Cat has been missing for four days- when to give up hope?

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He just went out as normal one morning and didn’t come back…

The kids are distraught.

I'm distraught.

His sister couldn’t give a shit and is enjoying the extra attention.

I’ve done all the looking, asking neighbours, local social media etc., but nothing. We’re due to go on holiday next week and it just all feels so sad. We love him so much.

Not sure what I’m asking for really, just thinking about when to stop hoping he’ll come through the cat flap 😞

You need to ask your Vet if they happen to have a record of her microchip.

When you adopted her, was the paperwork not included in with everything else ? i.e. vaccination certificate - maybe it was written on the vaccination certificate
Didn't you update the microchip when she became yours ?

Make some leaflets. photocopy or print them out. Deliver them to every home in your street and the street behind and in front - ask in the leaflet for people to check their garages and sheds.

5 weeks and came home a little bit thinner and a lot nicer.

Our cat was gone 10 days. He’d got locked in a shed. Must have put his mousing instincts to good use because he left a chonk and returned chonkier!

Don’t give up yet x

Last year during the hot spell a lot of cats went missing around the village the same week. People put up posters, the local press got involved. This went on for a couple of weeks until the day the weather broke, it poured with rain and every rascal turned up again.

Ours came back exactly one week later, dusty, ratty and a load of ticks 🙈. We think she got locked in a house or garage and got out when they came back from a weeks holiday. Fingers crossed for you.
Other people's tips are good: litter tray if you have one, blanket or cat bed, your bed sheet or pillow case and hang them up outside, the scent will travel.

Our British shorthair went missing for 11 days. She's not very worldly and I was convinced she hadn't made it but I went out looking for her every morning and evening with a food bowl to clink. I found her two roads over from us as the crow flies but about a 10 minute walk because it was a cul de sac you entered from waaay down the road. It was the opposite direction to where she normally wandered. I think she got spooked and then disorientated. Poor thing was hungry and had nightmares for a few weeks (woke herself up crying a lot) but she was physically fine.

Ours was missing for 5 days, was stuck in a neighbour’s shed. She looked a bit roughy but was her usual self within 24 hours. Annoyingly neighbour wouldn’t check their shed when DD10 & I went round house to
house.

Please don't give up yet! He's relying on you to find him.
Ours was missing for 2 months, found through Facebook about half a mile away (had got lost).
Do all the Facebook/next door app/missing pet sites. There will be local lost and found pet groups on Facebook and also local community groups for your area that will often allow posts. Put posters up locally and leaflet/knock on doors on your nearest streets to ask people to check sheds. Check any empty houses nearby too. Contact local vets. Ring the council and see if they have collected any deceased cats off the road in your area
Bump your social media posts daily
Really hope you find him soon 🤞

Just to say: mine went missing for 6 days. She was locked in a shed.

Are you calling her name loudly while looking? We did this every day with no reply then for some reason on the last day she meowed her heart out.

A cat in our street had somehow got from her own attic into the neighbour’s attic - neighbours were on holiday. She was missing for just over a fortnight and her family were distraught. When the neighbour came home he thought he had rats because he could hear her up there, and was pleased to find a stripy, hungry cat instead!

My dentist’s cat was missing for seven years. Turned up living at a small parade of shops in a nearby village - the shopkeepers/staff had made a mascot of him and looked after him very nicely!

Agree with pp about putting litter out, and if the cat has a bed/blankets to sleep in put them on the washing line. Our previous cat didn’t roam but when we adopted our current boy I put his litter all round the borders in the back garden so he would know if was “his space”. (He's currently snoozing on the couch despite it being a lovely day so that clearly worked.)

My friends cat disappeared for days at a time. Once he went missing for 2 weeks, word got around and she went to pick him up from a house he had been frequenting apparently.

He wasn't happy and disappeared again back to the same house, he never came back, he moved out.

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to post. It’s really giving me hope- although looking out just now to see a fox in the garden has made me worried again that he’s been attacked by one. Is that likely?

We’re in London with tiny gardens and Victorian terraces- I’ve put his cushion out (no litter tray) and will hope for the best.

One of ours came home after 10 cold October nights out. Broken leg needed amputated... Another fiesty tortie queen was gone 6 months. Saw her sat under a tree in the next bloody street!! Never give up hope op.

Have you got a Lost And Found pets page for your local area on FB? Nexdoor.com and neighborhood FB groups also a good idea. Seen loads reunited by the power of social media.

Yes, he’s on our neighbourhood WhatsApp group and local FB and lost cat pages. Trouble is, he’s a black cat without any distinguishing features…

This is him.

Oh I love black cats!

It's very unlikely that he's been harmed by a fox. They are usually quite scared of cats (well, our local foxes are scared of my 4kg cat anyway). Very young/small cats or very elderly ones can be at risk from foxes, but usually cats and foxes co-exist in the nation's night gardens quite happily and mostly ignore each other.

Cats and foxes tend to be ok together. They have a sort of 'honour among thieves' pact. I always imagine they give each other a bit of a frosty nod as they skirt past one another in my back alleyway. And cats are sooo fast if they need to be. My ginger boy suns himself on the shed with the local foxes. He kind of looks like a fox so I think they believe he's one of them.

I wonder if your young boy has discovered his inner Six Dinner Sid and has realised that he can live in one home... but go to many others for food and snuggles. Both my cats went through this phase when they were young. By age 4, they both settled down and planted themselves firmly at home. But two of my neighbours had named one of my cats. 😳

Oh and he's a beautiful boy, your lovely black cat. 😻

NEVER GIVE UP HOPE!

Cats can return after a year or more!

I reckon your baby will be back less than a week from now! 😄

Worth asking neighbours to check sheds and garages before you go away.
He’s lovely. I hope he’s soon home.

Ours got locked in a shed, I heard her crying as I went out searching at 5am, it's so quiet then that she heard me and I heard her.

Thank you @SerenityNowInsanityLater he’s 6 so definitely past the exploring phase (he did this about five years ago), he’s just a small cat which also makes me worry.

I'm trying to keep calm about it all, I think it’s just happened at a very stressful time and feels like the straw that broke the camel’s back. DD (15) has autism and the cat is everything to her 💔

Really though, thank you for all the messages, they are helping a lot.

About few years ago our cat went missing for about six weeks really thought he was gone.
He just turned up one morning like he'd only been gone for a couple of hours !

Cats are more prone to wandering in the summer I find. I can’t beat ten years, but one of ours was AWOL for three months last year (summer!) and then we spotted him just round the corner and brought him back. I think he might have had a bad time as he had lost weight and was nervous but soon settled back in. Since then, he’s been fine till now but I now haven’t seen him for about three days so he might have done a runner again. It can be stressful for owners but cats gonna cat.