We are dog sitting, and the dog and our cat got off to a bad start. She went bolting down the hallway, and we have searched high and low, and cannot find her. Her food is untouched, and the litter box has not been used. She is under deep cover somewhere. She will not answer to her name when called.
Is there any good way to find a hiding cat? Is there some trick I can use with catnip?
I know she hasn’t gotten out of the house, nor has she been eaten by the dog. Any advice?
Open a can of tuna or salmon and put it on the floor.
Patience. Kitty will come out of her own accord. However, patrol the house from time to time to listen for plaintive mewling, in case she’s gotten herself stuck someplace.
Also, if you can confine the dog temporarily to some part of the house that you know the cat isn’t in, that should help. She will probably feel safer sooner.
Day 1: “Kittykittykittykittykitty”…smoochsmoochsmoochsmooch
Day 2: Strategic catnip deployment.
Day 3: Start bashing holes in the walls.
Any news ?
She’ll come out when she’s hungry enough - try putting the dog into one room for a while, shut the door and then put down something you know the cat likes as a treat (fish, catnip, cheese etc). Maybe you could tempt her out of hiding like that. Otherwise, it’s just a waiting game.
We went through this when we went to my SIL’s for cleaning/excavating. There was a whole crew of us and the one kitty got freaked out. She was under cover for weeks. I guess she came out when no one was there, but we couldn’t find her to save our lives.
Can you take the dog out for an extended outing? Like maybe to the woods for a couple hours? That cat knows that the dog is there, whether he’s locked up or not. I think you need to make kitty think that he’s gone for good.
And yes, opening a can of something scrumptious should help…but not until the threat of imminent death is removed. Good luck!
You’re sure the cat didn’t get out? I know cats disappear, but they also escape.
Could she jump upwards from the basement into the cutout for bathtub plumbing, and be hiding inside the wall of the tub? We had a stray do that once.
Have you looked under the bathroom sink? That’s where we found Fluffbrain, after searching high and low for over an hour.
to give you an idea of just how creative a cat can be,:
When we moved house the cat was terrified. After a hard day of loading truckloads of furniture and boxes, we looked for the last thing to load (before driving to the new house): the cat. She was nowhere to be found ,-- in a totally empty house!
Well, not quite empty: there was an old clothes dryer left in the basement. But it’s not what you’re thinking–she hadn’t climbed into the clothes dryer to go spinning around with the old rags in there. No,… she climbed into the motor! Somehow, she had squeezed behind the piece of sheet metal on the back of the dryer, and was sitting in the “engine compartment” where the motor and stuff is.
She must have been totally terrified and desperate to try to get through the very small slit in the metal there.
Check the box springs on all the beds. Kitties like to create openings in them so they can play at being the minotaur in the labyrinth.
As others have said, put out food and put the dog somewhere else. The key is, arrange the food very carefully so that you can come back tomorrow and see if it was disturbed or partially-eaten. If the cat is there and just goes back into hiding after eating, then you don’t have to worry.
My cat used to hide behind the bookcase…
that is, behind the books in the bookcase. :eek:
Don’t they sell a clapper for cats?
Check your bed’s box spring… a neighbor of mine experienced the same and after 9 days, found the cat trapped inside the box spring of a bed in guest room.
We finally did find her. We extremely thouroughly checked each room that has a door, and then closed it behind us. We left food and water out, and called her repeatedly. I was actually afraid she had hurt herself, although that seemed unlikely. Anyway, yesterday I hear crying from behind the door to the first room we searched. Of all the rooms in the house, this one had the least hiding places, and we opened drawers that were closed, checked under the bedsprings, etc. I really thought there was no way she could have been in there. I can’t believe how well they can hide.
Thanks, Mr. Fenjves! 
Cat ON! Cat OFF! Cat ON Cat OFF! The CatClapper!