Missing outside cat

My porch cat, Boo, went missing 3 days ago. My feral colony is small 3-4 cats, a couple come and go, but Boo and a female i call little boo, stay together all the time. They're very bonded. They spend 99% of their time sleeping on my porch or in my yard. Boo has lived outside in this neighborhood at least 5 years, 3 with me and at least 2 previously with a different neighbor that only lives here part-time. He's friendly and lets me pet him and pick him up, he's not feral, but he's the alpha of the feral colony. I already have 10 indoors cats so I can't bring him inside, but i provide him a very comfortable life on my porch. 

I have security cams that monitor my front porch. 3 days ago Boo went off cam at 9:30pm and never came back. Little boo showed up around 1am looking for him. He never misses meals. I thought maybe he got trapped in a neighbors garage, but 3 days later nothing. I've walked 4 miles in my development every day. I've posted on all social media sites, neighborhood sites, and posted flyers. I've been checking the local shelters databases daily for new cats brought in. To my knowledge there aren't any other people in my area that TNR or feed feral cats. There are coyotes in my area, but he's a 15lbs cat and I just can't see a coyote grabbing him. I've never seen any coyotes on my cams, but I know they're around. 

I'm just sad. I don't really know what to think. I know cats do crazy things and up and leave but it seems odd he would venture away without little boo. 

    Disappearing cats are the most dreadful situation - the "not knowing" can be such torture. Boo's large size is definitely a plus. I wonder if he got into a workman's van....once my 15 lb. Maine Coon got inside the plumber's van and 15 miles down the road, calmly climbed onto the dashboard, enjoying the ride and startling the plumber and his helper! Fortunately, their next call was to an understanding person who gave them the extra time to return my cat.

Does Boo like kids? Once my Manx Joey followed some kids home and after I put an ad on the local radio, a van pulled into the driveway briefly then sped off --- and up the driveway walked Joey!!! What a relief that was! If you know any of the neighborhood schoolkids, you can ask them to get the word out - children are often the eyes and ears of the neighborhood when it comes to the local animals.

Meantime, please tell Little Boo that you are doing your best to find her buddy - even if she doesn't understand the words, she will understand the sympathy... Prayers that you get good news soon

I am sorry Boo is missing.  Have you asked any of your neighbors if they have seen him?  I had one of my ferals go missing a few years ago.  I printed up fliers and gave them to all of the neighbors.  I did get quite a few responses.  It made me feel better that he was still alive.  Eventually he did come back, but he was gone for quite awhile.  

catsknowme said:

 

    Disappearing cats are the most dreadful situation - the "not knowing" can be such torture. Boo's large size is definitely a plus. I wonder if he got into a workman's van....once my 15 lb. Maine Coon got inside the plumber's van and 15 miles down the road, calmly climbed onto the dashboard, enjoying the ride and startling the plumber and his helper! Fortunately, their next call was to an understanding person who gave them the extra time to return my cat.

Does Boo like kids? Once my Manx Joey followed some kids home and after I put an ad on the local radio, a van pulled into the driveway briefly then sped off --- and up the driveway walked Joey!!! What a relief that was! If you know any of the neighborhood schoolkids, you can ask them to get the word out - children are often the eyes and ears of the neighborhood when it comes to the local animals.

Meantime, please tell Little Boo that you are doing your best to find her buddy - even if she doesn't understand the words, she will understand the sympathy... Prayers that you get good news soon

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Yes the "not knowing" is the worst. Boo was friendly but wary of strangers. I don't know that anyone could have picked him up easily. That's crazy about Joey! Cats do some crazy stuff sometimes. Boo was very curious. He would wander into our second garage any time we left the door open and once he jumped into my boyfriend's work SUV when he left the door open. I did originally suspect that perhaps he was locked in a neighbors garage, but at this point it seems unlikely. I'm leaning towards a coyote, but if that's the case I'm never going to know for sure...

I'm so sorry that he is missing   I hope he is still ok and that you guys will be reunited soon.I have also had a feral cat that I took care of leave, but she never returned.Back when I was nine, a little white and black kitty with green eyes had found her way to our apartment complex. We managed to start feeding her and ever since she continued to see us each day for meals, and we named her Lexi.  After two weeks, she started to trust us more and let us pet her, she also started napping underneath the staircase leading up to the second floor outside(we live on the first floor), and hanging out in the spot full of plants near out door. We had been feeding her for almost a month and at this point and we started to consider letting her inside and adopting her. She was very special and I loved her dearly. Unfortunately she left around noon on the fifth of April last year and never returned, I was so sad and waited for her to come back and searched all over my town with my mom for her but she never showed up. I still think of her and I still get sad but I move on with life and stay positive because life is too short to linger on the past. I currently take care of two feral cats Felix (gray and white tuxedo) and Pico (orange tabby), and my indoor kitty hazel who is 7 months old, I adopted her last month. I wouldn't want any cat owner to have to experience losing their beloved kitty, and I'm crossing my fingers that you will find him. Keep your eyes open for any signs of him in your city and continue searching. I hope the best for you and your kitty.

 

Hazel25 said:

 
I'm so sorry that he is missing

  I hope he is still ok and that you guys will be reunited soon.I have also had a feral cat that I took care of leave, but she never returned.Back when I was nine, a little white and black kitty with green eyes had found her way to our apartment complex. We managed to start feeding her and ever since she continued to see us each day for meals, and we named her Lexi.  After two weeks, she started to trust us more and let us pet her, she also started napping underneath the staircase leading up to the second floor outside(we live on the first floor), and hanging out in the spot full of plants near out door. We had been feeding her for almost a month and at this point and we started to consider letting her inside and adopting her. She was very special and I loved her dearly. Unfortunately she left around noon on the fifth of April last year and never returned, I was so sad and waited for her to come back and searched all over my town with my mom for her but she never showed up. I still think of her and I still get sad but I move on with life and stay positive because life is too short to linger on the past. I currently take care of two feral cats Felix (gray and white tuxedo) and Pico (orange tabby), and my indoor kitty hazel who is 7 months old, I adopted her last month. I wouldn't want any cat owner to have to experience losing their beloved kitty, and I'm crossing my fingers that you will find him. Keep your eyes open for any signs of him in your city and continue searching. I hope the best for you and your kitty.

 

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Thank you. It helps to talk to people that really understand. We're going to check the shelters tomorrow. I've been checking their intakes online but we're going to check 3 in person tomorrow. I'm worried about little boo now. She's not eating very much and hasn't been sleeping in her bed. She's clearly depressed and misses him  

I am going through the same situation that you are in. So i know how you are feeling.

A feral adopted me a few months back. I named her babu. She even gave birth to her three kittens later on and i still have two of them. Few days back she didnt return home for two days. I looked for her and eventually found her on a neighbour's terrace. Her leg was badly hurt, she couldnt walk. The street dogs had imjured her pretty badly. She is a feral and doesnt let anyone come tp her except me and my family. So i had to call the rescuers from an ngo so that her leg can be treated, they tried to catch her but she escaped and hid in the backyard under a stone where we cant reach. I think this incident scared her too much and she left my house that night. It was four days ago. I havent seen her ever since. Looked everywhere, but no sign of her. She is a smart cat but is injured.

I keep wondering if she is still out there, probably hungry and thirsty, Is she still hiding somewhere, waiting for me to come and get her. Or she became an easy prey to the street dogs. I have no clue what happened to her and its the worst feeling to not know. I cry the whole night regretting my decision to call the rescuers and that she would still be here if i hadnt. I miss her so much. I still have a little hope left though, and i will continue to look for her. I hope you find Boo soon and i hope i will get to see my babu again soon. Stay strong, keep looking.

Yeah it's a smart idea to keep up to date with the new cats arriving at the shelters, good thinking. I feel really bad for Little Boo, it must be very hard on her to not have her best buddy. Make sure to give her plenty of love and attention to boost her spirits. She probably is depressed and misses Boo, and depression will cause her to not eat much or even nothing. If you have a vet or expert you can contact I would highly recommend asking for advice on how to help her cope with his absence and getting her eating habits back to normal, as she can lose a dangerous amount of weight. I'm not an expert but try to feed her her favorite foods that are healthy, but it's best to avoid tuna(Small amounts won't be harmful), liver, or any meat with garlic. What food do you fed Little Boo? Wet, dry, both, or something else? Also, does she let you pet her at all?

I know it must very hard for you now with Boo missing and Little Boo upset, when I lost Lexi I cried a lot just thinking about her.

Wishing you the best of luck on your search.

Boo is gorgeous! He looks like he has MaineCoon in him, esp. the boxy muzzle, the large, triangular close set ears; the sloped, large oval eyes; the nice neck ruff! I am still keeping my prayers up that he comes home soon. I wonder if maybe he got trapped in a TNR program....you could try looking at the found animals section of tabbytracker.com and lostmycat.org,too. And definitely ask the children, if you know any.

Years ago, my husband's coworkers kids "found" a lost kitten and enticed it into following them home and they kept it - I begged the man to advertise a found cat but he refused because his kids were already attached, This was in the days before the internet was popular, or I would have checked the FB pages and seen if anyone was missing a kitten from their area.

My prayers are out for Shilpa and her kitty "Babu" to have a successful reunion soon, as well.  I will keep checking for updates!   ~ susan

Hazel25 said:

 
Yeah it's a smart idea to keep up to date with the new cats arriving at the shelters, good thinking. I feel really bad for Little Boo, it must be very hard on her to not have her best buddy. Make sure to give her plenty of love and attention to boost her spirits. She probably is depressed and misses Boo, and depression will cause her to not eat much or even nothing. If you have a vet or expert you can contact I would highly recommend asking for advice on how to help her cope with his absence and getting her eating habits back to normal, as she can lose a dangerous amount of weight. I'm not an expert but try to feed her her favorite foods that are healthy, but it's best to avoid tuna(Small amounts won't be harmful), liver, or any meat with garlic. What food do you fed Little Boo? Wet, dry, both, or something else? Also, does she let you pet her at all?

I know it must very hard for you now with Boo missing and Little Boo upset, when I lost Lexi I cried a lot just thinking about her.

Wishing you the best of luck on your search.

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She won't let me pet her she's pretty feral. I am trying to keep things normal for her right now. I haven't washed or touched any of their bedding in hopes that no only perhaps that Boo could smell his way home but so that she can also smell him. 

catsknowme said:

 
Boo is gorgeous! He looks like he has MaineCoon in him, esp. the boxy muzzle, the large, triangular close set ears; the sloped, large oval eyes; the nice neck ruff! I am still keeping my prayers up that he comes home soon. I wonder if maybe he got trapped in a TNR program....you could try looking at the found animals section of tabbytracker.com and lostmycat.org,too. And definitely ask the children, if you know any.

Years ago, my husband's coworkers kids "found" a lost kitten and enticed it into following them home and they kept it - I begged the man to advertise a found cat but he refused because his kids were already attached, This was in the days before the internet was popular, or I would have checked the FB pages and seen if anyone was missing a kitten from their area.

My prayers are out for Shilpa and her kitty "Babu" to have a successful reunion soon, as well.  I will keep checking for updates!   ~ susan

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He does look a bit Maine Coon to me too. I described him on the missing flyers as a Maine Coon mix. There aren't any TNR groups around me, but we did find out that there is someone trapping and surrendering to the shelter (I'm going to deal with this separately, of course). However, we checked all shelters plus the human society with no luck. We walked our entire development at night with flashlights, my boyfriend checked the farmland behind our house (with their permission), and i walked around and talked to my neighbors and posted more flyers. No one has seen him. 

I am coming to the conclusion that unless he is suck somewhere I don't know about, he likely was the victim of a coyote attack. The houses on my street have large lots with mostly split 3 car garages and some of these people don't live here full time. But I've walked around calling him and going up to garages and there's no meowing and I would think if he was stuck in a garage little boo would be hovering near by. 

I'm probably going to have to accept that he was taken by a coyote, but I'll likely never have any proof. I'm very sad about this. He was a savvy outdoor cat with a tough life and I feel like i failed to protect him. He originally lived with my other neighbor and I went to talk to them today to see if the had seen him. They told me a story about him that I didn't know. Boo and LB came from a neighboring hoarding house and they were abandoned there with many other cats. Several died, and my neighbors took in Boo and LB as outside cats. They had a litter of kittens, but only one survived. One night they heard commotion outside and when they came out they saw a coyote running off with the kitten  

Boo was a sweet boy. I wish I could have done more for him. Because he was neutered late he sprayed, so he would have never been a good indoor cat but i also never wanted to separate him from LB, and I already have 10 indoor cats, 7 of which are former feral kittens i rescued from a different cat in my colony that had two litters before I could get her spayed. 

This is probably the end of Boo's story. But if anything changes I'll provide an update. Thank you for all the support, everyone. 

Call all the vets in your vicinity, ask if anyone has brought in a cat on emergency matching kitty's description.  Ask neighbors to check their sheds and under decks and porches and inside their garages.  If you don't ask, they won't think to look.  In our area, cats get locked into sheds/garages all the time without the resident owners knowing they are in there.  Update all your posts online, offer a reward - and don't forget about craigslist lost and founds and your local newspaper lost and founds.

Leave out clothing with your scent (a t-shirt), leave a nightlight on outside, check late night hours and early morning hours when traffic is minimal, go out calling with cat food can tap on it while calling kitty's name - take a flashlight and shine under cars, decks, bushes, woodpiles, look up into trees - if kitty is nearby watching, his eyes will illuminate from a flashlight.  Expand your search area by a few blocks.

Don't give up, many times people give up too soon or no longer have the will to keep searching - sometimes a cat is scared into hiding for various reasons and could be very close by waiting for the right time to come out - sometimes all it takes is for a neighbor to open their shed or garage.......And don't forget to look over your own property, sometimes cats are under decks/porches, crawlspaces, in brush nearby, in your own shed or garage or outbuilding...

Never depend on phone calls to a shelter - physically check them because your description and their description will vary considerably.  Check as often as you can (ideally, every other day or every three days), leave flyers with them, leave flyers with vet clinics if they will allow.  Leave flyers with your neighbors.

With all the harsh winter storms across the nation, perhaps they had to seek shelter and hunker down, maybe ventured a little further than normal, keep searching and don't give up!