Reunited Female Cat in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, England BH10 4DT (ID: 73440170)

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Verity L.

3 weeks ago

Here’s some good advice I got from another site. Some you’ve likely done already, but may still be helpful: Firstly, check your own home, garden, and the immediate vicinity THOROUGHLY. Cats seldom stray far, but some of them have a positive genius for getting shut in sheds, garages, cars, greenhouses and even attics! Check also any standing water-butts, ponds, etc. If your cat recognises the smell of home, hang dirty washing on your line, put smelly trainers in your garden with any cat bedding. Anything that smells familiar will help guide your cat home if s/he has lost their scent. Put your cat’s bedding outside but under cover so that it doesn’t get wet. Put up posters (in plastic) as soon as possible. Put posters up further than you would think. Knock on your neighbours doors up to two streets away and give them each a poster. Put them up anywhere and everywhere (eg stuck to telegraph poles and similar). Stick one in the back window of your car. Local shops, post office, pub, local primary schools (small children are incredibly observant) anywhere really. Ask local vets to display a copy. Speak to local postman and dog walkers to ask them to TELL you if they see your cat. Consider printing off enough fliers to put them through people’s letterboxes down your street and in the area. Not everybody is on social media. If there are any distinctive physical conditions or characteristics about your cat, make sure you feature them prominently in any fliers, online appeals, etc. Ask them to check sheds/garages/outhouses WHILE YOU WAIT in case your cat has got shut in (cats are incredibly inquisitive!). Ask neighbours to prop open doors so if your cat is scared and hiding s/he doesn't miss the opportunity to get out if the door is only opened briefly. Check For Sale or Rent homes in case the previous resident forgot to unset the cat flap from In-Only and has trapped your kitty inside. Check under all bushes, decking and in gardens, using a long stick and a torch if necessary. Go out looking at night to check, when it is quiet and there is less traffic. Work your way back towards home as you call them, so not to inadvertently lead them further away from home. Take a powerful torch. Scatter used cat litter outside and leave out food. If possible, make sure there is a way for your cat to get back in the house even if you are asleep (eg, wedge open the cat flap). Next check all the surrounding streets, again checking under bushes and in undergrowth. If there are fields/woods nearby, thoroughly search these too. Check any empty houses as cats can get through the smallest of spaces. KEEP doing all these things as when scared cats go into survival mode and may not even respond to their owner at first. If your cat is chipped (all cats should be by law), contact the chip company to ensure they have your correct and up to date contact details, especially your telephone numbers. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Alert the chip company that he's missing, put him on animal search any missing pet register as both are free. Alert all vets in the area and give them a description of your cat. Ask local vets to display a poster of your missing cat. Even if your cat is chipped, not all vets routine scan for a chip!!! Chips can also fail or migrate to anywhere in your cat. Ring the RSPCA/cats protection and any rescues in the area as any of these places may end up with him so best to give them a description too. Again, not all rescue centres routinely scan a cat for a chip See if the local paper runs free lost and found pets ads. Check the found and make sure your pet is listed as lost. Again, not everybody is on Facebook. Use Facebook (set to public and tag yourself in your kitty’s photo so you can follow up any leads from subsequent shares) and NextDoor app to share your missing cat. It is ESSENTIAL to include a clear photo, colour/breed/distinguishing features, where s/he has gone missing from (district, town and county) and when your cat was last seen. Say if your cat is chipped and neutered or not. Ask people to share/retweet. Share your cat to any local lost and found pets’pages, on national lost cat pages, on the Facebook pages of any local cat rescue groups, on local vetsand larger community groups. The bigger the audience of the groups you share to the better. Always include your post code and a mobile contact number. Ask everyone to share. If you are not on social media, ask a family member or friendly neighbour to do this for you. Follow up any and every lead you get until you have absolutely discounted 100% that this is your cat. Remember that most people are spectacularly unobservant and quite capable of identifying a tom as a queen and vice versa. Contact all the local vets by phone to see if your cat has been brought in injured. KEEP DOING THIS at weekly intervals, as you may not speak to the same person every time, plus your cat may have been brought in the day after you phoned the last time. Contact all the local cat rescues by phone to see if your cat has been brought in injured. KEEP DOING THIS at weekly intervals, as you may not speak to the same person every time, plus your cat may have been brought in the day after you phoned the last time. When you get them back keep them inside for a month and put a collar on them to signal to neighbours that your kitty has a home. Cats have an internal GPS which only resets once they are used to their surroundings and feel safe. Having them inside for a month with lots of toys helps them to spread their scent which helps them to reset their GPS to recognise their new home. Without doing this they will try to return to their last location as the crow flies.

Reunited Cat in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, England BH10 4DT

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