Mom ran away!

Last night during a horrible thunderstorm, our (zookeeper and me) mother cat slipped out and did not come back. Dan had to buy a bottle and formula for our little orphan. From what he told me on the phone at work, he was able to bottle feed her and stilmulate her bladder, but I still feel sorry that her mommy is gone. Thanks goodness there is only one kitten!

Let's pray our mommy comes back!

oh i really hope she returnes soon,

Good luck.

Originally Posted by lilmisszarah

Last night during a horrible thunderstorm, our (zookeeper and me) mother cat slipped out and did not come back.

Dan had to buy a bottle and formula for our little orphan. From what he told me on the phone at work, he was able to bottle feed her and stilmulate her bladder, but I still feel sorry that her mommy is gone. Thanks goodness there is only one kitten!

Let's pray our mommy comes back!

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I would borrow a humane trap and set it up in your yard with food and hopefully you can trap her. My main concern is that the longer she is outdoors..the greater the chance that when she comes back, she will be pregnant again. When she does return, make sure there are 2 doors between her and the outdoors. It's good that you have formula for the kitten.

Katie

We don't really have a yard. We live in an apartment. I'm afraid she won't find her way home. All the apartments on our street look exactly the same. She is sneaky! She was living in the bathroom with her kitten and got past the screen door and the wooden door. She never even comes out of the bathroom, so it was completely unexpected.

She is more than likely in heat right now, which is why she was so eager to go out and cat around again.

We found this cat as a stray and have had her a little under a month, so she must have a bad habbit of getting lost. She is so friendly, that's why we adopted her. If someone finds her, they will more than likely want to keep her.

Originally Posted by lilmisszarah

We don't really have a yard. We live in an apartment. I'm afraid she won't find her way home. All the apartments on our street look exactly the same. She is sneaky! She was living in the bathroom with her kitten and got past the screen door and the wooden door. She never even comes out of the bathroom, so it was completely unexpected.

She is more than likely in heat right now, which is why she was so eager to go out and cat around again.

We found this cat as a stray and have had her a little under a month, so she must have a bad habbit of getting lost. She is so friendly, that's why we adopted her. If someone finds her, they will more than likely want to keep her.

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Lost cat information:

http://www.lost-pets.org/content/view/3/1/

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 info!

We saw the mom run into someone else's apartment, so we're assuming that she is their cat. I knew she was too nice to be a ferral cat. We're just going to raise the kitten on our own without her.

Originally Posted by lilmisszarah

Thanks for the info!

We saw the mom run into someone else's apartment, so we're assuming that she is their cat. I knew she was too nice to be a ferral cat. We're just going to raise the kitten on our own without her.

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I would at LEAST leave them a note that states that she had kittens and needs to be spayed. Below is a list of low cost clinics in Ohio.

http://www.lovethatcat.com/spayneuter.html#oh

Mom was in your care for several weeks and her owner should know about the kittens.

Katie

I must stress that this kitten ~needs~ her Momma! Can you not go to the apartment where the Momma cat ran inside and tell them she needs to come back for her baby????

Bottle raising a kitten isn't all that you may think it is cracked up to be. SO many things can go wrong and I just think you'll be much better off if you go and get that Momma cat to raise her baby the way nature intended.

Sorry I never updated this. We were not sure which apartment the cat went into, only the building. We ended up bottle feeding the kitten and he was 6 weeks old yesterday. Luckily he turned out as healthy as can be.