A couple of nights ago I let T.H.E. Cat out into the yard so that he could socialize with the neighbors. When I checked about an hour later, I couldn’t find him anywhere near the house. Now, he wasn’t one to wander far afield, so I just assumed the missus or Kid C had already let him back in. They hadn’t. Over the next couple of days, I found out that almost all of the neighborhood cats, stray and otherwise, had disappeared without a trace. I think some asshole stole my cat, and probably killed him, but either no-one in the neighborhood knows anything, or they’re not talking. Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat was a headbutting, dogwrestling(honestly-he would try to wrestle with our dog!), talkative son of a bitch who bonded with us the same day the next door neighbors abandoned their house payments, their house and him. He was the first cat I ever had, and he was the best damn cat anyone could ever ask for.
I called the Humane Society to see if there was any chance they had picked him up, but they wouldn’t release that information over the telephone, so this afternoon I took my beloved down to the Humane Society to check. They didn’t have him, and they were curious as to the whereabouts of all the other cats that were missing as well. BTW, I think I know why they won’t release the information about lost and found animals over the telephone. 
She is seven and a half years old, orange and white, and her name is Zippy. Best damn thirty five dollars my wife ever insisted I spend, and she isn’t going anywhere outside without a leash attached to her collar. She’s been spayed, sprayed, bathed, dewormed, tagged, and microchipped, and she has spent the last couple of hours cuddling, headbutting and loudly mraaaping her opinions about her new home, and I love her.
That’s just terrible, about your other cat, and all the missing neighborhood cats as well. If you ever find out what happened, keep us informed.
And thanks for letting Zippy choose you as her human. It WAS the humane thing to do.
Yes, that would be the reason I never go to my local Humane Society shelter for lost and wayward animals - I want to take pretty much every one of them home.
(What a great name for a cat! Zippy! The Zipster. Ziporama. Zippy dippy. Zippy pippy poopy kitty.)
Czarcasm, might I suggest you report this to the police? It may not be just in your neighborhood and it may not be just a one-time thing. There may be a, er, uhm, catnapper on the loose.
I did so. While they showed mild concern for my missing cat, they were absolutely astonished that I might care about what happened to the other neighborcats. One smiled and said that if he saw a pile of dead cats, he’d let me know.
Bastard.
Making Q.E.D. laugh while he’s drinking is bad for his monitor and keyboard. Stop it.
I know how sad you are. When I was in high school, my family had the best cat in the world (or maybe second best 
) named Carmichael. Carmichael was an independent little thing who could be gone on adventures for two or three days at a time, but he would always come back to us, purry and happy. I loved him so much that I even made a song all about him.
And then one day he never came home. I remember sitting in the middle of the family room and bawling my eyes out when I realized I’d never see him again.
Maybe Zippy is where Carmichael is–in a big ole field full of mice and catnip balls and unlimited bowls of Deli-Cat.
What a complete and total fucktard.
Once again, this is why my cats don’t go out. I know they’d be happier if they did, but there are too many fucking psychos out there. I’m sorry for your loss, Czarcasm.
D’you think it might have been a coyote or some other city-encroaching predator? The only other thing I can think of is some psycho future serial killer getting his practice in on neighborhood cats. I’d clean up piles of scrap wood and suspicious firestarting materials, too, 'cos it’s hard to get your Serial Killer Arson Badge using cats as firelighters.
Nah, coyotes would go for smaller dogs, too. My guess would be somebody gathering animals for sale to a lab or biological supply company. Happens about once or twice a year around home. People reallly suck sometimes.
Well geez, I don’t know whether to offer condolences or congratulations. Both, I guess. Good on you for adopting a needy cat. I did the same thing recently. Although I have affectionate nicknames for her like “Spawn of Satan” and “Demon Beast From Hell”, she’s actually a pretty good kitty. My son and his friend rescued her, at only about a month old, after some bastard dropped her off behind a dumpster and drove away.
Not likely. Czarcasm lives near where I do, on a peninsula in north Portland. There are large rivers on three sides. Any coyote would have had to navigate over ten miles of city to get here. We do have red-tailed hawks and great horned owls, but they wouldn’t take on anything as big as an adult cat. If it was a predator and not an accident or something, I’d bet it was a human predator.
It’s too bad that it took the (presumed) death of your cat to drive home the lesson that cats should not be let out to roam free in the neighborhood.
So, some good has come of this …
Would those animals actually be any good to a lab? I mean, there’s no control, so you never know what sort of diseases they might have.
I’m sorry for your loss, Czarcasm. But congrats on the new kitty.
It is weird about all the other missing cats, but are you already giving up hope? A week or so isn’t all that long for a cat to be missing. (I really just don’t want to think that something bad could have happened to all those kitties.)
And kudos especially on giving an older cat a chance. I hope soon you’ll post a thread asking for advice on how to explain her to T. H. E. Cat.
I am saddened to hear of this as it rings a tragically familiar bell:
http://cats.about.com/library/weekly/aa122401a.htm
I have also seen cable programs about groups that steal dogs & cats for resale to laboratories and to support the Asian fur trade (not cite possible). I pray that this isn’t what happened.
I’ve also heard that missing pets in the neighborhood can be because of a serial-killer-in training.
However, I would think that they would dissappear slowly over time, not relatively quickly if this were the case.
My bet is on a bastard in the neighborhood sick of cats on his lawn so he gathered them up and got rid of them or someone gathering them up for selling likeother posters mentioned.
[QUOTE=DeadlyAccurate]
Would those animals actually be any good to a lab? I mean, there’s no control, so you never know what sort of diseases they might have.
[QUOTE]
Animals can be supplied to a lab from Class A dealers–who breed their own animals specifically for supply, or Class B dealers–who receive animals from “other” sources, however those sources must be thoroughly documented and are subject to overview by the USDA. Companion animals also must be vet-checked/approved by the labs before they can be used on a study. The lab I work in now only deals with Class A suppliers–doing otherwise tends to be much more hassle than it’s worth, what with the extra checks and potential health issues related with “other” sources.
Sorry to hear that, Czarcasm; that really sucks. I don’t mean to make you worry more, but another possibility is dogfighters, who will sometimes grab neighborhood animals to use in teaching their dogs to fight.
Good on you for adopting Zippy, though! Although I like you theory of why they wouldn’t give out the info over the phone, another reason is because it’s sometimes very difficult to recognize a person’s animal from a telephone description, and we shelters don’t want to risk telling a person that we don’t see their animal and having them not come down to look for themselves. Our shelter DOES tell people whether we see their animal here, but if we don’t, we tell them that they MUST come down to look for themselves.
Of course, if they’re a busy shelter, maybe they don’t have the time to go look in back for the animal.
Daniel
Can you contact the local media, or maybe an area vet? The vet may have more luck with the police. I know it’s just cats, to the police, not very high on their radar, but if there’s a psycho out there killing pets they may not stop with animals.