Carolyn E.
3 months ago
FINDING INDOOR ONLY CATS WHO ARE LOST
“Indoor only” cats rarely travel far - they seek an immediate hiding place (under a deck or porch, under brush, in a garage or shed) and hunker down out of fear. Immediately start searching around your house as well as your neighbor’s houses with a flashlight (get on your hands and knees and shine the light under decks etc.) - shake a treat bag and call it’s name and listen for a possible soft meow. (they are too scared to come out)
They can stay in this spot for weeks! Indoor only cats RARELY come out during the day - they only come out after dark and into the wee hours of the morning. Be sure to check the surrounding trees as cats are often chased up trees and will sit up there for days and days….sewer drains on your street, and inside the wheel and engine areas underneath cars close by. Cats OFTEN get locked in a neighbor’s shed or garage that had been open – please walk around them and softly call the cat’s name and listen for a meow.
What we have had great success with is this: Open your door throughout the night and call it’s name - often they will come running back in! Sit outside on your deck/porch and walk around your property and call it’s name during the night… and the number one thing that seems to be working is to leave the door ajar for it to get back in during the middle of the night! (Lock all your other pets away for the night!) Most cats have been coming in on their own between 1-4 am
Put all their smelly stuff (see below) near the door outside and inside as well including a small trail of food from the outside to inside – do not leave bowls of food outside as they will eat and leave!
Cats have an amazing sense of smell - put its litter box, bedding, your dirty clothes/shoes, and a tiny bit of strong smelling wet cat food outside to attract your cat. IF you are using the trap, the ONLY food outside should be in the trap! You can trail their dirty litter from their box around your property line….we just heard of a tip of blowing a fan out the house window so that your house smells waft through the outside air to attract them back. Smear smelly wet cat food on trees to attract them back to your yard – they can smell that from quite a distance!
IMMEDIATELY Set a Humane trap (like a Hav-A-Heart wire trap) bait it with smelly cat food...this is sometimes the ONLY way to catch a scared indoor only cat AND IT WORKS! Cats might realize that the food is not their normal food so we often suggest putting their own wet and dry in the trap so it seems “familiar” to them. You can smear the wet food on trees etc. as the smell will waft in the breeze.
Hang LOST posters immediately and give one to every neighbor as too many people just assume when they see a cat that it is a stray - if they know you are looking for your cat they will be extra vigilant and want to help. Ask them to take a photo of any cats they see in your area –sometimes people think it is your cat but it is not.
DO NOT GIVE UP! It could take days, weeks or months but your cat is out there and you must keep up the search and spread the word with posters, speaking with neighbors, social media etc.
LAMBERTVILLE ANIMAL WELFARE
HOW TO TRAP A PET CAT –LAMBERTVILLE ANIMAL WELFARE
Borrow a “Hav-a-Heart” type trap and place it in a location that a cat would feel comfortable going in it –up against the side of a building or just inside a garage or shed against a wall. Do not place out in open. Place it near the door that cat ran out of or place several around the house - Do not Cover the trap! But do put out your dirty laundry/dirty shoes etc as well as used cat litter as cats have an amazing sense of smell. Hang the dirty laundry in nearby tree etc. to attract cat back to area. You can place a piece of dirty laundry on top of trap –or your smelly shoes next to it too!
Trap PREP -Fold over 4 pages of newspaper to fit width of trap & push to very back of trap
For pet cats – use both THEIR OWN wet and dry food that they are used to (that makes them feel more comfortable going into the trap) but you can also try to use stinky cat wet food or tuna in oil – chop up very fine so they cannot "grab + go" with it.
Drizzle cat food juice and little pieces of food up the center of trap directly on the newspaper in small amounts and line the backend of trap horizontally with the food (directly on the paper)– smash it down so cat has to work to eat it. Do not use bowls or cans – they can pull out!
Do not leave “set trap” open at night without monitoring as raccoons etc. will go into trap and you do not want to trap wild animals or leave the cat in trap overnight
The most important thing with traps with back doors is that you secure the tiny fold over latch on the back door before you clip it shut!!!! Test back door to make sure it does not lift up
When you cannot monitor the trap – for example if you are away during the day – tie trap open with a bungee cord and put a small amount of cat food in it – dry only if it is really hot so that cat will get used to eating from it and will come back again and get trapped when you have it set – make sure that trap is securely tied open so cat does not get stuck in heat or cold. Keep at this – it can take weeks but you will get the cat!!!
