Missing Cat not traced through lost & found posters/website/local vets etc.

[jellybrain]

Hi this is abit of a long shot but wondered if anyone could help. Our cat went missing from my PILs in July (they were cat sitting while we were on hols. and she got out). She hasn't been seen since and I am pretty sure that she hasn't been hurt as she has not been taken to any of the local vets.

My question is have any mumsnetters living in the Cumnor Hill/Botley/North Hinksey area of Oxford got a neighbour who has obtained a small female ginger cat in the last couple of months?

More generally if someone sees an unfamiliar cat why on earth wouldn't they report the finding aren't most cats someones pet or am I missing something.
HAve any of you ever 'adopted' a cat without checking and if so why???

I did the opposite and nearly regretted it. My then DH told me not to let in or feed the cat who was covered in sores and hungry and who had been coming in for a meal and a cuddle as he was sure she was owned by eighbours who had 3 or 4 other torties. To cut a long story short, a few weeks later and having not seen her for a week or so I got talking to someone on my dog-walk route. He too had been feeding her and advertised her as found to no avail so had taken her to the cats home.

I quickly dispatched DH to the cats home and after some weeks, during which she was treated for a terrible flea allergy, Jackie became mine. Some months later I discovered that before I had moved to the area a family had done a runner from repossession agents on Xmas day and had left Jackie behind... it was snowing throughout Xmas and of course the poor mite had survived on her own through a bitter winter. I wish now I HAD just taken her in at once but of course she could have had a worried owner like you.

But this isn't helping you, so a few more suggestons might. You say you have advertised online and have no doubt tried local rescues - but have you posted on any local rescue forums or asked the rescues if they would put a post on their websites?

Also your local paper? They MIGHT run a small article if they are a small publication or if not you could put a classified ad in (our paper offers a week free for lost pets, so its worth asking if yours will). Likewise your local dog rescue - if they have a forum you could post there. Don't laugh but most dog owners are daft about most animals and will be happy to keep an eye out for you and spread the word.

Also try the Yahoo email discussion group UK ANIMAL RIGHTS. We members have contacts nationwide and will gladly email your request on to others in your area.

Other than that, advertise and keep advertising... pet shops, post offices, supermarket notice boards and the like. I have known of dogs to go missing for ages which have been found this way so see no reason why a cat should be different.

Don't know if you have tried already but this is worth a go too:

www.nationalpetregister.org/

Good luck, thinking of you.

My cat went missing when I moved back into my mums, he's a proper escape artist and he decided to chance his arm when I left them there to go on holiday. He was missing over a week by the time I got back.

I called the shelter that I adopted him from. She suggested that I go out for a walk, all round the estate yelling for him. So I did, I looked like a lunatic, I have to say, I yelled and screamed every pet name I had for him, that it was ok and I had some lovely munchies for him, if he would just come home.

The last (typical) street I walked down before heading home, i heard the most pitiful meiow from a shed roof...... It was my little boy. He had been petrified, stuck in a strange area, not knowing the roads, he'd gotten out and couldn't find his way home, the local kids had been scouring the area, my mam was desperate not to let me know she hadn't looked after him properly, but that had only scared him even more, he didn't know they were trying to take him home!

My advice is always, always the same, and I thank everything that I called the shelter. Go and yell your head off, your baby might just be waiting for a familiar voice to come and take them home!

Im sorry to hear about your cat

We adopted a cat about 8 years ago, who had been hanging around our house (we already had one cat) for some weeks. We did put notes through everyone's door, and some posters locally to say we had found her, but no one came forward. I didn't 'report' her as found, because I didn't (and still don't) know where you would report a found cat to. You can report lost/found dogs to the police and the dog warden, but not for cats.

It turned out she was pregnant, so we ended up adopting 6 cats instead of one!!! The kitties all did well, and we found them new homes with friends and family, and the cat is still with us.