Expert: Kate Tilmouth - 7/6/2010

Question
Dear Kate,

I have a 2 year old male neutered, chipped, declawed(by previous owners) cat. I adopted him a little over a year ago. In the summer I let him out in the back yard for several hours. Also very rearly in the front yard on a leash. Since he is declawed and the fence is quite high he can not jump on the fence. My cat loves the outdoors and should really be an outdoor cat, he can never get enough of running around outside and he always sits on the windows dreaming of outdoors. Lately he figured out how to jump on the green house and then on the fence. Luckily i have seen him on the fence and took him down. I also fenced the roof of the greenhouse so he can't jump on it. This Wednesday he was in the backyard as usual and then just disappeared. I looked everywhere and could not see him. The backyard in not big so i'm sure he ran away. He is missing for 5 days now and i'm VERY worried. I have his litterbox outside but nothing. I also put up posters all over the neighborhood (about 500m radius) and no one has called. My cat also has a collar with a tag with his name and phone number. He is also chipped. Im scared that he is stuck in someone elses backyard and can not get out. Is it possible that he is just not ready to come home yet? Does he know where he lives? Or maybe he ran away further then I thought? Last year he ran away at about the same time of the year (3 weeks after i got him) and i did the same kinds of things and someone had seen him and called me within 1.5 days. He was not far away from my house maybe 30 meters.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read my question!

Answer
Hi
yes it is quite possible that he is just not ready to come yet if he is such an outdoor cat.

Contact your local animal shelters and vets to make sure they have not seen him. Visit your local neighbors around your home and ask them to check sheds etc. I have a web page about all the things you can do here

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/lost-cats.html

My sisters cat disappeared for 9 days and then just turned up and he did not know the area or my sister that well as he got out after just 2 days of being brought home. So do not dipair .

best wishes kate
http;//www.our-happy-cat.com