HappyCatLady .
1 week ago
🐱💖💖🙏 Dear Guardian. DON’T LOSE HOPE. Scared cats are the stealthiest of hiders and those that get STUCK will often not meow so their human must take action in various ways in order to cover ALL possibilities, daily/nightly until kitty is found. Lost cat 'Sophie' was reunited after being lost for 6 weeks! Cats remain close - they do not leave. They HIDE in survival mode doing their best. Sophie's guardian trapped her using a humane trap the night after she was spotted eating wet food on the camera her guardian's had aimed (mini blink camera $30 on amazon) Those who search and FLYER and talk to neighbors and call/search for kitty at night, use a motion activated camera aimed at wet food at sunset etc - greatly increase their chances of finding their kitty - though yes, sometimes it can take much longer than we want.
🐱💖Lost Cat ‘Clementine’ was finally spotted after 29 days 1.5 yards away! A neighbor we flyered and spoke to 2 weeks earlier spotted kitty in her backyard. We ended up having to use a humane trap to trap her because she remained in survival mode and was too fearful to come forward to her human (2 days later Clementine was back to ‘normal’ purry self). Lost cat ‘Lina’ of 2 weeks was spotted returning home (video footage in backyard) but was too scared to come inside - the owner had to coax her for hours and hours for 2 nights. Without having a camera aimed at food she would NEVER have guessed her kitty was still in her backyard - HIDING!
🐱💖Lost Calico cat ‘Kittie’ was spotted after 4 weeks in a neighbor’s yard who we flyered so they called us. She had escaped out the front door leading to a busy street and must have found a way into the backyards 1 block away through metal gates she slipped through from teh street. This is why FLYERING at least 1-2 blocks beyond your block is a must. Once ‘kittie’ was sighted on the neighbor’s RING camera, we kept leaving food just before sunset every day around 6pm and got her coming to the food. We then set a humane trap and watched the trap using a baby monitor to make sure we didn’t trap a neighbor cats. The point of this is to continue taking action every day/night. Cats remain near - they do NOT go far from home....
🐱💖Continue to call for kitty at night in your calm voice..set your alarm for 11pm, 2am, 5am ...walk around the block very slowly and calmly call for kitty ...Lost cat “SQUIRREL” was found after 13 nights of his guardian searching at night with a flashlight (kitty ‘squirrel’ got out from the street front and mostly cement on those blocks) During they day they went door to door finding out who had RING cameras and 7 days in, a neighbor spotted ‘squirrel’ cat walking by on camera at 2am...this gave them the extra boost of hope and they continued to search 11pm-2am. Try everything. Some cats will hide for a good 10 days until extreme HUNGER forces them out…sometimes only at night. And often cats get stuck in a garage while that neighbor is Out of town for over a week! Go back and talk to any neighbor who wasn’t home before. Take notes on the printed google map so you know who you spoked to and who wasn’t home (tape a flyer onto their front door using painter’s tape)
🐯 If your neighborhood isn't already plastered with flyers , PRINT MORE and add or replace flyers - IMPORTANT: knock on neighbors doors AGAIN and REMIND them that your sweet kitty is still missing and ask them to check around especially at night especially..ask neighbors with RING cameras to check the footage in case kitty is spotted...whatever you do, do NOT lose hope...keep searching and spreading the word with your neighbors door to door - they need to be reminded kitty is still out there and you need their vigilant eyes. You are still very early in this search.
HUNGER ALWAYS WINS - LURE WITH WET FOOD
🐯 FEEDING STATION WITH CAMERA **IMPORTANT** PLACE A CAMERA (motion activated with night vision) aimed at WET food in bowl before sunset nightly. ( you can buy amazon)Cats that are scared remain near HIDING until their hunger THRESHHOLD will force them to come out of hiding to look for food though they will still continue to hide from humans. YEs - scared cats will even act scared of their human's voice and won't come inside and need to be coaxed. Lost cat 'Luna' was spotted on camera after being 'lost' for several weeks, her human was shocked to learn Luna was visiting the backyard regularly late night and would NOT come back inside ( the backdoor was left open for her) We thought she was stuck at a neighbors which happens all the time and it was the help of the camera which helped her human learn about the different cats that would visit and other animals...Luna’s guardian ended up Trapping Luna by doing a stakeout and watching out the window to the trap since it was just outside (all lights were turned off)
💥💥BUY CAMERA: Mini Blink WIFI camera $35 : https://a.co/ihc7BSy
OR WYZE WIFI Waterproof Camera $29: https://a.co/d/4assVvK (get a Micro SD Memory Card: https://a.co/d/44AXvel) OR Waterproof cordless camera : https://a.co/d/cDeKLXz
IF NO WIFI:
Wildlife/Trail camera (battery operated) check footage manually daily https://a.co/d/gWTQ4wq , requires 8 AA lithium batteries (buy extra) + Micro SD Memory Cards: https://a.co/d/44AXvel
🐯 GAIN ACCESS TO NEIGHBORS YARDS: Knock on your neighbors doors in ALL directions to ask for permission to check yards, under DECKS and porches and crawl spaces. Do this alone. Scared cats will NOT come forward right away and they are excellent hiders! You have to keep trying and explain to neighbors that cats protect themselves by hiding - even from the guardian they love - until THEY feel safe to come forward. Studies have proven 🐯Indoor cats remain near HIDING IN SILENCE and are mostly found within a few houses away from the escape point and outdoor/indoor cats mostly within a 1 block radius...sometimes when cats aren't coming back they may have hurt a paw and can’t jump back over a fence or they may be ill and need medical attention so taking action to actively search in neighbors property is crucial
🐯 Check your local animal shelter in person every 4 days🙏🙏they don’t always show all their 'processed' cats online… For SAN FRANCISCO ACC call them first as they have a policy of NOT accepting all found cats… FOUND cats: SFACC https://www.sfanimalcare.org/stray-found-cats/
Unfortunately many cat guardians give up way too soon and some lost cats end up at the shelter months down the road by getting trapped by a caring neighbor - and those cats are NOT reclaimed so please keep checking your shelters just in case!
🐯 Make sure kitty’s MICROCHIP information is up-to-date. Call to report kitty Lost. If you don’t have the microchip number, check with your vet and/or place of adoption. In addition to updating wherever your cat’s chip was originally registered (or even if you don’t remember where you originally registered the chip), register your cat at the free Found Animals chip registry, https://www.foundanimals.org/microchip-registry/owners and the free pet chip registry, https://www.freepetchipregistry.com/ with your current contact information in order to increase the chances that if your cat is picked up, they can contact you. (I say increase the chances because sadly there are multiple databases for different chips and they are not all interconnected.)
🐯With LOVE - damia
(www.happycatlady com)🐱💖🙏
