I need a hand hold - missing cat

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

I'm in bits today. An absolute emotional mess.

My indoor cat accidentally escaped on Sunday morning and although he has escaped before, we usually see him and easily coax him back in. This time we were dealing with an emergency with my DD and with all the focus on her we didn't realise that the cat had escaped until about half an hour after he had nipped out. To make matters worse it all happened at 4am and he has never escaped in darkness before.

I've been searching ever since and done all f the million things that need to be done in this situation. Now I'm starting to lose hope as it's been three days now.

I need positive stories of indoor cats returning unharmed. I'm really interested to know how they reappeared. Is it usually a call from a kind person who has found the cat or do they just arrive home unannounced? If so , how do they get back in or let you know they are home?

How worrying. I'm sure he will come back. Why is he an indoor cat? Is it a dangerous location? Or is access difficult? Or does he have problems? Or something else?

My indoor girl escaped without me knowing. I didn't come home till 6 hours later and realised she wasn't there. (Totally out of character) Looked everywhere. She had parked herself between my neighbours wheelie bins and just stayed there all day. She would have heard me calling her but still didn't budge. I think I aged by about 10 years! Fingers crossed for your little one. Go out with a torch to catch the reflection of her eyes. Or put some of her litter out.

Ah, so sorry to hear this. Is he microchipped or wearing any form of ID? He's probably hiding, waiting for the opportunity to make a run for it back to you.

Have you told your vet and put a missing post on their noticeboard?

Fingers crossed for you. Its such a worrying time.

He's an indoor cat partly because of the breed he is and partly because we live on a through road. Apparently the breed are not very streetwise and when we got him and his sister from the breeder we had to agree to keep them inside. We have a fairly large house so they get lots of opportunity to run and climb. We have two of them and the one that got out really likes to be outside so I take him out in the garden on a lead most days. At one stage ( up until a few months ago) he was well trained enough for me to walk him off the lead but one day another cat came in the garden and he bolted after it so I went back to using the lead.

My five year old indoor cat disappeared for a month last year. I was really worried as he'd never been out for more than a few minutes, but when he came back he just jumped through the window like nothing had happened. He was completely fine, just a bit skinny.

I've done all the microchip updating, calling vets , posters leaflets , cats protection , searched neighbours gardens etc. I think that all kept me going as I was doing something positive.

Thanks Margaret that's the sort of thing I need to hear.

I've done the litter thing. And I emptied the contents of the Hoover around the garden. I've even put a bundle of my sons unwashed bedlinen in our porch and left the door propped open as the cat usually sleeps on his bed.

:-(

I have some advice from recently experiencing this:

• Have you phoned all the vets and local cat rescues to check a lost cat hasn't been handed in?

• Post photos of him to all of the local Facebook groups

• Put his bed/blanket/contents of the hoover outside so he can follow his scent and find his may home.

• Put signs up everywhere, put smelly wet food/fish around the boundaries of your garden so he can smell it and follow the smell home same as with blankets and fur from the hoover bag.

• If you have a shed prop the door open and make a little comfy area so he has somewhere warm to go if he finds his way overnight. Again do the thing with his blankets/swept up fur/smelly food in and around the shed.

• Go out very late at night where all is quiet so you can hear if he is meowing. That was how we eventually found my missing cat after 8 days. We'd been all over looking for him, but he was stuck in a tree about 3 minutes from my house. I only heard him that night because it was late and quiet.

I hope you find him. The 8 days my boy was gone was torture.

It sounds to me like he's got a taste for outdoors and is probably having an adventure. I know that's not what you want to hear, but when a cat has it's head turned, there's no stopping them.

As MargaretCabbage says. I bet he'll be back when he's good and ready. One of my cats, went missing a couple of times, and came back as if nothing had occurred.

Reow, thank you so much.

We are doing most of the things you mentioned except for the smelly food thing. That's a fab idea and I'm going to get in to that right now. And I do have a summer house that I can leave open. We've done the going out late at night / early morning thing and just listening. No joy yet but we will keep at it. Torture is the best word to describe what I'm going through.

Contact the local paper and see if they'll pop a section in there about your missing cat. At 6 months old, my male unneutered and unchipped (the appointment was due 2 days later - he must have known!) kitten got out alone and I was grief stricken. He was gone a whole week and I'd done everything, I contacted the paper, searched the streets and a friend's kids helped pop flyers in all of the letterboxes of local houses. It helped as I got a call from a lady who found him 4 days into him being missing, he was a poor hunter and she heard his little cries outside her house. She planned to keep him as she'd searched for a kitten like him but when she saw the paper and the flyer she felt that sometimes someone missed him and called me.

Your cat may just come back once it wants to but check sheds, places that provide shelter, next to fences, in bushes.

I hope you find him

I really do sympathize, it is awful. Make sure you update so we know when he is home and safe.

I forgot to add, buy a bottle of champers and keep it in the fridge for when he comes home so you're ready to celebrate!

(though to be fair I was getting through a good bottle of wine a night when he was missing so I was hungover to fuck when he came home )

Posters are very effective, A3 size and laminated if possible, we used a template from Cats Protection.
www.cats.org.uk/lost-cat
Hopefully that link will work. Lamposts, local shops, vets, local schools if they'll let you.

Thank you everyone. We just went out and spread food around the entire boundary of our back and front garden. It really smells - there's no way he will miss it.

I've propped the summer house open and spread food around the base of it. I've tried to spread it rather than just put lumps around otherwise the local wildlife will eat it all up!

This has really given me a boost as I thought I'd run out of things to do.

When my husband gets home I'm going to ask him to go and knock on some more doors.

On the subject of wine - I can't even think about drinking until he goes home. I'm barely able to eat at the moment. There is always fizz in the wine fridge so we'll have that when he comes back.

Is there anywhere local to you where he may have gotten stuck? We have a cadets hut, lots of garages, a garden centre and new houses are being built right near us.

I went and knocked on all of their doors asking to check their places just in case.

I also googled all local businesses registered in our village and spammed everyone with photos asking them to look for him and attaching his poster. So the vicars, dentist, school, post office and local magazine could all pass on the word. Some of them were very kind and offered to help look and spread the word.

It's amazing how kind people can be when it involves a missing animal.

Posie ( fab name! ) we must be a similar age I've already put the Cat Protection league posters up everywhere. I think I've done a good job of advertising on social media. We live in a lovely community and the support I've had from the local residents Facebook page has been heartwarming.

Thanks born in the 70s grew up in the 80s! That's good re the posters, ours generated quite a few phone calls. The one in the vets eventually worked. Probably not much more you can do other than keep up conversations with your neighbours about checking their sheds etc. Cats are amazing and can survive much longer than we think. And the weather is warmer now so that's good.
Good luck and don't give up hope.

Just remembered street life, a local residents forum, I had good support on there too.

No news tonight Angels?

No news. I'm very up and down. We went out searching with a torch tonight and I felt quite low when we got back. It just felt so hopeless. Read through these responses again ,read a few out to my husband and it made us feel better.

A friend sent me a link to a pet detective training site which has advice about searching for indoor cats. It was really interesting and gave me a bit more hope. The main message was don't give up and don't assume the cat won't be found. I'm trying hard to stop worrying about the fact that we are due to go away for two weeks at the end of this month. Just don't know how I will cope if he doesn't come back before then.

My other cat is acting very strangely. She has been doing the usual searching and calling for her brother but has also started carrying all of their little cat mouse toys and hiding them under my bed. She makes this strange deep yowling sound while she is carrying them. Very peculiar.

Thanks for the support - I was at my absolute lowest when I decided to post and since then I've had a lovely lady knock and tell me she's been looking every day for him after seeing my post on Facebook , a friend turned up with chocolates to cheer me up and a another local resident offer to help me deliver more leaflets to a wider area. Such kindness.

And Posie I'm a 1970 baby and loved The Flumps

Please don't give up. As pp have said cats very often come back in their own time. You have done everything you can do tonight. Try to get some sleep and look again tomorrow. I hope he turns up and sleeping in your son's clothes in the morning.

That suggestion about going out when it is nice and quiet later on is a good idea, and probably worth a try. Forget what I suggested and try that a bit later on. Sometimes I forget that where I live is 2 hours ahead of the U.K. Good luck

Don't give up hope yet

I know it feels like forever, I'd given up hope at this point too, but keep looking.

If he hasn't been found then he is still out there somewhere.

Ive got my fingers crossed for you.

As much as it feels like months to us, a few days isn't too long in the grand scheme of missing cats. They more often than not come home. It's just shit not knowing. They are family.