It’s a horrible feeling when your beloved cat goes missing.
The number of cats who go missing every year is mind-boggling, and sadly, many of them just seem to vanish into thin air never to be seen again.
Unfortunately, it’s an unhappy fact that sometimes lost cats remain missing even though their owners do everything possible to find them.
Yet it’s also true that sometimes even the best, most caring and loving people don’t have any idea how to find a lost cat.
So keeping that in mind, what we’d like to do is to provide you with a how to guide on finding your lost cat once again.
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Guide on How to Find Your Lost Cat
Searching fruitlessly for your cat, who may have just wandered off or been scared off by someone or something can be a heartbreaking ordeal.
If you achieve success and find your best friend, or they return home on their own, then it was all worth the effort, but all too often that is just not the case.
So, what do you do when your cat goes missing? Here are some tips to help you through the stress of this trying time.
Tips For Finding a Lost Cat
1. Search Everywhere
Unbelievable as it may sound, sometimes a missing cat just plain out doesn’t want to be found.
Regardless of the reason for this behavior, it’s up to you as the owner to find them.
Keep in mind before you panic, that cats are infamous for hiding out in places you would never dream of looking.
So what’s called for first here is a rigorous, even exhausting search of your house and property.
Once you have searched every nook and cranny indoors and still kitty hasn’t turned up, it’s time to move outdoors.
Take some of your cat’s favorite treats along with you, especially those that smell the strongest.
Look in the yard, inside trash cans, behind any bushes or trees, in the garage, and don’t forget about the front porch if you have one, all the while calling your cat’s name.
2. Don’t Delay
Once you realize that your cat is missing, get some extra treats, your cellphone which should have a recent photo of your cat uploaded, and a flashlight, then go out.
Be sure to wear casual shoes with soft soles for lots of walking.
Now it’s time to start extending your search to your neighbors on all sides and even across the street.
3. Ask Around
Don’t be shy about knocking on your neighbor’s doors and telling them what happened, asking whether or not they’ve seen your pet.
Show them the photo and ask permission to look in their garden, shed, garage, and even under their porch.
Stop any pedestrians you see and ask them too.
If there are children about, be sure and show them the picture.
Children manage to get around and sometimes they will notice things adults are just too busy to take note of.
4. Make Food and Water Accessible
Upon returning home, leave food and water outside your door and allow them to remain there both day and night.
You can also put out some of your cat’s favorite treats, once again, those that have the strongest smell.
If for some reason your cat has been frightened so badly that they are afraid to return home, they will often come out at night looking for food and water.
Before you go to bed, go outside one last time and do a quick once-over of your yard, calling your cats name.
5. Make Some Posters
Don’t worry about making them professional looking, just make sure the words “LOST CAT” are bold enough and large enough so that they will attract the attention of anyone walking or driving by.
Select a photo of your cat, a large close-up displaying the face and any special markings and another photo displaying your cat’s entire body, best if standing up.
Make copies of them on your computer and paste them on cardboard with the text printed underneath.
This can also be done using photos glued on paper and a marker for writing the text by hand.
Use color photos as they are more attention grabbing, and they come in handy if your cat has any unique markings or is of an unusual color.
Include your cats name in the text, a description, mention any unique marks or features, state when and where it was last seen, your phone number and email, but play it safe and do not add your name, address, nor the amount of the reward if you are providing one.
6. Get Help From Family and Friends
Make up flyers too. Recruit friends and family to help in the search, as well as to post flyers and get the word out.
The best spots to place your flyers are on telephone poles, and bulletin boards at supermarkets and library’s.
One thing you shouldn’t do, however, is to go about randomly putting them into people’s mailboxes.
7. Post Online
You might not be aware of this, but you can post missing cat reports online on Craigslist, Tabbytracker, and in online newspapers.
Furthermore, you can make use of social networking by posting messages on Facebook, Twitter, etc., and asking others to share.
Nowadays, nearly everyone has a pet that they love and would hate to lose, so there should be lots of sympathy out there.
People are willing to help if you just have the courage to ask them.
8. Old Neighborhood
If you’re moved recently, then try extending your search to your old neighborhood.
Don’t just search your old property, but give the whole area a thorough once over.
9. Shelters
Pay a visit to all of your local animal shelters even if you call and are told that they don’t have a cat that matches your description.
You never know, you could be pleasantly surprised to find that your feline pal has been there all along just waiting for you to turn up and claim them.
10. Persist
Do not give up, no matter what! Cats have been known to return home weeks and even months after going missing.
Don’t stop networking, and asking around the neighborhood.
Also, you can keep your flyers and posters up to date by placing a “Still Missing” header on them.
How to Avoid Losing Your Cat In the Future
Basically, once a cat has been missing for 24 hours it will usually remain missing for another day or two before being found.
Of course, you aren’t going to be able to keep yourself from worrying from the minute you find that your kitty has disappeared.
However, you really don’t have to be too concerned unless your cat has been missing for at least 4-5 days.
Cats never cease to surprise their owners, and you may be shocked to see your feline friend return on its own just as casually as they left.
Now let’s discuss some preventative measures that you can take to keep this situation from happening again.
1. Teach Voice Commands
Yes, cats are absolutely notorious for their stubbornness, and they aren’t always easy to teach, but it can be done.
Train your kitty to respond to the command “come” and to answer to their name, it just may work to your advantage in a situation like this.
Now, if your cat is terrified, hurt, or perhaps trapped somewhere, they may not respond to a command, but it does make the chances of finding your cat better.
Also read: Cat body language explained, how to understand your cat better.
2. Microchip
Be sure that your little friend is wearing a collar and tag, and don’t hesitate to get them micro chipped.
It isn’t painful in the least, it’s completely safe, not expensive, and it just might save your cat’s life.
There is, however, one stumbling block with microchipping. Not all vets or shelters have the hand-held scanning device that is universal for detecting all of the microchips.
You need to find the microchip that is used in your area. Your cat will be identified through the scanner ID code.
Microchips, which are about the size and shape of a grain of rice, will remain securely under your cat’s skin permanently.
3. Picture
Have a current picture of your cat where you can easily find it. And keep the picture on your cell phone too.
This photo shouldn’t be anything funny or cute.
It’s to identify your cat, so it should be a full body photo so that it will easier to find your cat.
4. Moving
In the event that you find it necessary to move, create a safe, indoor space for your favorite feline, and keep them indoors for about a month after the move to give them enough time to imprint themselves on the new location.
Remember, if you aren’t careful, your frisky feline may just use their homing instinct and travel right back to their old home.
5. Homing Instinct
While it is true that cats possess an incredible homing instinct that seems almost otherworldly, this doesn’t mean that all lost cats are going to be able to find their way back home.
One fact to keep in mind, is that indoor cats live longer and are more protected from injury, disease, and trauma, but they may have less homing capability than outdoor cats, and can become scared and disorientated if they get lost outdoors.
What to Do If Your Indoor Cat Runs Outside
You open the front door for just a split second, and your indoor cat is off and running and has disappeared around a corner before you have time to even try and call him back.
What to do? Panic?
No, that’s not the answer and it won’t help anyway.
Panic will not do any good on your journey on how to find a lost cat.
Right away follow your cat, but don’t run, and don’t frighten it by shouting it’s name repeatedly at the top of your lungs.
If you see the cat again, try to keep it in sight, but this can be difficult.
Once an indoor cat gets outside, the tantalizing scents and sounds can either excite them and they take off to explore, or they can be swamped by all that’s going on around them and try to find a place to hide nearby.
Making any loud noises, shouting their name, or clapping your hands will only upset them more.
If they take the time to stop and look at you, promptly drop to your knees, avoid looking them in the eyes, and extend your hand in welcome.
In your calmest voice, call the cat.
In the absence of other distractions, they may just come right on over to you.
Next Step
If your cat is determined to remain free and scurries off, perhaps under your porch, just remain calm.
If you can see him hiding out in a corner, just talk to him gently and try to coax him out. If that fails, put out some of his favorite cat food and some water nearby.
Then you have to wait. You need to have the food as close to your front door as you can reasonably get it.
If all goes well, your cat will come out when they are feeling more relaxed, eat, and then come right up to the door and asked to be let in.
It’s a sad fact that not every cat that suddenly runs off will come back home, but if you follow the above instructions carefully, as well as use any tricks of your own that you may have learned will work with your cat, you can greatly increase the chance that they will be found.
Try to remain patient.
Yes, that’s hard to do when you feel like every nerve in your body is trying to jump out from under your skin, but make the effort anyway.
You aren’t doing yourself any good by existing in a permanent state of upset, and when you go outdoors, your kitty could just be hiding somewhere nearby.
If they sense the stress emanating from you, they just might remain hidden until they sense that you are calmer.
Moreover, trust your cat’s homing instinct, and don’t give up hope. Many times cats have gone missing for weeks, even months, only to show up on their owner’s doorstep one day.
Never allow yourself to think that your cat is gone for good.
This isn’t really considered encouraging yourself to have false, but instead keeping a positive mind set.
It’s just keeping the faith and a positive attitude.
It could happen after all.
Now that you know all about what to do when a cat goes missing, and how to find a lost cat, you may also enjoy reading our article about how to bathe a cat.
