Our baby girl is missing. She hasn’t been home in 2 nights now and it doesn’t look good. We were fostering a new kitten for a week until he could go to his new home and she got really, really mad at us. She is almost 3yrs old and definitely the queen of the house. She usually goes out in the mornings and in the late afternoon and she always comes in at night… until this week. We even had the kitten in a separate area so he wouldn’t be in her space…
We are trying to stay positive but there are a lot of things to consider. We live by the woods with owls & coyotes and the like. We checked all of the roads around our house and that checked out OK-she isn’t one to go on the road anyway. She is a beautiful cat and could have been snatched. Could she just be really pissed and teaching us a lesson? How long should I wait before I put closure on it for the kids? We are calling the shelters today to see if she has been picked up anywhere & we have put up signs for her. I don’t know what else to do.
She is fixed so the “call of nature” isn’t an issue and she is tough as nails when it comes to other cats messing with her. I’m pretty sure she could hold her own in most situations. Damn! I hate this!
My boy has made two disappearances in the past three months since moving in with my parents. Both times, he’s been found near the house - he knew where he was, he was just too scared to try and find his way back to the front door. The first time, he was missing for over 24 hours, the second time, we found him after an hour.
Have you put up signs in the neighborhood? Is she microchipped? Hand out flyers to your neighbors, ask them to keep an eye out for her, go up to the shelter and look for her…cats are surprisingly resilient, so my guess is that she’s just laying low somewhere and trying to decide how to get home. Don’t just call the shelter - you really need to go up and look for yourself.
And I wouldn’t give up hope just yet. One of my parents’ cats went missing for over a week once and came strolling home ready for dinner when they’d thought he was gone.
I’ll keep you and kitty in my thoughts - I hope she comes home!
When I was a youngster and lived on a farm, one of our cats went missing for about a year. One night while I was sitting outside he just showed up with a bite out of his ear and a cut chin. Maybe if the going gets tough she will come back. Maybe home wasn’t so bad after all! I wish you luck.
Just to second avabeth, talk to your neighbours. Can you put up cards in any local shops, or pet stores? The other thing you could try is the local vets if there aren’t that many, since if someone suddenly gains a cat they may take it in for a check-up.
Don’t give up hope after three days. We had a strange cat follow us home and adopt us for several days on one occassion. When we tracked down the cat’s owners they lived nearby (5 minutes walk) and had just got a new puppy. The cat had sulked for the best part of the day it arrived and then decided to move out for a few days.
Our own went missing for nearly a week, then turned up at dinner time one evening acting as if he’d never been gone.
My cat disappeared once for a week (after a blizzard – I let him out to go see that there was nowhere to go and – ten minutes later, he’d proven me wrong). He did come back eventually; I assume someone took him in, but I was distraught the whole time.
Ditto on the advice to ask the neighbors and go out and call her – Elvis knows that “pss pss pss” is the calling sound, and, depending on his mood, will respond to it. (Apparently he recognizes my voice – the kids next door, when younger, used to try to call him and it never worked.)
Got my fingers crossed and good vibes headed your way.
Thank you all for your good thoughts… the boys and I hit most of the neighbors last night so everyone has their eyes open for her. We don’t have any shelters near by and the 2 major ones say they haven’t picked up any cats at all in the last 3 days. The vet idea is great and I will start calling them this afternoon. There is a no-kill center down the road and they don’t take strays but they offered to help me search for her anyway. We are going to put up signs tonight and our foster baby went to his new home last night so if she tries to come home she wont be threatened by him anymore.
Thank you for all of your good thoughts…please keep them coming. I am stressed out and need all of the help I can get.
When I was a kid our cat Lucy went whoring around (although she was fixed) and just when we gave up hope (7 weeks later) we saw her cross the road (at night) right in front of our car. We were on the way home from a very rare diner out. Lucy was then ever after called Lucky Lucy.
Once at the HS I used to work for I had a couple bring in a cat they had found 6 months previous, and decided they no longer wanted.
Although not holding out much hope, because we get thousands of stray cats in every year that no one ever claims, I went through the lost records from 6 months ago. Found a cat that matched the description, on the off chance phoned the people. They came in 5 minutes later, and it actually was their cat (I mean obviously there wouldn’t be a story here if it wasn’t theirs). The teenage son was in tears, they were so happy.
The unfortunate thing is pople often do not phone shelters when they find animals, dogs or cats, because to their way of thinking, it’s loose, no one must want it (nevermind that animals escape all the time). So I’ll echo everyone elses advice, make sure eveyone in your area knows about it, including all the pet food stores. I would talk to the employees in every one, so something clicks when some new customer comes in and says “I just found a new cat and I need food…”
And good luck! I know how you feel. My 16 year old Siberian Husky ran away a week ago, you imagine all the things that can happen to them (I was sure she had drowned in the river). She came home three days later.
Yes, there’s hope. One of my cats ran away when she was just a wee kitten, in the middle of winter - we found her huddled in the neighbor’s garage the next day. Hope you find yours!
My sister had two cats (they’ve both since passed away) who would go on walkabouts every so often. Once, one of them was gone for close to a month, and my brother-in-law found him stuck way up in a tree. The other times they would stay gone for a week or two. Don’t lose hope.
I started calling the vets today but there are SO many! We are going to pass out flyers tonight instead. I hadn’t thought of putting them up at the pet store but that is a really good idea.
Hearing from you all has made me feel much better and I hope my story turns out as well. My oldest son is the animal lover and this is really hitting him hard.
I lost my indoor-only cat on a particularly windy, rainy day when I didn’t latch the door properly. So I came home to an open door and no cat. I was a mess! I left the door open most of the night, left food outside, looked everywhere for him. The next morning, I looked again before work. Then I went home for lunch and looked again. When I got home (still raining, BTW), I went to a couple of neighbors and one of them said that cats like to crawl in their crawlspace and hang out. Sure enough, he was in there! He was just afraid of the rain. So I shook some treats and out he came.
Orion is my indoor-only cat. Once he snuck out and went missing for two days, but it turned out he was in the crawl space under the house. I don’t know why he didn’t come when we called.
Squeaky is the indoor-outdoor cat. He once went missing for a whole week. We put posters up in the neighborhood, at Wal-mart, and at the vet’s. I was sure he was gone, but then he showed up, clinging to the window screen like nothing was wrong. He was all skin and bones, though. I think, since he disappeared on garbage day and reappeared on garbage day, and our lease requires that all garbage cans in the subdivision be kept out of sight in the garage, that he must have been locked up in a neighbor’s garage the whole time. Thank goodness he got away for he starved.
My kitty was missing for 5 days before she came home. I think someone must have taken her in because whe wasn’t dirty, matted, or starving. On the fifth day she just turned up patiently scratching the door wanting to come in.
I’m lucky. My cat hasn’t ever gone missing for more than an hour or two. Of course, every time it happened was in the middle of the night. One November night, at around 1 AM I was messing around online, when I decided to get some fresh air outside. I went out, and Flopper dashed outside. I had to wake my parents up a 1 AM, and tell them the cat got out. They spent the next hour wandering on other people’s property looking for Flopper. Finally, they found him under a car.
We had a cat go missing for 6 months while we were living in Iowa before she was found, one subdivision over. We still have her today, and she’s 16 years old. Good cat.
About two weeks. An indoor only cat who got out and showed up two weeks later like nothing was wrong. Looked fine. I have a feeling she found some outdoor cats food bowl.