My villager was bringing the cauldron to the fire when a puzzle was solved. the villager dropped the cauldron to celebrate. have i lost the cauldron forever or will it come back?

This should be in the VV2 section, but I'm sure that LadyCFII will move it for you.

Anyway, if you close the game and open it again, the cauldron will be back where it started before the villager started to move it, and you can start over from there.