help! cat lost inside the house!

i used this board once when i first got my cat so i'm trying it again...

i've had my four-year-old ocicat zero for a year now and he was very well adjusted to my apartment at school, but i've brought him home for the summer to my parents' house which is much much larger than my crappy apartment. for a while i kept him in my room with his food and litter and he only took a day or two to come out from under the couch, which was unexpected because it had taken him over a month to come out when we first got him. he's still quite scared of my parents and my brother, and especially the dog (who IS friendly towards the cat but perhaps too friendly). he's very VERY meek around people he doesn't know and will go to any lengths to hide. i'm around in the afternoons and evenings and i make sure to spend a lot of time with him. he's been slowly getting used to the house; i was aware he'd been in every room on this floor but my brother said he'd seen him downstairs a bit.

this wasn't a problem while i could find him... but the last time i saw zero was sometime saturday afternoon, and while my brother claims he saw him sometime late saturday night he seems to have gotten lost somewhere inside the house and can't find his way back. the problem is that i think he's so scared he's not going to make any noise or make an effort to come out and look around until he's sure of where he is and feels safe... and with this many people around, something he's not used to, he's been really jumpy anyway. i am 100% certain he hasn't gotten outside; i'm thinking he just wandered into some room and can't find his way back. i've looked under every item of furniture in the house and behind everything, but now that it's more than 24 hours i'm really starting to get worried... does anybody have any suggestions? he's not much for treats.

i feel like an idiot replying to my own post but after i posted i went looking again... got down to the basement, which i thought would be the scariest place possible for zero. i had looked under the couches down there but there was a table in the corner that i hadn't inspected so i pulled the couch out to have a look and there was zero, terrified out of his mind. got him back up to my room and the first thing he did (after of course taking care of litterbox management) was to go back out into the hallway for more exploring. strange little guy...

How frightening for you, I'm glad that you found your cat safe and sound.

I would suggest that you put a litter box and food dish out in the basement, in case this happens again. Then at least you won't have to worry so much about the poor scared cat.

Im glad you found Zero.

kiwifix - where did you get your name from? Are you a fellow kiwi?

what would make me a fellow kiwi?

a kiwi is a nickname for a new zealander - and your name is kiwifix.

I have four cats - two are almost 1 y/o and 2 are 2 mo. old kittens. I must freak out at least once a day, certain that one or another is gone forever. My anxiety rises to a fevered pitch and then I manage to get distracted by my some yelling my two boys do to keep things hopping around here. Anyway, the cats always have managed to turn up eventually, although the next day I'm back at it, freaked that one is gone forever. I'm glad you found zero. Cool name ;-).

oh my gosh i totally feel your stress!!! we have a little ocicat female. she's just now 8 months old. well the first week we had her home she went exploring. we live in an old english cottage with all kinds of nooks and crannies. little did we know there were holes in the wood floors in the kitchen. we came into the kitchen and heard this crying. i called out for Trouble but still only a vocal response. i hear her scurrying but couldn't work out where she was. finnally i got on the floor and started listening for her... nothing. then a little meow. i moved towards the meow and opened the cabinet. i look in the back of the cabinet and see that she has pulled the back board of the cabinet back and has made a space to climb in behind the counters and cabinets. i then pull the dishwasher out from under the counter and see there is a huge hole in the floor!!!!! she was exploring under the houses foundation!!! with soil that i imagine hasn't been touched in centuries! LOL so she pokes her head up and i scruff her and pull her out. she's covered in this odd sticky dust and cobwebs.

i then immediatly sorted out the holes in the cabinet boards and the floor. she's not done it since... lol


we didn't name her Trouble for nothing.

What's up with Ocicats wanting to go in such spaces? Mine went missing for a few hours and I ended up finding her in the floorboards beneath our bathtub (we're renovating the bath). Needless to say, she was extremely happy to get rescued. Nutty little girl!

That happened to Autumn too when we first brought her home. I didn't realize there were some baseboard holes in the kitchen in the apartment. We heard a faint mewing and I went looking for. I burst out laughing when I thought she had gone in a cabinet and then almost panicked when I realized she had gone in the walls! We coaxed her out and stuffed the holes with towels, later it happened again at yet another hole I didn't know about.

Actually the basement probably felt like a safe place because its dark and quiet. When cats are scared they will find the darkest quietest, usually smallest place they can find. So finding her under something in the basement makes sense. I'm glad she is safe and sound.

Totally with you on this, Villy is amazing at hiding and being VERY quiet when she doesn't want to be found. I have hunted high and low for her before, under all the furniture, only to find her under the bed
She loves to hide. I was changing the sheets on the bed on saturday, and left the mounded up duvet on the sofa.....when I came back to move it I went to pick it up and thought this is heavy, then there was a meow, and little villy popped out!

If this makes you feel better I have lost BOTH of my cats in my apartment before (I live in 750 square feet). One was on the top shelf in my closet; the other was on top of the refrigerator. It took me 20 minutes to find them.

Originally Posted by Sadie's Mom

What's up with Ocicats wanting to go in such spaces? Mine went missing for a few hours and I ended up finding her in the floorboards beneath our bathtub (we're renovating the bath). Needless to say, she was extremely happy to get rescued. Nutty little girl!

Click to expand...

born excavators i guess... maybe they have a feline archeology course for kittens? hahah

I'm so glad you found Zero! I've thought I lost my kitties lots of times. It's exhausting thinking "What if she got out? OMG OMG OMG!!" several times a week. Lol! I'm a lot calmer now because I find my kitties where I haven't looked, i.e. behind the curtains on the window sill, in grocery bags next to the groceries( ), behind stuff on shelves, slipping into the DRYER or refrigerator. . .LOL! That's what having 2 very mischievous kittens that same age does to me. One minute I'm looking for another one, next, the other one's in to something. It can be really hard to keep up with them!

But, still, I them!!

Oh I am so glad you found your kitty. I would have been a total wreck too. Abi got into the walls from behind a drawer she learned to open. luckily I was around when I saw her go behind the drawer and when she didn't come out I removed the drawer and saw she had gone into a small opening in the wall. I grabbed the pounce jar and wet food and rattled dishes and she finally came out. I was stressed beyond belief. We put large boxes in front of the drawer until my husband could seal the hole.

they are amazing little things aren't they?

How old is Zero? When my cat hides, I shake a can of Pounce and just start walking around the house until I get within earshot of him and he comes right out for his treat!