AIBU to think cats are difficult pets if you hate uncertainty?

Can't you get trackers etc these days?

But yes I agree, it's tough when they go missing for days.

Our village WhatsApp group is one long “Socks has gone missing, can you check your sheds and garages” then Socks reappears 48 hours later.

Apart from finding it irritating to have owners constantly beseeching others to go out of their way to locate their lost cats, I can’t recall a single cat actually going missing including one who decided to relocate himself to their old home in the next town & was found 6 weeks later.

It is hard, ours is a bit of a wanderer and I always hate it when he doesn’t come in at his normal times.

If you do use a tracker please be careful as collars are a strangulation risk 😩

I'm not a fan of collars on cats. One of our fosters still has an issue with a nasty injury he got from a collar three years ago. He'd somehow managed to get his front leg through the collar, and rubbed a part of his leg absolutely raw down to the flesh. It was horribly infected, and is still iffy three years later. The fur has never grown back. He had gone awol and if he hadn't been found in time, the infection would have killed him.

We did once accidentally shut next doors cat in our garage. Fortunately only over night but I would happily check my garage and shed if a local cat went missing.

A strong agree from me.
I adopted a stray (he’d been apparently living on his wits for a year - when the owners were traced via his chip they didn’t want him back (!).

So now I have this lovely tabby boy, who clearly loves being “home” but is often out for long periods of time doing god knows what. Overall I spent £67 on collars and bar code “find your cat” schemes for the collars. The cat currently has zero collars - he just comes back without them. The longest one lasted a week. So a tracking device doesn’t seem sensible.

The cat is loving his life. My nerves are often shredded, though. I just tell myself he’s better off than completely unloved and on his own.

I wouldn’t worry about the rain, cats have their go to places in bad weather.

Hope he’s back soon.

Agreed.

TBH I think it’s generally a case of when something is going to happen to them rather than if.

Obviously there are cats which live into old age, and my last two both did, but when you consider that the average age of a cat is something like 8 years it’s evident that more come to harm young than don’t.

Get a GPS tracking collar, we have tried many of them and have found Tractive to be the most reliable. Gives you peace of mind.

Can you cat proof your garden? I'm going to do that when I move (can't with current garden) to reduce my worry. I hate not knowing where mine are although most of the time they're just fast asleep under the thick garden bushes.

Yes I agree but a tracker is an excellent solution! If your cat will wear a collar that is. I know not all will.

I think it depends on the temperament of the cat and how long you've had them.
My 2 seem to love being at home, they don't tend to be out more than a few hours at a time max. We feed them at set times so they tend to come back for that if they're out.
My tortoiseshell is female and won't go in other people's houses, doesn't go far from home at all. She was 10 months when we adopted her and she's 6 now.
The orange one on the other hand frequently visits neighbours and I know some of them feed him. He's very active and inquisitive but knows where his home is. We adopted him when he was 5 months old, he's nearly 5 now.
I do think adopting younger cats makes a difference as they probably don't remember life as a stray so are much more settled.
Mine don't have collars either and I wouldn't introduce them at this age as they wouldn't tolerate it.

We got cat-proof fencing from Katzecure, which takes the form of horizontal poles along the top of the fence which rotate freely, so the cat cannot climb over. It was expensive, but it's kept him in for five years. We did this after he had been injured by a car (he did recover with treatment, a neighbour found him, and called the number on his collar, so it saved him).

I expect the cat haterz will soon be along to tell you that cats are feral beasts which murder birds and shit in other people's gardens, that they should be licenced, kept indoors at all times, and that they are a menace.

Many collars now have a snap mechanism that releases them if they are under strain. Our rescue cat got through three collars in his first week, then settled down and has kept his collar on for months, but if it caught on something it would ping open before it could trap him in any way.

Cats going missing would stress me out.

I'd never thought of them as a worry as in my experience mine are so ridiculously predictable it's almost annoying! None of them have ever gone missing except once but I could hear him somewhere and he was locked in a neighbour's garage.

I hope yours comes home asap.

We have car proofed our back garden for this exact reason. It’s so stressful when they wander and we’ve lost a cat on the road 😢

I hope your cat comes home soon.

They are a bit of a menace to be fair 😁

Cat-proofing sounds like a good solution. Did your cat take long to get used to it?

We built a catio and installed some aerial walkways that span out into the garden through the trees. We also have leads and take them for walks.

Cats shouldn't be outside due to the impact they have on the local wildlife, unless they are farm cats used specifically for rodent control.

I still don't like them though. Whoever had put the collar on him had used a basic one. When they come to me they get microchipped and the collar goes in the bin.

It is amazing just how many people still don't microchip their cats. None of the last 5 had been done.