How to find a missing cat if it is lost on the street, dacha, or a domestic cat has run away from home

Domestic cats are freedom-loving and curious animals that enjoy exploring the spaces outside the apartment. If a furry fidget has free access to the street, there is always a risk of getting lost. Any furry homebody can accidentally end up outside their home. Often the owner is faced with the task of how to find a missing cat. Proper organization of search activities is the key to the successful return of a pet to its native walls.

Preparing for the search

Unfortunately, domestic cats disappear quite often: they fall out of windows and balconies, run away through doors out of curiosity or under the influence of sexual instincts. Most often, owners have to look for pets that have free access to the outdoors. It is necessary to start catching a missing animal as soon as possible. If you discover that your pet is not at home, you should prepare the necessary tools and devices that will help facilitate search efforts.

Things to Look for a Pet	Rationale
Flashlight	At night, the optical system of the cat's eyes reflects light from the lighting device, which simplifies the search for the missing animal. During the event, you will have to explore secluded and dark corners, so you cannot do without lighting. Finding themselves in an unfamiliar environment, cats most often leave their shelter when darkness falls, so a successful search is impossible without a flashlight. But its presence is important not only in the dark. A flashlight will help you thoroughly check basements, ventilation and other technological openings in a residential building.
Binoculars and other optical instruments	Allows you to survey the search area over a considerable distance. In addition, the use of magnifying optics will not scare away an animal in a stressful situation. Using binoculars, it is convenient to view thickets of dense trees, hard-to-reach buildings and places.
Favorite toys	Often, once in an unfamiliar environment, a pet hides in secluded corners, watching what is happening from a hiding place. Having seen or heard its favorite toy, the animal can independently leave its temporary shelter, following a familiar mouse or ball.
Pet's favorite treat	If your cat loves dry food, you can periodically shake it in the jar. A familiar sound will lead a hungry traveler to the owner.
Clicker	The cat associates this sound device with receiving a treat. If your pet has developed a stable reflex to the sound of a clicker, its use will help in searching for the loss.

In addition to various useful devices and devices, the owner must pull himself together, calm down and be patient. Only endurance and lack of panic will help return the missing animal home.

We recommend reading about how to remove a cat from a tree. You will learn about why cats climb high, and also why they cannot descend on their own. The article describes the steps to independently rescue a steeplejack, and also tells which companies and specialists will help solve the problem.

What to do if a cat runs outside

You're at home and someone opens the front door. Your cat jumps out, turns the corner of the house and disappears! What are you doing?

First, you follow the cat, but don't run or make loud noises. Try to keep your cat visible, but usually when an indoor cat goes outside, the smells and sounds are usually too strong and the first thing they want to do is hide closer to the house. Any loud noises, such as shouting their name or clapping your hands, can frighten them even more. If they stop and look at you, immediately kneel down, don't make eye contact, and extend your hand. Call the cat in the calmest voice. If you don't have any distractions, they will sometimes come straight to you.

Probable places to hide

When solving the problem of how to find a missing cat on the street, the owner should have an idea of where the animal is most often hiding. Finding themselves in unfamiliar territory, cats tend to find a secluded place and sit there for a while. Practice shows that you should start looking for a missing cat in the following places:

Entrance. The search must be carried out from the upper floors. Do not forget to inspect baby strollers, shoes, buckets and other objects and things located on stairwells. Particular attention should be paid to the space behind the garbage disposal.

Basement and attic spaces. To inspect them, you must contact the housing company with a request to open closed doors or issue keys. The search for the animal should be carried out by illuminating all corners of the premises with a powerful flashlight.

After examining the entrance, basement and attic of the house, it is necessary to expand the search area and look for the pet on the street. Keeping in mind the tendency of cats to hide in high places, the owner and his assistants should carefully inspect the trees and shrubs growing close to the house. If there is a dense Christmas tree growing in your yard, binoculars can help you spot a frightened animal. Other hills - neighboring balconies, pillars, roofs of houses - are favorite places after trees where you can find a pet.

During the cold season, there is a chance to find a cat in the engine compartment of a car, on the heating pipes, behind the heating radiator in the entrance .

On the street you should look for a frightened animal under parked cars , in garages, sheds, and utility rooms.

Cats love to hide in hard-to-reach places , so you should carefully examine storm drains and drainpipes.

Owners often find a hungry pet in garbage dumps, near garbage containers.

How to find a missing cat in the country has its own difficulties. The search is complicated by the vastness of the territory, the dangers that await the animal and the proximity to wild nature (for example, a forest, a river). It is necessary to expand the search area by contacting your neighbors. Often, it is the neighboring areas that escaped pets choose for shelter.

When walking around the nearby territory, looking into secluded and hard-to-reach places, you need to call the animal by name, rustle with your favorite food, and use a familiar toy to lure it. Clicker-trained animals should be called periodically with a familiar sound.

To learn what to do if your cat is lost, watch this video:

Is it worth looking for a cat on social networks?

Yes, but general public areas for cat lovers in Krasnoyarsk are very public places. The likelihood that your ad will be seen by the cat person next door is zero. Strength lies in local communities like “Animals of District N” or just district chats (there are plenty of them, for example, in Viber). So a couple of enthusiasts whose cat was already hiding in the same basement can come to the rescue - their advice will make it easier for you to choose tactics.

This comrade spent three days in the basement. Ahead of a long sleep and thorough washing

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/lidiya.ivanova.red

We help the lost return

If a domestic cat runs away, every owner worries about how to find the loss.
In this situation, you should know that the furry homebody can hide and hide for a long time without making contact with a person. Therefore, you shouldn’t give up searching after 2-3 days of unsuccessful attempts. After sitting in a secluded place for a couple of days, a domestic cat may begin to explore unfamiliar territory, leaving the shelter. Often, after a long and unsuccessful search, a cat is found in the company of street animals.
This situation occurs if the pet is not sterilized and runs away in search of a sexual partner. It often happens that a discovered animal categorically does not want to leave the street of its own free will, and no treats tempt the fugitive. In this situation, experts recommend using homemade traps made from cardboard boxes or special boxes for catching animals.

The cat went missing: why do cats run away?

There are legends about the ability of cats to independently find their way home, even when they are tens or hundreds of kilometers away. Yes, indeed, these amazing animals have such a feature.

Scientists have not yet come to a consensus on how exactly this phenomenon can be explained. At the same time, this ability does not apply to the entire cat tribe.

Pets that have never left the walls of the apartment return to the house much less often than their counterparts, who have been accustomed to freely visiting the street since childhood.

The search for a missing cat should begin as soon as its loss was discovered, without panicking, but also not really hoping for its independent return. The faster the owners launch search activities, the greater the likelihood of finding the animal, although frightened, close to home and in good health.

Why do cats run away?

In the vast majority of cases, the owner can only blame his own inattention or absent-mindedness for the loss of a cat. The main reasons for the loss are the following circumstances:

An open door to the landing. When going out to take out the trash, the owner may forget about the presence of an animal in the house and not consider it necessary to tinker with the lock, leaving the house for just a few minutes. A curious pet only needs a few seconds to slip through even a small gap unnoticed. You should be especially vigilant during the holidays: a lot of guests, explosions of firecrackers and firecrackers, loud music can frighten the animal, and constantly opening doors will provide it with an excellent chance to escape.
Open balconies and windows. Most cats love to bask in the sun and often fall asleep on the windowsill. By turning over and stretching in its sleep, your pet may lose its balance and fall out of the window. Sometimes hunting instincts play a cruel joke: trying to catch a bird sitting on a nearby branch or a flying butterfly, the cat also ends up on the street.
Cat escapes when carried in bags or boxes not intended for such purposes. It is not difficult for a cat to unzip a zipper or scratch a hole in the cardboard.

The question arises: to prevent a cat from disappearing, what should you do and what steps should you take? First of all, do not forget to close the doors behind you and control the clearance at the moment of opening or closing (a second is enough to escape, but you can discover the loss after a few hours).

You should also install protective nets on the windows, and carry out transportation only in special durable carriers or bags equipped with reliable fasteners and well-ventilated. If the animal wears a collar, it is worth attaching a tag to it indicating the owner’s contact information.

The mating season in cats is especially dangerous. A cat during heat will try with all its might to get outside, and in the same way, a domestic cat, sensing the smell of a cat, can go on a spree for several days or weeks. In this case, only castration or sterilization of the pet will help.

A cat has disappeared - what to do first?

My cat has gone missing – what should I do? Don't panic and calm down. In most cases, the pet rests quietly in some secluded place in a closet or pantry. The search for a missing cat should start from your own apartment, exploring all the hidden corners. You can simultaneously call your cat's name, rattle food in the bowl, or try to attract her attention in some other way.

The second most likely location of the loss is the entrance. For a domestic cat, the entrance is a foreign and unfamiliar territory, therefore, if the animal is not scared off by the sound of the elevator or the slamming of the entrance doors, it will hide in the safest corner, from its point of view. Most likely, the owner will find the fugitive on the platform between floors or behind the trunk of a garbage chute.

The third option, falling out of a window, is much worse - the animal can be injured or broken, in addition, a frightened cat can run a fairly large distance from the house or hide in the basement. At the same time, quite often a cat falls into a state of shock after experiencing stress and remains at the landing site.

If the search for a missing cat in the apartment and in the surrounding area has not yielded any results, you should go around basements and attics, and be sure to arm yourself with a flashlight, since a frightened animal will look for secluded and poorly lit places behind pipes, wall ledges or piles of accumulated rubbish.

It is advisable to involve friends and family members in the search, divide into groups and explore all the places described above at the same time, gradually expanding the territory in a spiral and paying special attention to bushes, trees and cars.

How to write an ad correctly

There are many methods for finding a missing cat, and it is impossible to determine which one will be most effective in a particular situation.

In most cases, you will need to create an announcement about a missing cat, a sample of which is presented on our website.

For an effective search, it is recommended to provide in the advertisement the most complete information about the missing animal and a number of other data:

In order not to forget to enter important information, you can use a template or sample of the “Missing Cat” ad posted on our or another website.
To type the title, use a large, attention-grabbing font.
Choose a large, clear, if possible, color photograph of your pet.
Indicate the name, breed, gender and age of the cat.
Describe the color.
Be sure to describe the special features of the animal: color features, presence of scars, accessories (collar or jewelry).
Indicate the place where the cat went missing.
Enter your own contact information (provide several phone numbers if possible).
Provide information about the reward to the finder.

Be sure to indicate the cat’s diseases (if any) and care features. If an expensive purebred cat is not lost, but stolen, such information may become an incentive for thieves to return the cat to the owners for a reward, since selling a sick animal is problematic.

Effective methods for finding a missing cat

If the search results do not produce results in the first days, you should not despair - there are quite a few methods for finding a missing cat, and often the pet returns to the family weeks or even months after the loss. Most often, the following methods help to find the loss:

"Word of mouth." It is worth notifying the residents of their own home about the tragedy, especially those who spend a lot of time on the street: children, teenagers, pensioners, young mothers, the janitor.
A “Cat Lost” ad drawn up according to the model should be posted within a radius of one and a half to two kilometers from the place of the loss. Particular attention should be paid to notice boards, areas near schools and kindergartens, veterinary clinics and shops, as well as other crowded places.
The Internet also provides many options for finding a missing cat. Almost all major cities have their own sites dedicated to finding animals, as well as sites for cat lovers. By posting a loss announcement in thematic sections of forums (“The cat is missing, what to do”, “Help me find” and others), the owner will receive sincere support and help from like-minded people. You should not ignore social networks; the rule of five handshakes works great and, thanks to it, information about the loss will quickly spread among a wide audience of users.
It is worth contacting shelters for homeless animals and holding centers - it is quite possible that the animal is located there.
If the cat is purebred and is expensive, there is a possibility that it was not lost, but was stolen for resale. In this case, it would be a good idea to visit felinological clubs - it is quite possible that attackers will want to draw up documents for the animal. You can also view advertisements for the sale of cats of the corresponding breed on the Internet and periodicals.
From time to time, repeat the walks around the nearby territory, basements, attics - perhaps the first fear has passed, and the animal will respond to the name or come to the smell of a treat. It is better to conduct searches in the evening, at night or early in the morning, when extraneous noise cannot frighten the pet.
If the neighbors don't object, you can place a small amount of the cat's favorite treat or some sawdust from the tray near the front door. In this case, the smell can help the animal find its home.

A microchip with the animal's identification number implanted under the skin significantly increases the likelihood of a cat's return. Unlike a collar, it will not get lost even if your pet wanders for a long time and can be read at any shelter or veterinary clinic.

Source: https://www.purinaone.ru/cat/catmag/psychology/lost-cat

If you couldn’t find it in the first days

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to find a missing pet without delay. There is no need to despair in this situation. The owner must be patient and continue the search, connecting as many people as possible to his problem. To report a missing cat, follow these steps:

Post paper notices in your area of residence. The text should be accompanied by a photograph or a list of the animal’s special features. A small reward for helping find your pet will increase the chances of its return. It would be a good idea to leave such a notice at the nearest veterinary clinic.

Social networks can help in finding a fugitive. There are various groups that help homeless animals, as well as owners in finding their pets. For example, there are pages on VKONTAKTE, Odnoklassniki, on forums about animals, etc. After posting a photo of your missing pet, you must leave your contact details.

For information on what measures to take if a cat is missing, watch this video:

What to do when a cat is found

If a missing cat is found, then at the first meeting he may experience discomfort and be in a stressful state due to a sudden change in circumstances and being in an unknown environment for a long time.

You need to approach the found animal carefully and show it a treat in order to lure it and not scare it away. A hungry animal will gradually approach the food and then you can carefully try to pick it up.

Once the animal has been found, it is necessary to inspect it and identify the possible presence of wounds, injuries, fleas and worms. Such activities are carried out when visiting a veterinary clinic.

At first, it is necessary to limit the amount of food, since a hungry animal can attack the food and then get severe digestive disorders. It is best to eat small meals up to several times a day.

Additionally, it is necessary to carry out preventive measures to prevent the repeated loss of the animal:

access to the street must be limited for some time or regular monitoring of the animal must be ensured;
it is necessary to accustom the cat to its nickname, which should be simple and not complicated. This will make it easier to find the animal if it gets lost;
carrying out castration, sterilization, as the animal’s sexual instincts are dulled and it becomes calmer. However, this method does not eliminate the risk of it disappearing from home;
installation of metal bars on windows, especially in multi-storey buildings, since their landing is not always successful for general health;
the use of durable carriers, special harnesses instead of a collar when the owner and the cat move long distances;
microchipping cats and having a special collar will help you quickly find them, since the chip indicates information about their place of residence;
You can also try to teach the cat to walk outside so that he returns home on his own. However, it takes an indefinite amount of time to develop such a habit.

Useful tips

Clicker
If a cat runs away from home, the following advice from experienced cat breeders will help you find your missing pet:

The search area should be expanded gradually after the areas adjacent to the apartment or house have been examined.

The event should be carried out at different times of the day. It often happens that after sitting quietly for some time in a secluded place, the animal comes out of it in the daytime or in the evening.

Calling your pet by saying its name, rustling with a favorite treat or toy, or using a clicker should be done in the evening or early in the morning, when the yard is relatively quiet. This will make the animal more likely to hear familiar sounds.

It is more convenient to search and catch a missing pet with a partner. It’s easier for two people to explore the territory, and having found a pet, an assistant will help you successfully catch it.

Strangers can help you find your cat. The owner should notify neighbors, mothers with children walking on the playground, and pensioners on benches that a search is underway for the animal. In this case, you should give a description or show a photo, and also leave your contact phone number or address.

Janitors and compassionate people who feed street cats can provide invaluable help. As a rule, they notice the appearance of a new animal in the territory under their control.

The desire to find your pet, perseverance and patience will help return the missing animal home.

We recommend reading about how to calm a cat during heat. You will learn about the signs of the onset of estrus, recommendations from owners, and methods to prevent problems in the future. And here is more information about the main reasons why domestic cats can get lichen.

Is it worth looking for a cat the way you look for a person?

If your pet cat fell or jumped out of a window, and he is a homebody and does not know the area, he will definitely be in shock and, most likely, he will not go far - he will hide somewhere nearby. Your mistake may be ignorance of this fact and you risk spending several hours posting advertisements, interviewing passers-by and searching the courtyards of the entire area.

Meanwhile, it may be more effective to go down to the basement of your home. If you don't find a cat in the basement, it's not at all a fact that it isn't there. How can you tell if the cat is in the basement? Pour flour at the entrance, and after a while check the tracks. You might be more lucky—passers-by will notice your mustachioed, hungry face on the street.