Cat run away accidentally 2 weeks ago

Hello, I am French so therefore excuse me if my English sounds a bit funny at times.
My indoor only cat fell for some reasons from the 1 st floor and landed in the neighbour's garden. He was OK, but when I entered the garden to pick him up he ran away as fast as a rocket and I could not find him since (2 weeks)
We live in a quiet area near a Forest, and I have spent hours running around, advertising with posters and flyers and no sign of my car.
He is 2 years old, spayed and is tatooed in his right ear with his ID number.
I had a thorough look around in ditches to see if he had been ran over and as he is white I could have easily spotted him, but nothing.
As he never left our flat he must have been terrified, he even did not recognized me.
we walk in the vicinity every evening, leave some food outside. I even take my other cat out so that he can leave his scent for they are very good friends.

A couple of people called us BUT that was for the wrong cat, at least that shows that some people do take care and keep an eye open.

I really do not know what else to do. I was so desperate that i even asked 2 people i know who are supposed to have "gifts" to see things to help me. One used a pendulum and the other something else : i had 2 different results, and a week later the pendulum lady told me that she believed he was dead BUT she told me that she could have made a mistake. The other person still feels that he is alive and in my surroundings.... See what can someone do when desperate. I was told that cat could live for a long time on their own as long as they can feed themselves. My cat is very shy and I doubt he could have approached someone...
If you have any hints, they're more than welcome.

Best regards

I am so sorry your little one is lost! I'm sending prayers that he will return home safely soon.

Here is a site that may give you some ideas. http://www.lost-pets.org/ You may want to look for her in the early morning hours because he is more active in those hours.

Many thanks for your replies and help. Whatever can bring him home is welcome.
Best regards.

Best Friendsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] Animal Radio recently interviewed Kat Albrecht, author of The Lost Pet Chronicles, and she gave some very good advice on finding a lost cat:

Most people donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t differentiate between searching for a dog and searching for a cat, which is a huge mistake, because they are like apples and oranges. Cats are territorial, so when an indoor cat escapes outside, they feel displaced into unfamiliar territory. A displaced cat (and also an injured or sick cat) will hide and they will be silent. So walking around and calling the catâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s name doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t work.

What that cat does is to look for the first place where she can hide, and she will stay there. Weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve had people who have recovered their cats six weeks later, and the cat was two houses down, living under the neighborâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s house or under their deck.

Weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve actually recovered lots of cats by treating them like ferals and setting a humane trap. These cats will sit there and watch and even listen to their person calling, but they will usually not respond.

Eventually, some of them will reach a threshold point between the seventh and tenth day where they finally do meow or they go into the humane trap, but many of them, especially the ones with skittish temperaments, just continue to hide.

As for a cat who is used to going outside, we really do advocate making your cats indoor-only. However, if an indoor/outdoor cat does go missing, it may be that theyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve been chased by a dog or beat up by another cat. They may run into an unfamiliar area, and they may hide in fear as well, or than can be transported out of the area by crawling into a car or the back of a truck.

Outdoor cats are still territorial. They donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t generally travel great distances by themselves, so theyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]re going to be found within their territory or just beyond it. Youâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll want to get into your neighborâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s yard to search under their porch, under their house, and in potential areas where the cat is trapped, because, again, the behavior of an injured or sick cat is that they will crawl in or under something thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s familiar to them and they will hide. And again, they wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t answer your call.

Please don't give up. TNR1 has given you some great information to start with. I am going to add to it.

I have been helping to locate kitties lost during Hurrican Katrina here in the US for the last 21 months. We just found a kitty two nights ago! He was so happy to see his people again, he remembered them after this long!

As TNR1 said indoor cats get extremely frightened outside. They will hid and they will not usually call or come to you. He is most likely coming out a night, somewhere between 1 and 5 am to look for food. Please put a dish out for him.

Sometimes once they get scared they start running, then run too far to find their way back home. He may be as far as a mile ( 1.6 km) away. So make sure you have posters up that far away.

TRN1's recommendation of a live humane trap is a good idea. He has to come out looking for food. If you put something that smells like you in it ( a well worn shirt, stinky socks. or pajamas), it will attract him and help to keep other animals away. He will be very drawn to your smell. To him you represent safety and happyness.

This is an excellent site for describing the behavior of lost cat and what their personality type will be. Certain techniques work better for some personality types than others.
http://sonic.net/~pauline/search.html

for indoor only cats that are lost
http://sonic.net/~pauline/profile.html

I hope you find your boy soon. But don't loose hope. As I said, we just had a reunion where the kitty was missing for 21 months, and he was a declawed kitty lost in a hurricane damaged area that was completely deserted.

Please keep us posted.

Hello, thanks ever so much for your interest , I feel so moved that i have goose pimples. Your lines are very comforting.

A good thing happened anyway BUT different, i do not know if i have mentioned it but BUT while searching for our cat the other day, I was rattling my keys in my hand and heard a kitten meowing , about 6 weeks old and he was lost.... It was hard to catch him BUT now he's part of the family.
Hope Charlie the other one still hangs around and will show up .
I take his friend outside everyday so that he can leave his scent around, do you think that is efficient ? Any idea how far can a car hear a sound ?
Best regards.

I am sorry that your kitty has decided to go on a 'walk-about' He certainly got a bit of a fright with that fall, which of course has sent him running

I cant add any more suggestions as you've already had some excellent ideas.

I am sending lots of come home quickly vibes for your sweet kitty.

Keep us posted

Sending hugs and prayers from Mississippi that your cat comes home soon.

Please keep us posted on it.

Hello Again
I have tried Kittymonsters's links and they proved to be helpful. thank you all ever so much for your kindness and help.
The more I think about it the more i believe that my cat must hang around.
As i live near a forest and with the threats it implies (foxes) someone told me that he might habve been chased by a fox, BUT i don't really believe that.
I walk every night and leave some dry food in different dark places.

I'll carry on my search. It has been 18 days. There are MANY cats around so I think that food must be available.

If you have any other suggestions to make, they're welcome. I shall let you know.

Best regards again !

PS : thanks LSULOVER for your support !

That is wonderful news about your new addition. He was meant to be found by you.

I think having charlie's friends scent around will also help. sometime walking at the early hours of the morning, shaking his food dish (if he eats kibble) might get him to respond to you.

I am glad the links are providing some help. It is hard but don't give up. Sometimes it just takes time.

Make sure everyone in your neighborhood knows you are missing charlie. I am sure you have already done this, but just in case. Make sure all the vets in the area know he is missing, as well as any Animal shelter or SPCA's. Not sure what they are called in france.

Please keep up posted. I will be sending lots of Come home thoughts to Charlie.

Thank you Kittymonsters,

Every night we walk for an hour in our area with a flashlight hoping to find our Charlie.... We leave food just in case....
We have warned the authorities BUT as he has his ID tatooed in his right ear, if he was to be found, he could be easily identified. The association that take cares of Animals in France is just called the SPA : SocietÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] Protectrice des Animaux. They're quiet efficient. The young one we picked up is really cute and eats like a lion !!
Many thanks again for your kind advice.

Oh dear I sure hope that kitty comes home soon! I don't have any additional advice to offer, but I wanted to wish you luck. I know I would be going crazy if it were me.

......just checking back in.........any news today

come home Charlie !!

Hello,
NOthing... As i said I walk everyday at night with food and hope to catch of glimpse of him...
If I ever have good or bad news, I shall of course let you all know.
Many thanks again.

Welcome to TCS! Sending {{{{prayers and vibes}}}} that your precious boy returns soon

Thanks a lot

I wonder if 3 weeks away from home is not too long now.....
I leave food every evening when I go for a walk and still take the other cat out so that he can leave his scent....
I just have to hope...
thanks again for your support and concern.

Oh I was so wishing that I would come back and read that Charlie was back home.

Honestly, I don't think 3 weeks is too long. I can understand your worry though. I have a former feral kitty that knocked the screen out of window the first night I moved to my current home.

I live right next to a National Forest and we have coyotes, mountain lions, fox, bobcats, hawks, owls and feral pigs and feral dogs. I thought my boy was gone forsure.

I was out everynight calling and rattling his food dish. I left notes on all the neighbor's doors. I let his buddy Pumpkin out who called and called for him. I didn't see even a glimps of him for two weeks.

Then one afternoon I had pretty much given up. I was sitting on my back porch crying because I really thought he was dead. Then something caught my eye in the horse pasture. It was a kitty rolling around. At first I though it was one of my Mom's cats (she lives next door). Then the kitty looked right at me and it was Conan!

I was so happy, I called to him and he stopped then took off like I was the scariest monster in the world. I took off after him and followed him to where he was hiding under an abandoned mobile home. Once hiding he would meow to me, but would not come.

I blocked off the entrance so he couldn't get back out and went home and got baked chicken, pulled pork, three different kinds of stinky wet cat food and some of his regular food.

He would sniff at the food but would not come to me. I couldn't crawl under the trailer as it was full of black widows. I sat there for 6 hours. Finally I started tossing pieces of his dry food to him. that started drawing him close. Finally he came out and started eating and I grabbed. him.

Here is the weird part I expected him to freak out and fight me. Instead he just went limp and started purring. When I got him back in the house, he was so happy to be home. All the other kitties welcomed him. I had to carry him around for a week, as he would just start crying if I put him down.

I don't know why he behaved the way he did when he was outside. He was so happy to be back home again when I finally caught him

Ok I am blabbering on here. Sorry. Hopefully Charlie is near by. It sounds like your SPA is a wonderful organization. If you are able to go by there and talk with them they may be able to give you some additional tips. Also, they should be able to borrow you a humane trap and show you how to use it. You might have to trap Charlie this way.

How is your new little one doing?

Please keep us posted and know lots of homecoming vibes are being sent.

Dear Kittymonster,

Thank you for your comforting message. It is always a pleasure to read stories like these. I hope I will be able to be as happy as you are very soon.
We have been walking around for an hour yesterday night and we scattered dry food just in case he'd be in the area. But are we searching in the right direction ? Is he still alive ? these questions are really torturing ourselves, not to know is the worst thing of all.
We saw many cats around so we believe that he is sticking around, if only we had a clue where....
Personally I believe to be a good person, I help anyone whenever i can, pray each evening for the sake of everyone, and this is what i get.... sometimes I just wonder why i do all this, but there's probably no explanation at all...

The little one that we saved is doing very well, he eats like a lion and is really getting on well with another kitten we adopted recently.

If by any chance Charlie'd come back , I'd inform you immediately.

Humane traps would not be a good idea over here for the simple reasons that I would not know where to place them for my cat could be anywhere...
I'm sure that people would not like that in my neighborhood, and I'm also sure that some would be stolen.... Need to catch a glimpse of Charlie before acting. Once I know he is alive and located then I can act in a sensible way.
Wish me luck.
Best regards to all and thanks ever so much for your concern !

Just a little note to let you know that after nearly 3 months we eventually managed to find our cat. He was fed by a lady 4 miles from where we live. He stayed in her garden for 5 weeks and she managed to read hid ID tatoo in his right ear and called the feline corporation and they gave her our telephone number. Her husband managed to catch him the next day and we picked him up.
All's well that ends well, we were very pessimistic, especially after 3 months.
He now sleeps and it seems to him as if he had never left home.
Thanks to all for your support and concern.
Regards from France !!