I just want to ad to this thread for anyone who hasn't discovered it. There is a network variously called Streetlife which is a sort of local social thing. When Betsy went missing a couple of years ago, just for a day or two, I put a post on asking people in the village to check in their outhouses. I don't know if it worked, but she turned up the next day. It's always worth finding out about these things.

 

This has been so useful in finding our missing Ollie boy and thanks to the Animal Search UK posters we had made we have found where he has been living.
Only problem is that we now can't catch him to bring him home!i have been going there morning and night with treats and tuna to try and get him to trust me but no luck.

We have borrowed a trap but as he is so skittish I am worried this won't work. Has anyone here used a trap? Did you have any success? We are desperate to have him home.

 

Use a lot of flyers and very important: Talk to people! Once in 2002 (or 2003? Can't remember exactly) my cat Oliver went missing. I hit up sooo many people about it (I didn't care whether they found it embarrassing, I loved that cat) and somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody called me and said Oliver ran towards them a couple of days ago. This way I got him back again! Good luck to you all. Aruna

 

Hi, I was after some ideas. I lost my male cat on Friday after he was hit by a car. He was 7 years old and we are devestated. My problem is his sister, whilst they’ve not really enjoyed each other’s company over the last few years, we tended to have a one in one out situation, they did love each other very much. She is behaving very oddly, I’m pretty sure she’s now realised he’s gone, she hasn’t wanted to go out since he died. She has an upset tummy. She’s overly affectionate compared to normal and lethargic at times. Whats concerning though is she appears to have gone completely mental. She’s jumpy, constantly wide eyed and staring at nothing intently. Chasing nothing round the room, chasing her tail, trying to bite her tail, running around the house(not unusual when she was small but at 7, she usually sleeps when at home) flicking her tail a lot. She was also out when her brother was killed, I’m worried she may have seen it. I’m just not sure what to do to help her....

 

Cats could easily find their way home especially if they have been living with you for a long time. But in case your cat is not able to return home after a day or two, he/she could be lost somewhere. First you should report it, then asks permission to post posters in your community or contact local radio station so that whoever saw your cat would be able to contact you. Another is you could attach a tracker device for you cat so that it would be easier to track them down. As a precaution to avoid losing your pet, don't let them roam freely outside be it on daytime or nighttime unless you're watching them or you have a fence surrounding your house. Just make sure that there's no hole or something that let your cat escape from it.

 

Never give up. A few experiences I've had over the years. Back in The Summer of 1984 one of our cats "Fluff" aged 4 went missing. I should add here that I live in a very rural area, only 3 houses within a mile of us. Despite extensive searches there was no trace of him and I stopped looking for him after a month or so. Fast forward to 1988 and I was out running when I spotted him by a country cottage down the lane that I live on about a mile and half away. I spoke to the people at the cottage who had adopted him as a stray a few years before. I decided the only thing to do was to leave him there . Then there was the case of "Kit", a small tortie who used to go missing for weeks on end, a month was her record! Never did find out where she went but she always came back. Then, in January last year our male stud 12 month old Bengal escaped. We searched as far as 5 miles away but once again drew a blank. We purchased another male Bengal as we thought he'd gone but blow me down he came home 7 months to the day, a bit skinny but still intact. It's possible that someone had either stolen him (we never figured out how he escaped) or possibly just picked him up. You see he's a big cat, very very noisy and a real handful so I'm thinking that whoever had him simply returned him. Of course its also possible that he just got lost and the smell of the 2 females finally brought him home but I guess I'll never know.

Pete

 

Much the same story.. one of mine went missing one year. I did all the advised things. Posters, local radio, cat rescues.... I was in a tourist area and had read of some folk with a holliday home feeding a " stray" while they were there then leaving it there and "hoping it would be OK ". I emailed all the local lets but it was autumn, three months, before one day I herd her familiar shrill cry. |went to the gate and there she was way down the lane.. Rattled a spoon in an empty can and called and called and she came nearer and nearer util I grabbed her. "You are never going out again! " She was emaciated and sat on my chest wailing and talking at me all the night long. I think she got shut in somewhere empty? Never give up!

 

Thank you for advices

 

I found the information helpful to me when one of my ragdolls was stolen a couple of years back. I did get him back so don't lose hope.

Advice if you have lost your cat:-

Here are a few things to try:

1. Posters, Posters, Posters with picture and details with contact number.....hand out to neighbours and anyone you see. Put up in local shops, pubs and supermarkets. Stick to all local lamp posts. (If it rains go and collect them and replace however it's best to put posters in plastic wallets so if it rains they don't go all soggy - the neighbours and council don’t mind you putting them up so much that way). Also put one in your and friends cars - it amazing how many people see them this way. Make smaller flyers and push through every letterbox on your streets and the surrounding area. It is a good idea to offer a reward … of course this doesn’t have to be money … a box of cho-colates or a bunch of flowers is just as good.

2. Knock on doors and ask neighbours to check their sheds and garages WHILE YOU WAIT … it's surprising how many people say they will check but as soon as the door is closed they forget. Knock on 10 doors either side of your house on both sides of the street.

3. Check to see if there are any empty buildings for sale in the area. If there are it is worth checking with the estate agent in case they have shown someone round and shut the cat in. Also it is worth checking places where there may be builders in refurbishing a property in case the cat has got under the floorboards or in a cavity wall etc.

4. Look our for any abandoned vehicles, empty or semi-empty skips in case the cat has got in and can't get out.

5. Contact / check any community buildings where functions are held such as church halls, community halls etc. - in case your cat could be shut in a cupboard or toilet.

Please NOTE: The only authorised people who can break into a building if no one can be found to open it are the RSPCA but they are
not always co-operative. Even the police and fire brigade need RSPCA permission.

7. Leave food out and a toy of his.

8. Leave out an unwashed item of your clothing.

9. Put the contents of your hoover bag on your garden - it’s full of smells that they will recognise and if doesn’t bring him directly to your door will at least hopefully keep him in the area. Alternatively if you have a litter tray that has used put some of the used litter on the garden as this will have familiar smells in it.

10. Contact the local fire brigade and see if they have had to rescue any stuck cats.

11. Ask the local children to look - they are great for knowing all the local hidey-holes and love helping. Also have a word with your local post-person and milk man if there is one that delivers in your area. Also try and enlist the help of people walking dogs as they tend to go “off road” in the fields and parks.

12. Ask the local radio station to announce he’s missing and give out a contact number

13. Put an advert in the local paper

14. Contact your local environmental services dept (bin men) they keep a log of all animals picked on the roadside ... I know this is not a pleasant call to make and hopefully it will come back as negative.

15. Go out after dark when it is quieter with a friend / partner and walk round the local area gently calling every so often (give him a chance to answer you). Keep talking as you walk round that way if he is in the area he will hear you.

16. When you talk to vets and rescues, ask them about any known local feral colonies and where they are based. If Kitty has been missing for more than a few days s/he might have wandered further afield and might be “hanging round” near a colony for security (safety in numbers) and company. If vets/rescues know locations of colonies, these might be useful to get some ideas of where to start looking.

17. If you have Pet Insurance check your policy to see if they will assist with advertising costs or reward costs for a lost cat. Some policies cover as much as £1000 of local advertising and upto £500 reward.

18. Email the lost poster to all the people you know who live in the area and ask them to forward to others they know. This is a quick way to get your poster circulated.

19. IMPORTANT - if your pet is microchipped contact your chipping company straight away and let them know your pet is missing and check all your details are uptodate and correct. This will ensure that if found you are reunited with your little one as quickly as possible.

20. Use the local groups for your area that are on social networks (facebook / bebo / myspace / etc). Local politicians, sports clubs, etc. all have Facebook presences.

21. Try downloading a "meow" ringtone to your phone and when you are walking round play the ringtone .... you may find you start to attract lots a feline friends so please be very careful if you are near roads ... cats and cars are not a good mix.

Thank you for sharing this! This means a lot!

 

Never give up.

Posters with contact details (online at lost and found pet sites and services/on the street level/in the local bulletin boards in shop windows or big supermarkets).

Do the leg work.

Work with what you know about the cat.
If it's a new cat you've just adopted and has ran away (so the cat would have no reason to return to you since it has nothing to connect you or it's new home as home), always inform any previous owner if you've a 'displaced lost cat', never be afraid to say
"You know that cat you've just sold me?.."
"It got out my house right away/I under estimated it and the window..."
"And now I can't find it."
"Your fluffy baby I've just adopted is now lost." (Basically).

Because chances are, they'd have the cat microchipped.
If they've microchipped the cat but haven't updated the information or don't have the microchip number to hand, then which ever vet who inserted the microchip would have the microchip number on their records of when they inserted the chip - they'd always ask for the pet to be registered upon inserting the microchip and they'd always keep a record of the microchip's number inserted into the animal on its file.

It's on you to try your hardest and inform all parties with a vested interest in any "new" lost cat.

There is a whole plethora of different microchip companies with different databases and chances are; if you read the number to a microchip company, if it's not on their database, based on the number, there is a real chance they could point you in the direction of the correct microchip company. Once you've made contact with the correct company, notify them the cat is missing so they can flag it. Update the information (which should take 28 days).

Have the microchip number to hand at all times so you can use it to identify your cat if it's found within the transfer window, all the registered keepers details will be locked during this transfer, but the number will still show when scanned.

A previous owner would probably have more photos and videos of the cat you could use; try using a photo that shows the cat's body and length of fur and any unique markings as well, rather than it sitting on a pillow looking at the camera (unless it's got a unique face). Chances are, when looking for the cat, you're going to see a lot of cats, so try and find a picture where you can match body size and fur length better, if you can.
Talking to the previous owner about behavior could indicate if you've a lost timid cat or playful cat (there's a bunch of cat personality types you'd see when diving into the world of pet detective to find your missing cat).

Know what type of cat you're looking for.
The personality of the cat can let you know what radius to cover when searching for your cat.
If the cat's an indoor cat or an outdoor access cat, can also determine which radius.

After 10 days, any cat will be so in need of TLC, it won't be afraid to approach a friendly stranger, between 7 - 10 days.
Days 1 - 3, the cat is lying low, hiding, it's a basic survival strategy for the cat to keep quiet and probably isn't too far away - but it is an expert hider, master of not being found if it doesn't want to be.
Days 3 - 5 a displaced adult outdoor access cat will then feel brave enough venture out further.
Days 7 - 10, it will be so in need of TLC and want of cat food it will open up to the kindness of strangers.
To be kind to a cat.
Food. Food. Food.
This is an animal still.
It associates food with good and your smell with the food smell creates a positive association with yourself for the cat.
How to get your scent into its food?
You could handle it with your bare hands, might sound nasty or gross, but, our hands have pours and we have a smell and if we wash our clean hands in its food a little, any animal who finds this food will smell you and the food together and will probably let you hand feed it if you're lucky enough to find it once a trust is built up between you and the animal. Use plastic bowls as plastic bowls keep the scent better than ceramic when creating this positive association. Handle the plastic bowl as well as the food to get your scent all over it.
Cats are all about the positive association, so any new lost displaced cat might find your food (or another cat/wild animal), and learn your smell as good when mixed with food. So to be nice to a new lost displaced cat, the answer is food, and to create the positive association to yourself with this new displaced cat, get your smell in its food to tie you in with
'oh, this human isn't so bad, they give me food'.
And that's how to win a cat's trust.
Then depending on the personality of an outdoor access cat (a previous owner could let you know what type of cat it is). how far.
Let's say it's what's classified as 'brave cheeky cat'... Give it a mile.
Also, if the cat is spayed or neutered can also factor in its radius.
A cat will establish itself somewhere.
Probably a garden or a house of another cat/where there is a source of food and shelter.
So do the leg work, don't be afraid to knock on doors in your search area if you suspect your missing cat is around, because it's more text book than unique. Just got to work out what type of missing cat you have, do the leg work, get the poster made and circulated. Local vets and animal shelters could also do with a copy of a missing poster in case the cat is found and taken to be scanned locally.
The Cat's Protection League could let you borrow a humane cat trap as long as you return it within the agreed time.
Good luck pet detectives, because, like it or not, you're going to enter the world of pet detection when looking for your cat.

I speak from personal experience and a success story that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't have made posters and in looking for my cat in 2019, I found an identical missing cat which was reunited too with that cat trap...
Took the cat I thought was mine to be scanned, was another cat who was missing too. The microchip knows.
Get the information, update it, and let the company know the cat is missing.
My cat was found within 3 weeks by somebody else alive and well who saw a poster of mine online.
They contacted me, I got the call, to confirm we went to the vets to get it scanned (out of hours vet one Saturday night), it was mine.
I was looking in the correct radius, but in a completely other direction (you live, you learn), but the radius and personality was text book based on the personality and type of missing cat. It was an American website with very few reports in the London area that taught me about types of missing cats and classifications of missing cats and different behavioral types. I'm not sure if I can link it due to the forum, but, to pin point a search area, find some American company called Pet FBI (something to that affect) and you can register it missing there too for free. I live in Greater London, there was a handful of missing or found cats in my area on this American site, but it taught me how to determine the search area.

Once found, inform everyone with a vested interest in this cat that it's found. This may include former owners you've notified, local places you've displayed posters, the microchip company, any neighbours looking for the cat or keeping an eye out for your cat, inform everyone the cat is found once found.
There is a very high probability of a missing cat being found, so bare this in mind and do the leg work.

At dusk and dawn are great times to see cats (because that's when they like to be out I gathered from my patrols, so I began to patrol around these times), also, bring a bright torch, even in the daytime a hiding cat could be hard to see, so bring a bright torch and use your ears too, when patrolling/looking for your cat. Listen for jumping sounds and running sounds and noises the animal makes to determine what something was and where it ran off too as well as your eyes.
If you think you've found your cat. Loiter there, this gets your smell in the air.
Try to hang out around it, and bring food and a crate for it and try and lure it into a crate (or humane cat trap) with the food. If it doesn't work and you can't catch it, bring food and feed it. This lets the cat know you're friendly, and, it lets you know your cat has eaten. Try and bring fresh water too.

 

My mother in laws went missing in Manchester.. Unfortunately he was hit by a car and never made it back home. Absolutely hurts when you can't find them and think the worst kind of things. Lesson learnt Prevention is better and we now have two trackers as they are available for cats now. We use trackers from both bemorebob and Travfurler

 

One thing to be aware of is that birds and some other animals attack and eat cats. I don't know what so many people think is so funny about it but I guess it's common.

https://www.gon.com/news/hawk-flies-off-with-cat.

I've heard stories about it and seen a number of pictures on social media and videos on the web.

I have also heard of homeless people killing and eating them when they're starving. I don't know what gives them a right.

This post probably needs it's own thread and I don't like bringing it up in front of people who have lost their pets.

 

I have chip in my cat so if he wanders off I just check where he is via GPS

 

My boy Jerry has been missing for 6 days now . I miss him so much. I've alerted chip company and posted all over local Facebook groups/pages. I've had fliers made and out putting them through doors later. Oh and I've registered on pets located too. I really miss him and hate thinking what might have happened to him.

 

My boy Jerry has been missing for 6 days now . I miss him so much. I've alerted chip company and posted all over local Facebook groups/pages. I've had fliers made and out putting them through doors later. Oh and I've registered on pets located too. I really miss him and hate thinking what might have happened to him.

Animal Search is another one to register with (like Pets Located). Good luck, I hope you find Jerry. Could you put posters up at the local vet's too? On their entrance door glass panes? Presumably you mean the Cats Protection Facebook Lost & Found websites too? Get neighbours to check garages and sheds (thats where a nosy cat of mine got shut in twice in two days one summer). Have you got a cat-flap Jerry can get in, if he finds his way home? Come on Jerry...

 

Hope and wait for your jerry! someday boy shall come back to see you soon! I hope he shall must be come back to you. Keep searching continue in your surroundings as well in far areas and contact to your nearby animal rescue teams. A GPs activated tag is much helpful to find your pet when found your jerry boy please tag him in first priority and never got tense how you will find your loving pets.

 

Pray to St. Anthony to find your cat. Not convinced this will help? Then read the thread on CK is missing. Now found!
https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads/ck-is-missing-now-found.541297/page-34

 

Pray to St. Anthony to find your cat. Not convinced this will help? Then read the thread on CK is missing. Now found!
https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads/ck-is-missing-now-found.541297/page-34

And St Gertrude and St Francis of Assisi to look after your kitty till it is found.

 

Hello,
All of these points are exactly the right things to do. Making as many people as aware as possible and even finding the groups on FB for different areas to have the information and pictures shared nationwide.

 

• Cats are curious creatures and can often sleep in unusual places - make sure you've searched thoroughly around your home and garden first
• If your cat is missing, let your microchip database know as soon as possible so they can put a note on your pet's record for when they are found
• Put up posters in your local area which show a good photo of your cat and give your contact details
• Ask your neighbours to check their garages, sheds and cars and keep a look out
• Contact the local vets - if your cat has been injured, they may have been taken there for treatment
• Contact pet charity rehoming and rescue centres and give them details of your cat and copies of your missing poster so they can contact you if your cat is brought to them
• Check online lost and found websites in your local area, and register your pet on a national lost pet database

 

Great tips, I saved them just in case. Thanks. What about GPS trackers? Did anyone try them? I'm thinking about buying one for my cat.

 

Great tips, I saved them just in case. Thanks. What about GPS trackers? Did anyone try them? I'm thinking about buying one for my cat.

Hi. Some people have tried them. They are quite big though and fit on collars and many unfortunate cats have got caught on tree branches from collars that aren't quick release collars. Quick release collars tend to get lost regularly. I know of one cat that got stuck up a tree for two or three days and ended up losing a leg, and another whose collar got her stuck up a tree for 2/3 days and the collar caught around her mouth, requiring her mouth to be operated on as she had a nasty injury from it. Plus others.

When a neighbour locked my cat in Xmas morning until 2310 hrs In the evening, a friend gave me a "general/ not necessarily for pets" tracker, but I gave it back. On reading the instructions it said the tracker itself had a built in alarm! Enough to finish a poor cat off I would think!

 

I too have depressiona and was thinking about topping myself when my cats went. I lost one two weeks ago and have one old girl remaining plus a stray boy. What I have found by reading this site, is that some people feel just as we do, but getting another cat seems to help them. I have two friends who were the same as me when their dog/cat passed over - they were suicidal and I didn't think they would make it. Both lost their companions two years ago and now they both have other animals and are going through the same thing worrying about losing the. I say this because they do love these other animals just as intensely and having them has helped them. I know about the empty feeling. The pit of depression in the stomach. The thought that I don't want to go on. The one thing that is helping me is to plan a future for myself. I think its a lack of connections that make it worse for some people. I cannot connect with humans so all my love goes to the animals and so when they have gone I feel like I will have nothing left. I am trying to work on that.

 

i am sorry to hear.

use cat microchip to avoid this type of incident in future

 

I've just seen this story on BBC news, scammers are blackmailing owners of missing pets into paying them thousands of pounds to get their pets back.

Missing pets: 'Heartless' scammers targeting desperate owners - BBC News

Criminals are demanding ransoms from desperate pet owners after reading social media missing appeals.

www.bbc.co.uk