Diana S.
3 years ago
I am so sorry your kitty is missing. In case you have not already done so, try these tips; pethaps one of them will help bring him home.
Put something with an odor that Mayhem would recognize outside your door. It could be his food dish, cat bed, carrier, favorite blanket, or even something that you have worn recently but have not yet laundered. Cats who get out rarely go far and they have a keen sense of smell so a familiar scent can help lead them home. Check for Mayhem often, especially in the morning and around dusk when cats are the most active.
Use a strong flashlight to
search hiding places in the area such as under porches, under bushes, behind in between garbage containers and recycling bins. Go back and check the same spots at different times of day. Mayhem may not be in any of them when you first look, but he could show up in one of them later.
Ask neighbors to look for Mayhem in their garages. He might seek shelter in an open one, slip in unnoticed, and be trapped there when the door is shut. Give neighbors your contact number. That way if they do see him they can keep him closed safely inside and call you immediately to come and get him.
Contact animal shelters and rescue organizations to see if anybody has brought in a cat that looks like Mayhem. Somebody could find him, not know how to locate his family, and think that the best thing they can do is surrender him to a humane facility. Leave your number with all of the places that you reach. Ask them to call you if anybody should bring in a cat that resembles yours.
Post flyers with Mayhem’s photo and your contact info throughout the neighborhood, asking anybody who sees him to call you immediately. Include any information, (such as his favorite treats, if he can be picked up and if/how he likes to be petted) that might help a person who sees him keep him in the same area until you can get there.
Be sure to call Mayhem by name whenever you are outside looking for him or even if you just step out to do something like get your mail or take out the garbage. He might be nearby and able to hear you. Don’t yell since loud voices can scare a cat. Use the same tone of voice that you use when you call him inside the house. That helped us find our lost cat after she had been missing for three days. She finally meowed in response to her name, but even though we could hear her we could not see where she was. We followed the sound and discovered her hiding in a sheltered alcove by a neighbor’s garage – a place we had already checked several times.
If nothing else works, you could try setting up a humane trap on your porch or by your door in case Mayhem visits in the middle of the night when you aren’t awake to see or hear him. (I believe that some shelters will let you borrow a humane trap for a small deposit fee. Ask about it when you call to see if a cat like Mayhem has been surrendered there.)
Good luck! And don’t give up hope. Cats have been known to return after days, weeks, even months and sometimes years. But I hope that Mayhem is back home with you very, very soon.
