized that my second one was gone.