Portage, MI Lost Male Cat, Minnow Is Missing

Facebook Community Response

Joy M.

2 days ago

Is this your kitty? https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18tyUYfPgv/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Sami L.

3 days ago

I saw what looked to maybe be a cat run over on the road right in front of the old Buddy’s restaurant on Westnedge, I was feeding a grey cat similar to this one in that area, I was going to take a closer look later. Hopefully it’s not either cat

3 days ago

😿😿😿🙏

Terrie S.

4 days ago

Walk around calling your cat as you always do. Look under bushes and in hiding places. Look at dawn and dusk with a flashlight to catch the glare of your cat's eyes. Leave garage door and lanai partially open if possible. Your cat will try to get back inside ..most likely at night. Use a trap...The only way to find his way home.or to the trap is by smell. Use some of your used clothes, put them outside and around the trap. A friend of mine used her shirt and dragged it through the neighborhood. Her cat found the smell and followed it home. It is all about the smell. You can also cut a shirt of yours into small small pieces and leave a scent trail back to the trap. I read a few days ago that a lady put out a trace with the old litter throughout the neighborhood. It worked. Her cat came home! Use the litter to lead your cat to the trap. Also try to distribute flyers throughout that neighborhood...as many as you can ( 3 miles radius at least). Check shelters in person...don't just call. Put battery operated trail cameras outside. Your cat might show up in the middle of the night. When you know the time you can wait for for your cat and slow blink to make contact. NEVER GIVE UP! I read once that you can put a chair outside and cover it up with a blanket and the cat can jump up and hide under the blanket and feels safe. They said you should put one of your shirts under the blanket and food and water next to the chair. It might be worth a try to put up a chair

Terrie S.

4 days ago

All the above advice + Make sure you go to the shelters, animal control, humane societies & every rescue you can think of in person and check for your dog or cat as often as you can. Don’t rely on just calling to check for them. The shelters are understaffed and overwhelmed; they may not recognize your dog or cat from a description over the phone. Also, put up flers & post on Love of Louie, Pawboost, next door, Ring App, etc., etc

Randy C.

4 days ago

Cross road, please!?

4 days ago

They usually don't go far at first. Your fur baby needs *YOU* to do these things to find her/him! ✳ BE PROACTIVE!! Kitties without a food/water source and shelter will likely continue moving until they find them. You need to attract her/him back home. They are very often only within a few houses or buildings to start. 🍲💧Keep replenishing a feeding station set up with fresh water and smelly food to attract, like warm tuna. Best to put in view of a camera so you can see if kitty eats the food. If you have a garage, prop it open 6 inches with smelly food trailed to inside. 🧦 Put out scent items: some of her/his toys and bedding, along with your DIRTY laundry (socks, pillowcases). 🔦 Check in trees. When dark out, look for her/his eyes with a flashlight under bushes, decks and other safe hiding spots. They hunker down, but will come out more between DUSK and DAWN when it is quiet. Use a familiar noise, like shaking a treat bag, to attract. Speak quietly and softly. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ✅ Make sure neighbors in a minimum two block radius have your contact info with kitty's pic, as most seeing your social media posts don't live right around you. Ask them to check their cameras, sheds, garages, window wells and under decks. ‼️FLYER, FLYER, FLYER‼️It's the best tool you've got! People don't pay attention to loose cats like they do dogs. ✴ Most people people that see your social media posts don't live right by your home, so flyers are VERY IMPORTANT to make everyone that lives directly around you are aware. If someone picks kitty up, they may not know who she/he belongs to. You need as many eyes looking as possible. *500 PAIRS OF EYES LOOKING IS BETTER THAN ONE* 📢 Bright colors, simple BOLD letters, with your number and a big pic of your kitty. Hang upside down in sheet protectors or gallon ziploc bags on neon posterboard for maximum attention. ➡️ Other ideas: 1. Put a sign up in your front yard. If the sign is up, neighbors and people passing by know she/he is still missing. 2. Give one to the local mail carriers. 3. Put on on your car window. 4. Driveway drops: a mini flyer (print 4 on one letter size piece of neon paper) in a ziploc bag with a rock for weight. Drive and toss on to driveways like a newspaper. 5. Pass out the mini flyer to anyone out walking their dogs, pushing strollers, etc. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ☎️ Contact the microchip company so kitty will be flagged as lost. Make sure the chip is registered properly to you (ie. not where kitty was adopted from - or where chip was implanted) and your contact info is current. 🏫 Alert surrounding PDs, Animal Controls, shelters and vets. Go take flyers to all of them - and walk through the shelters to check if your kitty is there. Follow up every few days. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ⌨ Register kitty on Petfbi(which is monitored by actual humans). They will post the report on the Lost Cats Illinois FB page. 💻 Alert residents about your lost kitty, and to please check their cameras through: 1. RING Neighbors App 2. Nextdoor App 3. Citizens App 4. Local neighborhood watch and lost pet pages/groups on Facebook. ✴ On all posts, list: 1. The town you live in and the cross streets near you. 2. Pics of your kitty. 3. Phone number - and ask people to contact you directly via call or text with any info so you don't miss anything. Your info should be brief and specific, as people are scrolling through quickly. (ie LOST CAT: Town/cross streets... female/male, coloring, if chipped, phone number, etc.) Ask everyone to take picture or video of any kitty they think might be her/him and send it to you. This can help confirm if it is or isn't your kitty. If it is, flyers need to be hung in the area of the sighting, especially if new from where she/he was seen prior. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ➡️ If you need to trap your kitty to secure her/him, traps CANNOT be left unattended. For the safety of your kitty and other animals, it must be monitored at ALL times. ‼️Be careful with scammers‼️They may contact you saying they have your kitty and ask for verification codes

4 days ago

Most of these should help too. I copied this from another post. It is very informative and I hope it helps you to find your cat. Sorry I haven't got time to change he to she. Please read all tips, they will help with the search. 1. A SOUND - Cats have extremely acute hearing and are naturally terrified of loud noises such as thunder, a car horn, a dog barking, a refuse lorry coming down the road emptying bins. The younger the cat the more easily they are scared by noises and bolt. 2. A LOCAL BOLD and DOMINANT CAT – will size up to a more timid cat to exert control over the territory. 3. An UN-NEUTERED MALE CAT will scare off all local cats in his endless searching over miles seeking a female. His instinct is to dominate in all territories and intimidate and fight with all local cats. 4. THE SUPER FRIENDLY CAT KNOWN TO EVERYONE: sometimes disappear on occasions for longer than normal as they are visiting many homes. They turn up suddenly as if nothing had happened. Cats are territorial and do not just run away from home. Something will have spooked the cat and it has bolted out of its familiar territory and ended up in a garden it has never been in before. LOST CAT ADVICE A CAT USED TO GOING OUTSIDE: something has happened to interrupt this, cats hide mostly when scared. They will be oblivious to the panic they have created. INDOOR ONLY cat who has escaped is very different, it will be MUCH CLOSER to home in the first hiding space it can find. It will be terrified finding itself suddenly outside. It will hide immediately very nearby but too panicked to respond to being called. ●Hang recently worn unwashed clothing in your line. If you have a shed put his bed inside and leave the door ajar. Put some of the contents of your vacuum cleaner outside your front and back doors. A cat NEW TO AN AREA through moving house or being re-homed will also find being outside frightening and will hide away quickly and nearby. This cat will also require the same tips as above● MISSING CAT STUDY from Missing Animal Response Network - A study of 1200 missing cats that were lost and then found. • The majority of cats 75% were found within 500 metres (1/3 of a mile) of their home (or escape point). Indoor only cats were closest to home often up to 10 houses distance. • The majority (83%) were found outside in a GARDEN near to home (or to their escape point) under shrubs or decking. • The majority of cats that were found, were found within 8 weeks. Half of those found was within 7 days. • Some bolder cats work their way home when their adrenaline has subsided (sometimes after a few days). Many cats will stay in hiding for very many days – often 10-12 days. They need our help to be reunited especially if they have bolted beyond their personal territory; they will be disorientated and unable to find their way back. THINGS YOU SHOULD DO: FIRST: SEARCH STRAIGHT AWAY and REGULARLY: Immediately search the local area. Call from your garden day and night. Walk the length of your road STOPPING and WAITING. Frightened cats take a while to respond. Start at the end of your road and WALK TOWARDS your house as you call so you don’t tempt your cat to travel further away from its home. Do the same on parallel roads as many times as possible every day. Don’t give up as the majority of found cats are found within 2 months with 50% in the first 7 days. Call in your normal voice so your cat is reassured that it is safe. They will pick up on the slightest anxiety as cats are hugely sensitive. Unless your cat is very bold, he/she will not rush straight out of hiding on hearing you; many stay in hiding for up to 12 days. Stand still and call. Build your cat’s confidence by hearing your voice sounding relaxed, talking to switched off mobile as you walk towards home. NIGHT-TIME/EARLY HOURS when the WORLD IS ASLEEP, when it is QUIET is a very good time to call and search. SOUND TRAVELS MUCH LONGER DISTANCES at night and your cat is much more likely to hear you calling it. CATS FEEL SAFER IN THE DARK from predators and are more likely to leave their hiding place on being called. Call in your garden frequently overnight. If walking on the street near your home to call through to reach neighbour’s gardens; take someone with you to stay safe. Shaking a treat bag GENTLY is a signal to cats (if it’s something they have heard at home) and the sound will travel much further late at night. If preferred take strongly scented fish or chicken with you. Search at dusk and dawn BE PATIENT; WAIT; REPEAT: Hiding away and not responding has nothing to do with whether your cat loves you, whether it recognises your voice – it has everything to do with the fact that a frightened cat will hide in silence! It is following its instinct and is in survival mode. Even if you are nearby the cat won’t just come out. Search hiding places. SECOND: PUBLICISE: LEAFLET EVERY HOUSE. LEAFLETS are very successful and have resulted in reuniting quite a few cats. Leaflet both sides of your road and parallel streets. Include a clear full photograph of your cat and your mobile number. Ask them to search in their gardens, sheds and under decking. Leaflets through doors really RAISES THE PROFILE of your lost cat in a large number of people’s minds. It reaches so many people – literally many hundreds. Make use of all social media. Post on Neighbourhood Watch, Next Door and local online Community Noticeboard. Give a poster to your postman, milkman and refuse collectors. Let your vet know he is missing and contact your chip company and make sure his details are up to date. Good luck

4 days ago

🍀Helping? read this All of the interactions we have with posts gets them seen by more people, even just looking at it! But likes are better, and not just likes on the post, but on every reasonable comment to! Simply liking a comment later will bring someone back, they may comment again or like other comments! or even share! the care and heart reactions help even more. But commenting is better and sharing is best! If you do make a post or share, make sure all of your posts and shared posts are set to public AND open to public comment.. Often they are not open.. It's a - separate - setting In the 3 dots at the top right of each post. Editing is also in the 3 dots in the top right of every post. Update posts that way, so that the new posts don't dilute the points Facebooks algorithms use to decide if a post is popular (so they show it to more people) .. Many group posts are open to public comment. but often the posts people make on their OWN Facebook profiles pages wall are not.. Sometimes they aren't public at all! Also, If you do make or share a post, or its contents.. Make ONE post in a group, or your wall. Then share that one post to everywhere.. Do not make multiple posts. Share one post to multiple places. It makes a HUGE difference in how the social media algorithms collect and stack 'points' for more and more views.. And it also makes communication easier because it's all linked together very tightly to one post. This is especially true when its not your post or your created content. people who created the content will have no way to benefit from or see the comments unless you keep them in the loop. Be sure to check your message for message requests, even check the spam box.. they are in a different part of the message system, look for red dots on symbols and or numbers next to some symbols in the top left areas of the direct massaging part of Facebook, the dots are on the bottom right of the symbols, it will say message requests in the options of those symbols. There are often MANY groups for every city AND county, so be sure to post that one post in all of them. you can copy the link to the other posts and paste them in the other posts comments to help keep all of them connected and lessen the need for you and others to repeat things. Especially if you already made multiple separate posts.. Many of the best groups look like "Lost and found pets of XXXXXXX country" Or lost and found pets of xxxxx city... I hear comments longer than 5 words are ranked much higer than smaller comments. Not sure about that one need to look it up Unfortunately Making posts fully public can increase the risk of sćammĕrs, (mostly for lost and found posts) and abusive strangers.. so be on guard for suspicious activity. Never leave the post to go talk in private (in dm or pm) unless you are VERY aware of śćàm tactics.. Once they have people in private conversations they can sćăm without the administration or others stopping and banning them.. and NEVER send anyone ANY codes.. ALL "ìńśťagram "help" are sćàms as well as almost all dŕòñė sěrvćes.. (Had to spell if funny or most groups would ban me to😅 .. sigh) For lost friend posts, it is in general best to just ignore all links and such given by strangers on posts. Instead go to offical pages like big lost and found groups and rescues and shelters pages and ask them directly who you should contact. And what may be just as important: if you show gratitude to the people who help you, they are more likely to help more, and not only will they help you more, but they may help many others who will need help in the future.. ....we dont do this for the thanks, BUT IT SURE HELPS!! we have hard days to, depression is very common in these paths.. So please help keep everyone going when you have the time and energy and such to do so.. Thank you for helping everyone 🙏🏻

4 days ago

Please make sure to read the advice in "files" and the "featured" row near the top of the pages or groups. sometimes you have to press a little arrow like shape to open it, scroll by pulling to the left or right. 🔻THERE ARE MANY TYPES OF SCAMS PEOPLE USE TO MANIPULATE PEOPLE THAT HAVE MISSING FRIENDS. OFTEN THEY TEXT SAYING THEY HAVE FOUND YOUR FRIEND AND TELL YOU TO SEND THEM A CODE. DO NOT The newer scams are links in comments like: "Omg its so sad! these people found my pet fast! go to ImMentallyillinaBADway in ìnśtaģgram for their team to help you too!!" Or things like "contact pet dŕöñės for help" ..they often ask for cash before they look, and or for you to send them a code. Or they tell you they can see them but need a code or cash... DO NOT send them anything. 🍀 If you do encounter scammers please screeshot their names and profile pics and put it here so we can ban them and report them.. you can report them to Facebook and to the admins if you are in a group seeing it. Press and hold on the comment, options will open. First report it to Facebook for spam, scam, harassment, unauthorised sales, false information, mocking victims, animal abuse, child abuse, and terrorism! Maybe they will actually do something for once after all that ..then report it to the admins. The admins will ban them and delete the comment asap. ...sigh..... ok... take some slow, natural, deep breathes.... 🍀 For future posts copy this: **MISSING** Please share and help contribute to a reunion! County: City: Location Details: Date: Name: Gender: Breed: Coloring: Physical Features: Age: Weight: Collar/Microchip/Other: Contact: Additional Information: 🍀 Use a bright flashlight (brighter than a phones flashlight) at night and when its dim, to look for their eyes glowing. keep the flashlight up by your head so their eyes retroreflected light goes into your eyes. if you dont understand that study it. or trust us.. 🍀 Put out scented objects like pillows and couch cushions. and if safe, crack some windows to let the scent out.. hopefully u can afford to leave one cracked open enough for them to crawl back in the middle of the night.. 🍀 When searching, move in a slowly growing spiral pattern, yell louder on the spiral path back so as to pull them home.. searching up wind is more likely to help, if they are down wind they would possibly be able to smell their way home already... 🍀 For scent, vaccume bag dust can be used to make a stong scent trail outside. Put it in cloth bags or socks. Tie them shut well (we dont need more plastic dust outside😓) .. then put them outside all around the house.. UNDER something to keep it dry.. and off the ground a little to.. dont want it to mold!.. but Air flow is key to.. so dont hide it to much.. Remember the house must be the most smelly part of the scent trial.. cracked windows are essential. But BE SAFE!! 🍀 Dont forget to refresh the outside box/house or traps with fresh used pillows food toys etc.. buy a big bag of their favorite food, spread it in many feeders on all sides of the building.. scent form all things can get sucked way up to high by the wind and houses heat, so place some on all sides of the building.. 🍀 Putting out food after the first day risks attracting others, their presence might push your friend away.. probably best to only use familiarly scented objects. If you do put out food, place it a ways from your home so the the others dont occupy the space outside of your home... 🍀 if you want us to more easily help find them, we need to know how u talk to them, like "come here good girl good kitty" or "come on baby, here come.." etc etc.... really the best option is a voice recording we can mimic and even use directly.. also, unless they are accustomed to you yelling their name, they may find the distortions the yelling produces to not only be unrecognisable, but scarey.. so please keep that in mind and remind others. try to sound normal, and sometimes normal, just louder.. get a cone to direct the sound so less yelling is needed. 🍀 if only for future reference/inspiration, it also may be helpful to consider; does this beed or individual often need hair cuts to look like they do in the picture? if so, another picture with longer hair, or a picture of a very similar hair cut or lack there of, might help them be identified in their current or future state.. 🍀 Give paper copies of pictures and helpful suggestions to all of your neighbors or anyone in the area.. 🍀If they are panicking and not lisitng to words. try these methods 🍀with just lots of your and other familiar smells, find them and then sit and wait up wind. hopefully they will smell you and see you are calm and friendly.. 🍀 Suggestions by Rena Hays: set a Humane live trap. Traps MUST BE MONITORED CLOSELY.. alert all neighbors and ask to check sheds, garages, under decks, bushes, even old dog houses. If possible place the pets bed in garage with food and something that smells like home. Leave garage door up just enough to allow entry for kitty. Best of Luck 🐾 🍀 USE CAUTION DURING DIFFICULT WEATHER, TRAPS SHOULD BE MONITORED EVERY 30 to 45 MINUTES for the safety and the well being of the animal. Hope that helps good luck 🙏🏻

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