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Original poster

Cats missing for weeks - how did you find them?

24 replies

Heisenjurg · 28/01/2021 16:16

Looking for reassurance and ideas! My cat has been missing for 5 weeks now, and I am not sure what to do at this stage... I know it is not uncommon for cats to re-appear after this length of time (or even longer!) so if your cat went missing for a while but you were eventually reunited, what did it for you?

OP posts:
Flowerythoughts · 28/01/2021 16:46

DM’s cat vanished. She made a poster with a photo and stuck them on local lampposts, put leaflets through peoples doors and posted a photo on the 2 local Facebook pages. Someone called her to say he’d visited her garden and they offered to entice him with food and grab him if he came back. They caught him and brought him round for DM, he wasn’t too far away.

A couple near us posted leaflets asking people to check sheds and garages and on the nextdoor.co.uk website & someone replied on the website saying they’d seen it.

Have you checked the local vets? Does your cat have a microchip? I hope your cat comes home to you soon Flowers

Original poster
Heisenjurg · 28/01/2021 17:25

Thank you! He is microchipped, and I have put some posters up, posted on all local/missing cats Facebook groups (not tried nextdoor though!) and looked around. I live in an area mostly made up of flats though, so he is unlikely to be spotted in someone’s garden or have been taken in by someone. There is also a feral/stray colony nearby so he could easily go undetected if he has joined them! I do check the spot where they are fed late at night regularly, but no luck so far, and the likelihood of being there at the same time as him is thin...

OP posts:
Paranoidandroidmarvin1350 · 28/01/2021 18:30

Mine went missing last week for three days. I was so upset. I put a post on the village Facebook page. And walked the streets. The thing that worked was putting flyers through peoples front doors. A few hours after he came home hungry. So I assume they read the flyer and went and checked.

I’m sorry ur cat has not come home. It is so upsetting.

Evvyjb · 28/01/2021 18:53

I once found a cat outside, looking awful, took him in and then to the vet - he was chipped and missing for 12 YEARS.

Vets passed my details to the owners and I have never had a more touching phone conversation.

Okbutnotgreat · 28/01/2021 18:59

Leaflets and posters everywhere and one through every door in the village (was pre FB etc). DH and I walked miles every single evening for weeks calling for her and in the end someone called and said they thought they’d seen her but she was too scared to come out. DH went and bought a big piece of cod at the local chippie and walked around the area DCat had been seen. He left bits of fish on the floor in various places then sat down and waited. It took several hours and a lot of patience but eventually she emerged (she must have been starving as was an elderly house cat and missing for weeks. When he brought her home I couldn’t believe she’d survived but she went on to have a couple more happy years with us that I’ll cherish forever.

thecatneuterer · 28/01/2021 19:12

I have reunited, via microchips, owners with cats that have been missing for months and even years. Sometimes they were even found in different cities!

Dreamingofvenice · 28/01/2021 19:17

One of mine used to be a regular wanderer would disappear for couple of weeks at a time. I found going out late at night when its quiet and calling her so my voice would carry and then I would pick her up and carry her home in a towel. Also putting their bedding outside is supposed to be good if they have got confused they can follow the scent

somethingonthecarpet · 28/01/2021 19:25

My neighbour's cat went missing and was found 2 months later, very skinny and skittish, in someone's garden a few miles away. Neighbour remembers a van being outside the day the cat went missing where the van doors were open for a bit, and is pretty sure the cat must have got in the van. Lucky the people who noticed him bothered to entice him into their house, and get him to a vet to be checked for his microchip.

Original poster
Heisenjurg · 28/01/2021 21:01

@Evvyjb

I once found a cat outside, looking awful, took him in and then to the vet - he was chipped and missing for 12 YEARS.

Vets passed my details to the owners and I have never had a more touching phone conversation.

Bloody hell, I am not waiting THAT long!
OP posts:
freeandfierce · 28/01/2021 22:16

Mine boy went missing during December a few years ago, he had a heart problem that needed daily meds. We got a call off Battersea cats and dogs home to say he had been brought in by a couple the had been feeding him since the night he went. He was about 2 miles away the whole time. Luckily he was chipped so they found us. Unfortunately the time away without meds caused him to go downhill rapidly and I lost him a couple of months later but grateful I got him back. Cats are clever and can wander for miles and find their way home, just occasionally they may get startled and lose their mapping. Stay hopeful, they are clever creatures.

freeandfierce · 28/01/2021 22:16

Forgot to say he was gone for three months!

Santaiscovidfree · 28/01/2021 22:20

1 dcat was missing for 6 months.. Found her sat under a tree at shops very local to my address!! Few smashed teeth but otherwise fine.
Another for 10 days. Came home himself with a broken back leg. Managed on 3 for years..

bumpdownthestairs · 28/01/2021 22:22

I could have started this thread myself, mine has been missing exactly 5 weeks as well, have posted all over social media, posters through doors, all neighbours informed etc. He has just disappeared without a trace! I feel less hopeful by the day 🥺

Toddlerteaplease · 28/01/2021 22:38

Some friends of mine had a cat return after 5 years. They think she was catnapped by a neighbour on their street.

DappledOliveGroves · 28/01/2021 22:42

My cousin's cat was returned to her after 15 years. The cat arrived home, required a load of insanely expensive vet treatment over a bank holiday weekend, paid for by my cousin who unsurprisingly had cancelled the pet insurance by this point and then, a few months later, when nursed back to health, promptly left home again, and never came back 🙄🙄

Original poster
Heisenjurg · 29/01/2021 00:27

@freeandfierce

Forgot to say he was gone for three months!
Hang on, so the people who were feeding him since day 1 waited 3 months to check the chip?! Whilst I would be super grateful to get him back at that stage, I would be a tad annoyed at that..!
OP posts:
Original poster
Heisenjurg · 29/01/2021 00:30

This is why I needed a thread like this - there is still hope! As some have said they are very clever and resourceful animals, very capable of surviving on their own. Mine might just live his freedom too much...

OP posts:
Original poster
Heisenjurg · 04/02/2021 11:58

Quick update - got a call from a neighbour a few streets over (across a really, really busy road - think ring road type of thing) telling me he’d just seen one of my posters and that it was 100% the cat he had been feeding in his backyard a couple of times a week. Proceeded to waffle on for 20 minutes about “my” cat, his cat, his life, the state of his garden... I finally managed to end the call with him agreeing to call me next time he saw this cat.

I went out to the area last night, no dice but fair enough, it’s a long game.

Cue this morning, I sent him a few more pics to confirm - definitely the right cat. Then 15 minutes later he’d “just come across” pictures he’d taken of said cat, showing no resemblance to mine bar being vaguely tabby too, but loads of white markings, when it is clear from all my pictures mine has none and I had reiterated that on the call.

Feeling very deflated now, and pretty annoyed at people who raise my hopes up like that...

OP posts:
thecatneuterer · 04/02/2021 12:20

Oh that's so disappointing. I guess he was at least trying to help in a clueless sort of way.

EuroTrashed · 04/02/2021 12:31

what a twerp. How disappointing.
One of mine was missing for six weeks. Our cleaner had mentioned it to a friend. Said friend of cleaner was in a pub about 2miles from our house and overheard someone talking about a cat they'd found and were feeding. THey'd been feeding him for weeks and never thought to eg phone the local vets etc etc. He had been shot with an air rifle poor thing and was very thin, but he came home! I was simultaneously thrilled that someoen had found him and angry with the woman who'd made no effort to locate owner of this mystery cat who she could see was hungry and thin.

Original poster
Heisenjurg · 04/02/2021 13:12

@thecatneuterer

Oh that's so disappointing. I guess he was at least trying to help in a clueless sort of way.
I’ve had quite a few clueless people reporting any random cat as potentially mine, but as a fellow cat owner I thought he’d know better!

Anyway, onward and upward, trying not to think about it too much...

OP posts:
BabyMoonPie · 04/02/2021 13:18

A few years ago now our girl disappeared and for weeks we went out looking for her and called her name with no success. I came downstairs one morning and she was curled up on a chair in the lounge! I was so surprised and just shouted her name before giving her the biggest cuddle. I hope your kitty comes home

thecatneuterer · 04/02/2021 13:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thecatneuterer · 04/02/2021 13:46

Sorry! posted on the wrong thread. I've asked for it to be deleted.

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