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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Our tortie has gone missing 😥

56 replies

zapeze · 31/03/2025 14:01

Our lovely 4 year old tortie went out yesterday at 6.30pm and hasn’t returned - we’ve done all the advised things, flyered all the neighbours, notified vets and microchip company, posts on social media and Pets Reunited. We did several sweeps of the area, one at 4am and then every few hours after but she appears to have vanished.

She is however a common visitor to our neighbours gardens and houses (!) and yesterday being a lovely Sunday Mother’s Day, we reckon she has got shut in to a garage or storage area.

worse still we are supposed to go away for 2 nights tomorrow… might just be me and the children and DH can continue to search.

We lost her sister to the road 18 months ago so particularly nervy. Roads are clear and no reported accidents.

A Hand hold would be appreciated and any stories of hope 😞

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lawpluslaw · 31/03/2025 14:10

My childhood cat once went missing for about 3 days and turned out to have managed to get herself locked into the cabin on a neighbour's sailboat that they were wrapping for winter. She managed to make herself heard eventually 😁

We don't have cats now as one of my kids is very allergic, but my local Facebook/nextdoor is almost nothing but missing cat posts, the vast majority of which are reunited within a few days.

Sending an optimistic handhold and a hug. The odds are she's just out catting and will be home shortly looking very pleased with her adventures, possibly having convinced a few gullible neighbours to feed her along the way.

Original poster

zapeze · 31/03/2025 17:56

Bump for the evening crowd. We’ve had a fruitless day searching and kids are very downhearted.

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CurlsLDN · 31/03/2025 18:00

I know it’s a worry, but I’m surprised you’re so worried and have taken so much action already, if I’m reading this right it’s been less than 24 hours?

it’s spring and sunny, cats go bonkers in spring and love to go on adventures and stay out beyond their usual routines. I expect and hope she’ll wander back in without a care in the world within the next couple of days!

Lindy2 · 31/03/2025 18:08

Can you go and knock on your neighbours' doors and ask if you can go with them to look in their sheds/garages etc? I know it's a bit pushy but she might be too scared to come out if she has been locked in.

Have you checked up trees? It's nesting time and my naughty tortie does like to try and climb the trees to get closer to the birds nests.

Also, put out the litter tray or cat bed. If she's lost her way the smell can help guide her home.

I hope she returns safely soon.

TheSeaOfTranquility · 31/03/2025 18:33

Have a walk around your neighbourhood at the dead of night when it's quiet. Carry an opened tin of tuna or sardines and agitate it with a fork as you go, to release the delicious smell. Call her name and listen carefully for any meow sounds.

AgnesX · 31/03/2025 18:39

Fingers crossed that she comes back and soon. 🐱

Original poster

zapeze · 31/03/2025 19:12

Thank you. I appreciate we are probably over reacting but it is so out of character for her and the imagination runs wild… we are going to put hoover contents out later and check at 10pm. The hard thing is knowing when to stop and just wait (which I find very difficult).

thanks for the moral support.

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Theoldwrinkley · 31/03/2025 19:15

Hand hold here. But hope does spring eternal. Lovely post in local facebook group about 'does anyone recognise this cat?' It was hoovering up hedgehog biscuits and loitering in a certain area of local small town. The poster had caught cat and taken to vets, but no microchip. But cat was healthy. Response to post about cat enquiry was along the lines of 'moved down from Inverness and rented locally before moving to permanent home about 6 miles away. We've been missing cat so so much and going back to area of rented house every day looking for her, so delighted to see her fit and well'. Poster and owner now both trying to trap cat to get her safely home. Cat had been missing for months, so hold out hope for your tabby.
I get anxious if my ginger boy isn't home by midnight. I'm sure he knows how much I worry (I tell him often).

Confused868947 · 31/03/2025 20:54

I’d feel exactly the same as you. I hope your cat comes back to you. Don’t give up hope

Original poster

zapeze · 01/04/2025 10:42

Nothing this morning. I had read stories of cats coming back at 1.30am and was mildly hopeful. We’ve flyered the postman.

if she had strayed further away on a lovely evening and is now disorientated, or had been chased out of her territory, what do cats do in those circumstances? I suppose she might be trying to find her way home or laying low?

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SabreIsMyFave · 01/04/2025 10:45

Oh noooooo. That's so horrible when your kitty goes missing! 😢

It's more unusual for a girl to go missing too. Boys tend to wander further away to explore... and do tend to 'go missing' more often than girls.. So maybe your torti had got in a work van or something...? I really hope she appears soon @zapeze I think she'll be back by the end of the week!

#fingerscrossed

CatChant · 01/04/2025 11:14

Do knock on all the neighbours’ front doors and ask if they will check their sheds and outhouses, or if they know you, let you check because she might hide from a stranger.

And go out calling her in the early morning so you can hear if she’s answering.

Hope she’s home soon.

Deargodletitgo · 01/04/2025 18:10

One of mine went missing for five days, he had got himself picked into the house of a lady who had been moved to hospital. Was discovered by her family members who had seen my flyers all around the neighbourhood. If you know where they tend to visit, do lots of door knocking and ask to check sheds (he's also gotten locked in a shed but I knew where he was as he now has a tracker)

RareMaker · 01/04/2025 22:32

It's the worst. Post on all the local groups. Walk around in early hours around neighbours cars and garages and listen for meows zx

Original poster

zapeze · 02/04/2025 10:42

Thanks all. We are continuing to hope she is alive and well, just out there and not able to get back yet. Kids are very subdued. At least the weather is favourable.

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Allergictoironing · 02/04/2025 18:11

To give you more hope, my DSis's cat went missing for just over a month in the depths of winter once and they got him back.

Plus there was a story on Radio Kent a couple of weeks ago about a cat who had been missing for TEN YEARS, and was returned to the original owners.

Original poster

zapeze · 02/04/2025 20:12

Yes I saw that - there’s also an apocryphal tale on here about a lady who’s cat returned in 2023 after a 10 year absence… last seen before the school run, and when it returned the children were teenagers but delighted to see their old friend. Gives me hope! Come home Tilly 🐈‍⬛

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Agentscullyandmulder · 08/04/2025 14:30

Did your cat turn up op? I posted on here my cat Wednesday got out and disappeared for 6 months. We were told she had passed, appeared by the front door 6 years later

Eggsboxedandmelting · 08/04/2025 14:34

My tortie queen was away 6 months. Actually found her sat at a very local row of shops!! Very odd! She had been eating birds and mice a local woman told me.. No bloody idea why nobody either answered my posters or took her for chip scanning...
If someone has been keeping her in (thieving fooks) maybe they will let her out now the weather is nicer... Hopefully she makes it home soon op.
Some people have no morals...

Igmum · 08/04/2025 17:38

I hope you’ve found her @zapeze🫂

Original poster

zapeze · 08/04/2025 19:15

Unfortunately she’s still missing - 9 days now. People have been so kind in helping us search and her poster is all around our neighbourhood. We were really hoping she would be freed from wherever she had been trapped one week later, but nothing yet. I am trying to get on with things and the kids are coping because there is still a “what if” out there, but privately I think it is probably not good news.

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Brenna24 · 08/04/2025 19:20

I am sorry. It is so stressful. My brother's elderly cat went missing years ago and given he was in kidney failure and very arthritic and wobbly they assumed the worst. Especially as said cat had stormed out the house in a huff when they had brought baby number 2 home. They felt like it was all their fault. 3 weeks later he dragged himself back in as thin as a rake, dehydrated and with injuries consistent with a gall from height. They assume he got himself stuck somewhere high. Crate rest and painkillers for a month and he lived happily for another year. How he managed to survive the dehydration and starvation with his wonky kidneys and general old age skinniness we don't know.

underhedges · 08/04/2025 23:32

Our cat went missing for 5 weeks last summer. I know how you're feeling and it's awful. We did everything you are doing to find her. It was a fb post I put up on one of the local community groups that brought her home. It turned out she'd travelled 2.5 miles away and a couple had been feeding her for two weeks as she'd turned up at their door very hungry. We've no idea what happened in the first 3 weeks. My advice is to continue looking locally but consider widening the search area either in person or on social media. Look for local community/resident groups and look at the next area to where you are. We have put AirTags on our cats collars now so we can track them when they are out. Our boy cat has lost his collar a couple of times but because of the tracker we've found it again and it's back on him. I hope you find her soon.

Original poster

zapeze · 12/04/2025 21:20

So we’ve had 3 positive sightings today - down at the village at the bottom of the hill where we live. One said they saw a cat matching her description with an injured back leg. DH has flyered and searched the entire area and more people say they recognise her photo; but no sign of her. If she is injured and hiding (and it’s like a warren down there of houses and alleys and back gardens), she isn’t coming out easily. DH is going to go back tomorrow early and continue the search. I just hope a) it is her and b) we reach her in time. It’s been 10 days so far…

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PenguinChops · 12/04/2025 21:31

Fingers crossed for you. Are you going out in the quiet of night? I’d try around 11pm/ 11.30pm as well as early morning. It’ll be quiet and you’ll be able to hear her. Take dreamies packet to shake if that’s her thing

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