Expert: Ali - 6/17/2009

Question
On May 29th, my 2 year old cat escaped out of the bedroom window in our new apartment.  She followed my 3 year old cat after he accidentally knocked out the screen trying to catch bugs.  I was unpacking in the living room and failed to hear all of this going on.  About ten minutes after I had last seen her in the living room, I saw her standing outside the back door. When I opened the door, she ran.  My brother and my husband went out to find her.  My 3 year old cat was about 5 feet from the window.  But she was gone.  Unfortunately, it was around 11pm which made it impossible to see her since she is a brown and white tabby.  She's a stray that I adopted a little over a year ago.  She is very shy and gets spooked very easily.  I looked for her numerous times that next day and every day after.  It's become an obsession.  I posted signs, bought tuna and other canned fish to sit on my porch, placed her toys and even her litter box outside.  All the neighbors know her name..as well as my name from looking in all the bushes outside their windows late at night! There are several strays that wander around here which I thought she may be running with. There is also a lake, and a heavy tree line that is behind my apartment.  I have looked in every small space, under every wood pile and up every tree.  The management office is aware of her disappearance as well as maintenance.  I have check the vets and humane society several times.  She is microchipped with HomeAgain and I have listed her as lost with them.  Aside from a very large stray and a possum that come up to eat the food, she has yet to come up on the porch.  I am losing my mind.  I have posted her picture and an ad on every website google could find.  Is there anything else I can do?  I had suspicion that she had been stolen when someone disposed of the first round of flyers that I had posted.  So, in the evening, I glance around at the windows of my apartments to see if I spot her in a window.  She loves bird watching.  But, nothing.  I am so scared that she will never come home.  How likely is it that after 2 weeks, she'll know how to find her way back?   Everything scares her.  If you shut a door or stand up quickly, she runs.  But, we just moved to a new state just a few days before she ran off.  Can she find her way home even if she only lived here for a short period of time?  I am so sorry for all the information scattered, but I am just so frantic.  Thank you so much for reading all of this.

Answer
Nichol,

I'd like to start off by saying that I completely understand your anxiety and wanting to bring your baby back home where you know she's safe. It's very obvious to me that you love your kitty very much and I'll do my best to offer some suggestions you may not have thought of yet and any support that I can. Cats are pretty resilient critters and they have a great capacity to survive without human help so while I completely understand that every minute she's gone is torture for you I wouldn't suggest giving up hope of ever finding this baby girl again.

I think you've done an amazing job of being very thorough and trying to let every agency that might come into contact with your cat and people within your neighborhood know that your cat's missing and you are trying to find her and bring her back home as soon as you can. Since you've recently moved it's quite possible that your cat's homing instinct has sent her heading back to your old neighborhood. There are many stories about indoor cats who have accidentally gotten outside and successfully travelled thousands of miles to get back home or in the case of cats getting outside after a recent move the area they consider to be their home. I'd like to promise you that the missing posters will do the trick, but I've found that far too many people don't notice them when they're tacked up around the neighborhood so I have a few other suggestions that you might find useful to go along with what you've already done up to this point. I would recommend that you ask animal shelters, municipal pounds and other animal welfare organizations if you can put up a poster at each entrance to the shelter. I would also recommend asking if you can leave a missing kitty poster in every area that animals are admitted to their facility so that it's close at hand for the agency's staff. Hopefully having your cat's missing poster close at hand will remind staff responsible for admitting lost or stray cats matching your cat's description to be extra thorough when scanning new arrivals for a microchip because this permanent form of ID can migrate to different sites throughout the cat's body so it's quite possible that the chip may not be where it was originally placed.

I can tell that you are committed to finding your kitty and bringing her home so that she's safe. Sometimes in today's society people don't notice basic missing pet posters so I have a few recommendations that may increase the likelihood that your cat's posters will be noticed by people passing by. Using bold colors and a large font size at the top of your missing poster will often draw people's attention to them - a good way to keep it there is to use a font large enough to have 'CASH REWARD' or 'REWARD' take up the entire width of the page at the top. I recommend including a good sized, clear, recent photo of your cat right underneath REWARD, be sure that it clearly shows any unique markings your cat may have. I know it's sad that for some folks money is what motivates them to do the right thing, but sometimes offering a cash reward (it's up to you how much you'll pay and whether you list that on the flyer or not) for your cat's safe return will make people more likely to contact you if they've seen your cat, let you know if they've recently taken in a stray cat that matches your little girl's description and make the necessary arrangements with you so that she can come back home. Contact information should be limited to you or your spouse's first name and a phone number where one or the other of you can be reached at any time of the day or night. Print this information in a fair sized font so that it can be read from several feet away by someone with average eyesight. I don't know if your little one comes when she's called by name, if she does including her name and that information could help a good samaritan catch her and bring her indoors to a safe environment so that they can give you a call if they happen to see her. If your kitty needs a special diet, any daily medication or treatments for any illness I'd suggest adding that to your missing poster.

In addition to missing kitty posters and word of mouth you may find that taking out a large enough ad in the local newspapers and free publications so that you have the space to include a color photo of your cat, your contact information and any other information you've included on your original missing kitty poster will help find your kitty more quickly since newspapers and similar publications reach a wider audience than missing kitty posters often do. A newspaper ad may also encourage someone to come forward if they happen to know where to find your cat and give them a way of contacting you to pass that information along. Here are a few ideas for places to put missing kitty posters up that you may not have considered.

- small businesses
- public transit stations (bus, light rail, subway, etc)
- community centres
- coffee shops
- apartment building bulletin boards
- grocery stores
- shopping malls
- convenience stores
- dry cleaners
- laundromats
- local animal shelters
- municipal pounds
- animal welfare organizations
- rescue groups
- pet supply stores
- pet boutiques and specialty stores
- grooming salons
- vet clinics

It's in your best interests to obtain permission before putting any flyers up, after all if a business owner or manager takes your flyer down it won't be seen which means that your flyer won't likely be very helpful. It's important to try and make sure that any flyers you put up are placed in high traffic areas like inside the glass door in a business entrance or any other place that someone going into or leaving the business will be likely to see them. Putting flyers up near businesses that you've posted flyers in can also be helpful in terms of making sure that people will be more likely to see and read the flyer which is one more step to getting your baby girl home safe as quickly as possible. It's a good idea to place flyers in areas where they're likely to be seen in and around your new and old neighborhoods and anywhere you possibly can between the two places. Protecting your flyers from the elements is important because if your flyer gets wet and becomes illegible it's not very useful. You may find that using the plastic covers meant to protect paper in a 3 ring binder will work well, all you'd need to make the flyers waterproof is some clear packing tape to seal off the top of the plastic cover.

Any missing pet posters should include some standard information: your name and a phone number where you or someone else in the household can be reached anytime, a complete physical description of your cat and a decent photograph that is large enough for folks to get a general idea what your little one looks like. Some folks recommend including your cat's name, I'd include this information if she actually responds when called by name, otherwise it's not necessary. If your kitty requires any medicines on a daily basis you should include that information, you don't necessarily have to specify which medicine she takes or the medical condition she's being treated for unless she's likely to need immediate emergency medical care for a serious condition such as diabetes, a heart condition, asthma or renal failure. I would suggest including the name and contact information of your family vet so that if your little girl is sick or injured and in need of treatment the vet can call you immediately. In your case a description of your cat's personality could be useful to anyone that may find her because she's a timid cat by nature because it might mean that a stranger won't be able to catch your kitty and convince her that it's a good idea to go home with them.

Timid cats often hide in places that are difficult for predators and other animals, unfortunately this often includes people who are trying to help the cat as well. It's not a bad idea to let your new neighbors know that you haven't found your missing kitty yet and make a polite request that they check any place that a scared cat might hide on their property such as under sheds, porches or patios and odd places like inside of a large non-functioning A/C unit or other household appliance. Contacting your friends and neighbors in the area you've recently moved from to ask them to keep an eye out for your little girl is also a good plan just in case she does decide to go home, where she considers it to be. It's not a bad idea to consider conducting some searches of your new neighborhood (and having a friend or family member do the same in the old one) late at night when traffic is at a minimum and there's very little noise, it's quite possible that your cat is even more anxious and fearful than normal because moving is stressful for most cats and she's already somewhat predisposed to anxiety. Since this baby has gone through the traumatic and stressful experience of moving from one home to another it's important to factor in the fact that she's in a significantly different environment than she's become accustomed to -this may mean that your little one is so fearful that she isn't likely to come out of hiding even when the noise and activity slow down.

I wouldn't suggest including the brand or identifying number of your cat's microchip for flyers that are meant for the general public to see, but for animal shelters and places that will scan your kitty for a microchip it's a good idea to let them know the number and make of the chip and it's crucial that your information is up to date with the microchip's manufacturer. Identifying features like visible scars, unique eye color, amputated limbs or anything else that would be obvious to an average person looking at your kitty and anything that would be apparent during a routine veterinary exam are also good to include.

You may want to speak with an office supply store to see if they're willing to print a large number of these missing posters (500 or so) because this may allow you to give these flyers out to neighbors, replace any damaged by weather or discarded by some nasty person who isn't an animal lover. My heart goes out to you and your missing baby, I really wish that I could do more in terms of helping you find her. Making sure to put as many flyers up as possible, going out late at night to look for your kitty, having hope praying that this little one is safe and she hasn't gone too far is about all that you can do. Finding ways to make sure that your kitty's flyer is everywhere that it possibly can be, that the information is accurate and up to date and providing current contact info is about all that can be done. I really wish that I could do more, but for now you, your family and your kitty are in my thoughts and I'll keep hoping that she's okay and you find her soon. Hopefully you do find this little girl soon, since you have resident cats it is quite possible that they will react with some mild - moderate aggression if she's been away for awhile, you find her and then expect her to mingle happily with the other cats in the household so if you're interested I can send you along some information to help reintroduce your kitty successfully and minize the trauma and stress for everyone involved. If you'd like me to clarify anything in this answer or you have further questions or concerns I'd be more than happy to help you with anything that I can. I hope that you manage to find your little wanderer and bring her back home where she's safest. Take care of yourself, your family and the other kitties in the household.