Missing cat. So concerned.

[Concerned2024]

Sadly I wish I wasn't making this post.... My cat has been missing since Thursday early hrs when I last saw him jump out about 1-2am. He's very timid and it's unlike him to be gone this long and go far. I'm worried I'll never find him or anybody else as he's probably hidden or been injured and hidden himself. He's microchipped and I've made sure his details are updated and it's logged that he's missing, I've contacted local vets, social media and will be putting up posters. We've been out each night walking all locally calling him to no avail and are very worried. We live on main roads but nobody has found him including us. My theory is he's been injured by whatever and gone off to hide himself and died so it'll be hard to ever find him. Usually every little noise or spook makes him come running home so this is very worrying. It's agonising not knowing what's happened to him.

I can't see that he's gotten into a garage as he went out about 1/2am when I last saw him and it's unlikely anybody would have a garage open at that time and also they would most likely have opened it again by now and he'd have come out. He's also scared of many objects such as our kitchen bin, cardboard boxes etc let alone going in garages. I can't understand what's happened, it's like he vanished into thin air. I can't believe nobody has seen him or he hasn't come out to us calling him. He wouldn't have been stolen as he is too timid and aggressive to go near, and I doubt he got into a vehicle either for the same reason and the sort of time he went missing. I 100% think he's hidden and died unfortunately and am broken. Nobody has reported him as deceased yet thankfully so am stumped. Nobody has seen him, potential sightings but they were another cat. He's tabby so blends in well to bushes etc.

You've done all the right things OP.

Praying kitty comes back safe and is just having a little adventure x

I really feel for you, mine was missing for two nights the other week and it was the longest two nights of my life. She left about 3am one morning and returned a similar time wanting to be fed! Like you I was imagining the worse

I hope he turns up

Thank you so much, it's horrendous the not knowing. I feel in my gut sadly that the worst has happened as it is so out of character and we've been all locally calling him to no avail 😩

Hope he comes home soon. We once lost our cat for 2 weeks- put up posters, knocked on doors etc. Gave up hope then I got a random call and he had been living with a lady down the road! Never quite understood how he ended up there- think someone found him, took him to a vet who had him adopted ... he was microchipped but we had moved abroad with him from UK and his chip wasn't readable abroad ... He lived with us til he eventually died aged 19. So there are happy endings.
However last year, a young cat of ours disappeared overnight which was out of character for him, and sadly we found him dead in a neighbours garden - we think he had been hit by a car and crawled away. It was really really sad.
My point is it could be anything and hopefully he will turn up having been locked in someone's garage or shed overnight. Cats are nosey. Goodluck !

Thank you. I can't see him staying with someone as he's just too timid and aggressive. I live right in a city centre so although I'm glad nobody has found him passed yet, I'm surprised nobody has found him alive or passed so I'm really stumped. I personally believe he's gotten injured and passed away somewhere hidden sadly like what happened to your cat. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Put things in the garden that smell of home /you eg hang some of your worn clothes on the washing line, cat litter tray, etc
Good luck

Thank you. My partner put some of his old hoodies up around the local area.

Please ask people to check garages - they can sneak in so quickly and squeeze into the tiniest gaps.

My cat jumped onto a shed roof which had rotted and he was trapped for 3 nights. Go out and call him and listen to see if he answers. My cat was very close by.

A couple of years later the silly thing then fell/jumped into a closed off alleyway between two houses across the street, the alleyway that the neighbour helping to find him had access to.

Hope you find him. It's the most horrible feeling ever.

Have you knocked on doors and asked people to check their sheds etc? They should ideally open the shed door and step away for a bit as a timid cat will hide and won't come out right away.

That’s where my cat disappeared to, for about a week in the summer, I think. To a garage or a shed. Where someone must’ve went away for a week and came back to a yowling beast as he was half Siamese. But as pp said think he’d have been cautious as he wasn’t at all aggressive.

I basically doorstepped and leafleted every house and flat in my road and the one behind.

He must’ve been in a place with either water somewhere or access to mice/bugs though to have survived that long so please don’t give up! How long can a cat survive in hot weather: I did call him towards the end of that period so think he knew or heard That his owner was calling but couldn’t get out. He was a slim Jim though. I’d given up too, thought ah well had him 3 years he won’t be back. Always came back every night, you could hear fence panels being whacked by force of his paws/legs.

Interestingly, he came back once sodden in sort of mud/wet water, no idea how that happened. There’s a recreation ground behind the house with a “wildlife pond” for the local school, now disused. I swear he went there and I think I even saw him there once. It’s a road crossing but not busy and residential and approx 4-5 mins walk and I think it had newts, frogs etc in it.

Then my old yoga teacher down the road who has a garden studio, said she’d seen him in her garden, she has a catio with a cat inside. He didn’t like going near actual people (heaven forbid!) apart from ones he knew well, but was very cheeky and naughty and curious and prone to roaming, unless, there was a dog, which he was petrified of.

They're such buggers sometimes @Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain - mine once got stuck in next doors (open) shed - we checked about four times until I spotted this pair of orange eyes staring at me - DH and the neighbour had to go and get him out from behind an old lawnmower 😂

It’s the getting into and out of places you wouldn’t believe. Cats including my current one (last one sadly died young) will wander and are quite cheeky going anywhere including into houses they think is exciting/has food. Unless of course there’s a dog there. They seem to have the common sense mode omitted though hence yours getting trapped!

For a few years Felix (old missing week one) loved playing with a toy white rat, then one day on seeing it shuddered, wouldn’t pick it up as usual and wouldn’t touch it, think he’d encountered finally a real live scary one which maybe fought back! 🤣

There was a BBC programme on cats wandering and their other lives and you’ve guessed it, most of them visited other homes and their stretch of “roaming” can be quite large.

Leave a litter tray that he's used outside if you have one

Oh absolutely @Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain - our youngest (a ginger boy) will go everywhere - he also likes to pretend he doesn't know us if we see him "in public" and will run off and hide in bushes 😂

We've been going out each night and calling him to no avail. We put posters up last night locally and have been posting on social media. I don't think he could have gotten in a garage as he went out really late, 1/2 when I last saw him and he's scared so much that objects like kitchen bins cardboard boxes etc terrify him but I can't rule anything out I'd do anything to find him. I haven't yet knocked or put letters through doors but will try this as I'd do anything to have him home. I miss him so much and can't stop crying and feel so low. I'm very concerned because of where he's timid he will be hiding so if he is injured or trapped I worry nobody will ever find him 💔

🤣

For me, go round to the neighbours again.

I’m so lucky, a lot of the neighbours were old ladies so were happy to help look but a few people go away, on holiday, weekend breaks. If they allow it even ask if they’d mind you helping them check eg shed. Some won’t, but some won’t mind at all. Lamp posts and WhatsApp street groups and Facebook pages are all great places for a cat to be searched for.

If mine survived a week yours possibly can so don’t give up hope.

Thank you, we've put flyers up in all popular busy places and multiple along our street. Will definitely try putting them in people's houses next. I hope he isn't dying in this heat if he is stuck somewhere 😔

I don't think he could have gotten in a garage as he went out really late

Lots of people never lock their sheds and garages - ours is often open 24/7 this time of year to dry it out from the winter. You'd honestly be really surprised at where they can go and what kind of gaps they can squeeze themselves into.

Ask everyone (in a fairly wide radius) to check sheds and garages, as well as under cars etc. Mine was found in next doors' shed - he could see our back door from where he was but he was too scared to come out and go home. He's four now and happily goes anywhere!

Thank you, I hope that this is all it is and he's just gotten himself trapped somewhere rather than something sinister.

Honestly, they can be daft things sometimes. Another of mine was sat in a neighbours' hedge and refused to come out, we had to team up - neighbour prodded her with a stick while I bribed her with some cheese 😂

Lol that sounds like something my boy would do 😂 bless

Sometimes they get carried away when the weather turns slightly warmer and stay out for hours on end. So worrying. Hoping he comes home soon x

My timid "mums boy" went missing for 8 days once
Strolled home on his own while I was frantic and looked at me like "yeah that was a mistake, I won't do that again"