Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
  • Missing cat advice.
  • verses
    Full Member

    I know cats are a divisive subject on here but I was hoping for some pointers all the same…

    Our cat hasn’t been seen since Monday evening; she doesn’t usually stay out overnight and hasn’t been away for this long before.

    We’ve stuck notes through the neighbouring properties’ letterboxes and spoken to the owners where possible (I’ve met a lot of new people over the last 24-48 hours!) asking them to check sheds and playhouses etc.

    My wife’s contacted local vets and posted on various local Facebook groups, and we’ve wandered the streets feeling like fools randomly shouting “Twiglet”.

    The cat’s only 3; she was a 6th birthday pressie for my now 8 year old, who’s understandably upset.

    I’ll be knocking together some “Missing cat” posters at lunchtime…

    Can anyone think of anything else we could be doing to find her?

    Yak
    Full Member

    Look in hedges near roads, or any other hiding spots near potential accident spots. If hit and injured, a cat will likely hide away for a bit. If able to move, it will come home eventually though. This could be after several days though.

    BillMC
    Full Member

    ‘Here, pussy, pussy, pussy.’

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    scaled
    Free Member

    Set your alarm, you’re going to be out late, and early!

    Best times to go cat hunting are between midnight and about 5am where sound travels better and there’s less to spook the cat.

    Best of luck

    loddrik
    Free Member

    Nothing yet. They do go missing occasionally. Weather has been warm. Someone else may be feeding her, it does happen, cats can be fickle, but they do know where they live. I’d say leave it til after weekend. (I own 4 cats)

    Females are much less likely to roam than males but I’d still give it till after weekend before worrying. I’d go out just after dark when it’s nice and quiet as she will likely respond to your calls and you’ll be surprised how far away yiu can hear them if its quiet out.

    househusband
    Free Member

    Did you have her chipped..? All ours are; only so we know one way or another should the worst happen. Sadly the worst did happen to one of our three cats a week before Christmas last year but he was found by a neighbour on the roadside nearby.

    I hope yours is a happier story!

    rocketman
    Free Member

    Walk around shaking a bag of Dreamies

    One of the cats is bound to be yours. good luck

    binners
    Full Member


    She’ll turn up. She’ll be on her holidays. ie: she’ll have found some old dear 2 streets down who will be giving her better food than you. Once the novelty wears off, she’ll casually sunter back home, and as you all fall over yourselves, she’ll look at you with an expression that says … “what?”

    sparkyrhino
    Full Member

    Opening a packet of Dreamies usually has the desired result for my cat.Hope it turns up.

    andyl
    Free Member

    probably locked in somewhere like a garage or a car. The concern is if he was in a car and someone drove off!

    Walk around calling its name and listen for meows.

    All else fails ours has just come in and curled up on my desk fast asleep right between the keyboard and laptop stand. I can pt him in a box and send him special delivery?

    verses
    Full Member

    We’ve been out in the garden calling her and rattling food tins fairly late.

    She is chipped but has no collar – the little bugger keeps wriggling out of them.

    On the first morning I checked along the nearby main road for “evidence” although didn’t think to look where she might have hidden if injured.

    hels
    Free Member

    Nothing to add to the above – but full sympathy and big hugs.

    Re collar when you get her back, mine used to shrug them off too, so I gave it one last shot and made the collar super loose. It seems to bother her less and she has been fine with it.

    I also have a “catloc8tor” which doesn’t have quite the range anticipated, but I am having surprising success with “beeping” her to get her to come in, using a rewards system. Well worth the £60 for the piece of mind, and fun.

    disco_stu
    Free Member

    If you have pet insurance you might be able to get some laminated posters made up for you from here – http://www.animalsearchuk.co.uk/

    Our tabby cat went missing a few years ago, we got posters from the above company. We got a call a few weeks later from someone about a mile away who had been feeding her and had spotted the posters.

    40mpg
    Full Member

    Does your cat have a head for heights?

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW11oYZ6KyI[/video]

    edhornby
    Full Member

    ours went missing for a week and turned up looking fine – he went missing on the weekend and returned saturday, we think he went in someone elses shed and got locked in

    fingers crossed for you mate

    sprootlet
    Free Member

    Our 2 went missing the first time we let them out and we got them back back, 1st after 3 weeks when the little old lady took him to the vet who then got it touch and 2nd after 6 weeks when the couple who’d been feeding her decided to keep her and get her chipped at the vet.
    They have both had the odd night on the town, 1 shut in a garage a couple of times and the other camped out in our neighbour’s spare bedroom for a night of debauchery with a ginger tom.
    Hope he turns up soon the little bugger

    alanf
    Free Member

    Ours went missing for 2 weeks – pretty similar to yours in that she doesn’t stay out all night either.
    Did everything that you’ve done.
    In the end she walked back in two weeks later at 3am covered in dirt and looking pretty thin and bedraggled.
    We reckon she’d got locked in someones shed or coal bunker or something.
    Try giving your neighbors a knock and asking if they seen her about.

    Three_Fish
    Free Member

    rhid
    Full Member

    It sounds like you are doing the right thing. There are a lot of missing pets groups on Facebook which can be useful. Walking around in the evening with dreamines is also a good one. I read somewhere that dumping the contents of your hoover bag in the garden can help (true story!) as it smells strongly of home! Never tried this but I suppose it make sense?

    Mine are terrible in the summer as won’t come home for nights on end, they are probably in the house during the day but due to being in work its impossible to know! They usually turn up when it rains or when they are really hungry. Ed the fat fluffy ginger luxury cat disappeared for a few days once, he never really left the garden before! I saw him a few days later sat on the neighbor’s sofa with the neighbor, they both looked very guilty! Apparently they had been hanging out for a few weeks!

    I have had 2 cats up and disappear without trace and feel your pain. Hopefully they are just down the road getting fed though. I even bought a pet GPS tracker to see where mine go! Molly does wander pretty far while Claude is a bit lazier. The other 2 barely move from the garden!

    Keep us posted.

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    Local town/village FB groups are good for this sort of thing, nothing neighbours seem to love more, than a chance to be nosy…obv while trying to help!

    bones
    Free Member

    she’ll have found some old dear 2 streets down who will be giving her better food than you

    This is how the trampy ‘old dear’ in the flat below me aquired her’s. Not a full shilling.

    jag61
    Full Member

    our big lad has been gone for at least a week now , when his new ‘owners’go away he will be back for a feed may be a sleep then off again his sister rarely goes far. I hope you get a good result soon.

    globalti
    Free Member

    I’m fond of repeating the old statistic that there are 7 million domestic cats in Britain and 10 million families who think they own a cat.

    Walk along the roads and check hedges and over walls; I once found a lost cat for a GF. It had been hit by a car, which had broken its hip and adrenaline had given it the strength to jump over the wall, where I found it.

    captaindanger
    Full Member

    when I was 10 one of our cats disappeared for 2 weeks. Then he came back and pretended nothing had happened. Cats!

    greatbeardedone
    Free Member

    If you’ve got a garden then I would invite some friends round for a knees up.
    The noise and babble of conversation should entice your cat back to your house…curiosity will be its motivator!

    flowerpower
    Free Member

    😯 Don’t get Curiosity involved… 🙄

    verses
    Full Member

    I spent last night wandering the neighbourhood, Sellotaping posters to telegraph poles and letter boxes, randomly rattling a packet of Dreamies and shouting “Twiglet” and “Twiggy” until 1am.

    After initially hoping that such actions might qualify me for Cat-owner or Dad of the Year, I think I’ll just settle for the fact I’ve not been sectioned.

    On the plus side, Twiglet reappeared at about 6:30 this morning! Cue a very happy wife and daughter (go on then I’ll admit it, and me too).

    Unfortunately she’s limping quite badly…

    We managed to get a sneaky early appointment at the vets who suspect she’s been hit by a car and has either bruised or fractured her back-right leg or hip.

    I initially wondered if an early riser had seen the posters and returned her or checked their sheds, but now suspect she was too sore to come home until today and has been hiding somewhere.

    So, “Yay she’s back”, but “Boo, vet’s bills”…

    Thanks for the posts of advice, support and humour it’s been helpful.

    binners
    Full Member

    Yay! She’s back. I presume she’s now eating you out of house and home 😀

    Yak
    Full Member

    Great news for her turning up. Hope you’ve got insurance for the bills now.

    Same thing happened with ours. Broken pelvis and hip. Bill was £3k. Insurance limit was £3k. (surgery options chosen to not exceed the limit).

    verses
    Full Member

    She’s been left at the vets to have x-rays, should know after lunch what’s what…

    verses
    Full Member

    We’re insured, but only up to £1k, the vet’s quoted about £400 for the x-rays…

    Fingers crossed it’s not a break or fracture…

    She seemed to be able to use her leg to support her weight but it was too tender to walk on or be touched.

    stumpy01
    Full Member

    Awesome news!

    Hope the injuries aren’t too serious!?

    Presumably the vet bills will be covered by the pet insurance?

    rhid
    Full Member

    I am glad she is back. Hopefully she will make a full recovery!

    househusband
    Free Member

    Good news that she’s back and I hope that the news* from the vet is good!

    * And the bill…

    hels
    Free Member

    Yay !! Great news.

    One of my mum’s cats wandered off once – my dad had just died, we looked after him at home so there was a lot of trauma in the house and we just didn’t give her enough attention.

    Found her a few years later in an old ladies front garden, not even a whole street away. Definitely her, we took some old pics along to check. Decided to leave her there, she looked perfectly happy !

    You don’t own cats, they own you.

    jamesfts
    Free Member

    Great news! We’ve 2 cats, at least I think we have 2, they come and go as they please and look identical. One seems grumpier.

    Now we’ve had the happy return of Twiggy can the hilarity continue?

    Oldie but a goodie… http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html

    verses
    Full Member

    Oldie but a goodie…

    It’s so good that I linked to it in my first post and loosely based my poster on one of the ones on there* 😉

    * Although I left off the reward (and hat), a fact that my daughter complained to me about

    verses
    Full Member

    Turns out there’s nothing broken, but she has a dislocated hip. The vet attempted to relocate it but it keeps popping out again, so she needs an op to pin it.

    Should have her home on Monday.

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