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Lost Cat advice

Chris Brown

Chris Brown

Super Member
We have a cat that has been missing for about 4 days now. We've asked neighbors, regularly check the found pets at the pound, but not sure what else we can do.

Backstory:

About 5 years ago one of our cats had a litter of kittens. We gave away most of the kittens to friends and family but kept some. One that we kept had a minor birth defect where her legs bow outward and causes her to walk slowly and with a waddle. As a result, she is much less active and gained a lot of weight. As a bonus, she is the only cat that gets along with the dog. The dog is friendly, but chases the cats for fun. Since this cat is too slow, she just plops over and gives up. At that point the dog just sniffs the cat and moves on. The result being that she became the only cat not afraid of the dog. That also gave her access to the dog food, which she happily eats. This pic below is her with our dog. You can see how fat she got.

FatLC.jpg


About 4 months ago, she somehow ended up outside. We brought her back inside but somehow she decided that she wanted to be outside so much that she started simply plowing through our screen doors to get outside (an easy task given her mass). We decided to just let her be outside if she wanted to. We live in a cat-friendly neighborhood but it is next to an open-space, where you can hear coyotes howling every night. We were leery about letting her out before, always figuring that she would be at a big disadvantage against predators given her disability. We also had issues with a cat in our house not always using the litter-box, which caused us significant aggravation. When she went outside, it became clear that it had been her. Needless to say, that reduced our incentive to bring her back inside, but she seemed very content and happy outside.

At first, she seemed to always stay very close to our house. After a few months she began to show pretty amazing weight loss. Being outside and the extra activity seemed to be good for her. At that point she also began to expand the area she would run around and play each day. She would always come back each day to eat though, at the very minimum. Unfortunately it has been several days now since we have last seen her :(
 
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Any coyotes around your area?
We have hundreds that come onto our property each night, at 8:45pm sharp (don't know if they'll recognize last nights time change though). Cats and small dogs are goners around here.
I saw a cat get mauled by a coyote a dozen years or so ago. It was a brutal thing to see, as it happened right directly in front of me.
 
Yeah we have many Coyotes here. I have never actually seen one, but you can clearly hear them howling each night down in the open space, which is not particularly far from our home.

We have other cats which spend either some or all of their time outside. We have not lost any cats to coyotes yet. One of our cats (an older sister to the one who is currently missing) was gone for an entire year. We assumed the coyotes had got her. Then all of a sudden, after being missing for a year, she magically shows up on our decking and has stuck around ever since. That, at least, gives us extra hope that this cat will return also.
 
Somehow, we have a feral cat that has survived here on our property, and surrounding wild land areas. Its a copper tabby. Its totally spooky, and we only catch glimpses of it. But, in the nearing four years that we've been here, we see it every few months. Clueless how he does it.
The coyote screams at night can be really startling when they're just outside your window. At first it sounds like a girl/women shrieking, until you realize what it is.
 
Agree, 4 days is not a long time. We had a cat gone for 7 days and that was a week after we moved to a new house. Our cat was not nearly as familiar with her surroundings as yours.
 
Cats are curious, they often accidentally get shut in garages, sheds or outhouses, simply because they follow the owner in, and don't get out in time before the door is shut.

Hopefully, if this is the case your cat will come home the next time the offending door is opened, looking a bit thin, somewhat the worse for wear, and very pleased to see you.
 
I had a cat that never left the yard and then disappeared (I think he was chased off by a dog.) I searched, put up notices, knocked on doors, all that stuff. I also slept with the door open a crack and after about three weeks he reappeared. Didn't know he was there until I felt something rubbing my ankles. One of the happiest surprises of my adult life. Good luck!
 
My Mom's cat will go on a field trip for numerous days, it always comes home. I guess they just need to sow some "wild oats" now and then.
 
Hope she comes home.

Around here, when we see a missing cat sign, we automatically think "ask the coyotes".

But, we've also seen life and death fights between cats and raccoon's.

And we have cougars, and bears, so....
 
I'm hoping for a safe return.

We know life is full of unexpected events, and some of those are unpleasant, unfortunate and can make us appreciate the good times shared.

I live in Iowa, not as dangerous as the western states for pets (as 99% of our land is now "occupied") but we still occasionally lose pets to predators. The most recent for us was particularly painful. Two kittens, not more than 10 weeks old and abandoned on our farm - at the front step tho, someone was trying to do the right thing.
Short story - they had a good two years together around the farm house and I'm here to say it's a pleasure to watch two cats (dogs\whatever) who are tuned into each other, as they go thru their day on a farm. It's almost therapeutic. But alas, the cats did find their way into a warm engine in the winter and one was injured. Shortly after that, the injured cat did disappear forever into the "grove", and didn't come back.
It's hard to describe the change in the surviving sibling. She became a complete recluse and is now living in the city, in a house with my mother. To this day, this cat will not go outside and is content to stay indoors for the rest of her days.
Read into that what you will.
 
Hyperion said:
Cats are curious, they often accidentally get shut in garages, sheds or outhouses, simply because they follow the owner in, and don't get out in time before the door is shut.

Hopefully, if this is the case your cat will come home the next time the offending door is opened, looking a bit thin, somewhat the worse for wear, and very pleased to see you.
Click to expand...


And will have left some "parting gifts".

Hope your kitty comes home soon.
 
After losing a couple of cats to cars, disappearance and a hunter, I made a point of keeping all cats indoors no matter what. The last one got hit by a car over 30 years ago and it still haunts me. The last 2 cats I had, which I had to part with yesterday (still crying over that, see avatar) were allowed to look out through the screen door. They weren't about to break through it. As big as I am, if I crashed it, I would seriously injure myself without harming the door at all.

A guy I knew in NJ had a fenced in area, chain link with a roof as cats can climb. They got to it via a tunnel that went from the mud porch, under the driveway and into the fence.

I don't know what to tell you about your missing cat, but ANY alternative to letting them roam free is better.
 
I had a cat named Silver that was gone once for 4 days but she did come home.
After that I realized that if I let her be an indoor / outdoor cat I would have to accept that she might not make it home one day.
Well a year later it came to pass that she was hit by a car. I was the one to find her it still hurts now years later thinking about this.

So I am praying that she comes home.
 
Go outside & call for her...a LOT. Along with a keen sense of smell, their hearing is topnotch. Keep calling...it might do the trick.
 
It started to rain last night at about 9pm, one of the first fairly heavy rains that we have had in a while (going on ~5 years of drought here in CA). I figured this would be a big test for her since she has never really seen anything more than a 10 minute light sprinkle since she began to go outside.

I got a phone call this morning right at 6am (still raining). It turned out to be one of my neighbors. She was on their porch meowing her ass off. I got over there as fast as I could and brought her back in a towel. She has a 2-3" triangular patch of missing hair on the back of her neck right behind her collar, where the skin is pretty scraped up also. Makes me wonder if she was attacked by something but got away. I fed her some wet food in a paper bowl. She was so tired that she kept falling asleep with her head in the bowl, until her head would tip the bowl over and then she would wake up and start eating again.

Only thing that has me wondering is that the neighbors who called, their house is really not far from ours. You can see the front of our house from their driveway. It seems like she could have come home if she wanted to. At least she is home now! Thank you everyone for your kind words and advice, it is much appreciated!
 
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