Lost Cat

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but I'll try.

This Saturday, we had a birthday party for my mom. One of her friends stayed late, and was drinking. She called her husband to come get her, and the kids wanted to come too. The kids wanted to bring the cat, so they did. When they got here, the cat jumped out of the car, and was chased into the woods by my boxer.

They looked for him for a while, but couldn't find him. We've been looking a little every day, but still no luck until this morning. This morning as my dad was leaving for work (about 430 AM), he saw a cat that looked like my mom's friend's, and tried to get it to come to him. He tried for a while, but had no luck, and had to leave because he was already running a half hour late for work. We live back in the woods (but in a large cleared out area) on a semi rural road, and the houses are pretty far apart. I think he's still on the property since my dad saw him this morning. We haven't been able to put out food for the past couple of days because it's been raining. Tonight we're going to try to put out food to try to attract him. We don't know much about cats, because we have never owned any. What kind of food should we put out, and what else should we do to attract him? If we see him again, what can we do to get him to come to us? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Just saw the Cat SOS forum. Sorry for posting it here. I just came here and quickly looked for a place to put this and this looked like the closest thing. Could one of the mods move it please?

Hi Nick....here is some advice regarding finding a lost cat:

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.

Thanks for the advice. So, should we continue looking in likely hiding places, especially around where my dad saw it? Should we still leave out food? It looks like from the article that just leaving out food won't work. If we do find it in a hiding place, what should we do to lure it out? Should we definitely get a humane trap? Where would I find it? Would the SPCA have them or would I have to buy them?

Sorry for so many questions. I hope you can answer them all.

UPDATE: We've been leaving out cat food that my aunt brought over. The cat hasn't touched it, but my dad saw him again this morning before work. I'm going to try to talk my mom into getting humane traps because he won't come to us.

Trapping him would probably be your best option. Be sure you put very smelly food in the trap. If the cat has not been eating most likely he'll be hungry enough to go in. Cover the trap with a large towel leaving both ends open so the cat can see through the trap. Hopefully this is the one you're looking for and you get him trapped. Try local feed stores (if you have any near) for trap rental. Good luck!

Most cat owners will know where there cat would go if it was scared or somethnig but oviously u dont as its not your cat.

Leave fresh meat out to attract the cat and just hope for the best

I am sending prayers and good vibes that you catch your mother's friend's cat soon!

JIL05

www.lost-pets.org will help also check out the links page it takes you to other lost pet sites.

If you're willing, put up a "lost" poster offering reward. I lost one of my cats and people seemed to have paid attention to my poster because of the reward and bright colors. Although if it's raining, this might be hard.

I wish you luck!

My cats disappeared on labor day but there were alot of tourists from Chicago walking and driving down the road in front of my house. I'm wondering if they were stolen. Or if they were in heat, how many days does it take for them to come back?

Nick, I really believe your best bet is a trap, the cat is probably scared out of his mind and will not come to someone he doesn't know, like your dad. if you have a local humane society, they may have traps for rental, or like HouseofCats suggested, a feed store might have one. I've heard tuna of KFC fried chicken without the skin is a good attractant. Best of luck in catching the cat!