Karla S.
4 weeks ago
Here are some tips, if you haven’t tried them all: if you can secure any other pets inside your home tonight & leave the exit point open, your cat may walk back inside during the night. Indoor only cats and limited outdoor access cats never go far. They go into survival mode and hide in silence. Most of them will not respond when they are in survival mode. 3 AM is the best time to find a missing indoor only cat. This is the time they become most active and responsive. Sit and quietly call for your kitty. Try to stay low to the ground, standing is intimidating to cats. Place some dirty socks, t-shirts and pillow cases outside. Your scent will attract your kitty. Place the items near the garage door and crack the door enough for her to get in. DO NOT leave food or litter box outside at night, it can attract predators and aggressive Tom cats. If you do have many stray cats in your area, I would not leave food out at all, for the above mentioned reason. Because indoor only cats hide so well, they are not as likely to be ed by a predator. Don’t give up. It can take months to find an indoor only missing cat. Use a flashlight as late at night as you can to look in trees, under cars, under decks, porches, sheds, and in bushes. Try to look for the glow of your cat’s eyes. The best chance of you being reunited with your cat is to do a methodical search of the area. Most indoor only cats will be within 160 feet of your home. Survival mode last 5-14 days but can last longer. Once their hunger gets to a maximum, they snap out of it, but this is a dangerous time, because they come out of hiding. In addition to posted flyers, make mini flyers and hand them out to your neighbors. Some people don’t pay attention to posted flyers. It’s VERY VERY important that you look for your cat as late at night as you can. If you have other cats, watch them. If they are spending a lot of time looking out a certain window, that’s a good indication the missing cat is in that area. Wildlife and motion activated cameras are very helpful! A lot of people are successful at trapping their indoor only cats at the point of where they exited the house, but again, this is most likely to happen in the middle of the night. If you decide to trap, you must watch the trap closely, predators can a cat in a trap. Post on Nextdoor. Most importantly, if you see your cat, DO NOT CHASE it. Sit down on the ground, bring a carrier, put it upright, with the door open facing up, and wait for the cat to come to you. You can have some treats or open tuna to entice them to come to you. But please, do not go after them , you will just chase them further away. A humane trap was how I caught my indoor cat during the night. He returned during the night to the exact spot where he had exited the house.
