Help me catch my cat...

[BiscayTrafalgarFitzroy]

Our lovely rescue cat, who is painfully shy and timid, went missing last night. We've only had him for 6 weeks and he has just started venturing into the garden. We think something must have startled him into running away. We went searching high and low this evening and luckily found him on our street. However, we tried and tried but we just couldn't catch him. We tried food but he's so timid he won't even approach us and he's still not used to us so won't come when we call him. Does anyone have any ideas how we could get him back home? We are desperate to get him home.

Empty your vacuum bag and his litter tray into the garden - anything that smells familiar.

Dreamies in a line to the catflap worked for us, dreamies are cat crack.

If you have a cat charity in the area, they might lend you a cat trap.
Cats Action lent me one, when I moved house and my cat had other ideas. Worked a treat.

All of the above plus sardines on a plate. Good luck!

I know its very late now but I managed to coax my friend's timid and shy cat back by sitting on the ground VERY still (hope its not raining?) as near as possible to where I had spotted him and gently kept calling his name. I noticed my friend had stood and then paced and walked to and fro and waved her arms about a bit and in my opinion these more timid cats want a calm "call-back" so they can work out "Is it really them, my new owners?" It took over 15 mins before he even moved a teeny bit near me to investigate (I had been over to her flat LOTS as I adore kitties!) and then another 10 mins for him to get near enough for me to place some cat treats near me. But it did work in the end - this was about 8pm tho not past midnight........ I am now going to bed but wont sleep for worrying about your cat :-/

He is home. Thank you so much for all your help. I left some treats in the garden and hung out dirty laundry and put cat litter out to try and stray him home. Left a bedroom window open and he was in there when I got up! I'm so so relieved. Thank you all for your excellent kitty advice

Tempt him home, that should say!

Brilliant!! Nice work op.

iheartpink we almost called our cat Tybalt! Such a good cat name. We called him Herbert instead because he likes to chew parsley. He is also grounded now. Think we will wait until he's a bit more confident with us before letting him out again. Our other DCat played a pivotal role in the search party. He followed us around looking for Herbert and when we found him he went to say hello because even though Herbert is wary of humans he loves other cats. I think that played a part in getting him to remember the smell of home.

Ah that's wonderful - glad he's home. This thread made my morning. :)

That's fabulous cat comradery. What a result.