Missing Cat

[iloveglee]

7 months ago we re-homed an 8 year old female cat whose owners were going to live abroad. they wanted her to have the kind of life she had always had, i.e. going outdoors when she wanted which they couldn't do for her in their new home. we kept her inside for 5 months - which was during the winter so she wasn't too bothered about going out. for a couple of months since the nicer weather she has shown a lot of interest in going out. we started by taking her out on the garden on a lead to familiarise herself, and supervised other excursions after that for a while, and limited her time outside. in the last few days she has carefully ventured a little further, onto the next door garden, then came back and went in. she has done this several time, but the other night she went out in the early evening, in the same direction as before, but came back just after 10 o'clock. yesterday, she went out, in a very determined way, never hesitated at all, never looked around, just went, jumped over the fence again in the same direction as before, and disappeared. we haven't seen her since. she has now been missing for 30 hours and i am really worried that she has got lost. the direction she was heading is all undergrowth, and woods which is the kind of terrain she was used to in her former home and the kind of terrain where she would be likely to leave a scent trail. how likely is it that she will come back, even after 7 months will she have remembered where she used to live and try to get back there. she is very timid and took a long time to get used to us but for the last few months she has been very friendly, sleeps on the bed and loves to get close to us. she is chipped and i have reported this on the website. i am going to put flyers through local letterboxes to ask people to check their huts and garages but i just don't see her approaching people or houses, she is nervous of people. i just don't know what else to do.

[iloveglee]

Just an update although not yet a positive one. our cat is still going into the neighbours garden at night and she is putting food down for her. we believe she is hiding out in the house next door to them as they have a wooden deck with access underneath for something the size of a cat. she has started recently going quite close to the neighbours house as she is gradually moving the food nearer. the aim is to try and entice her into the house, but at the moment, the weather is no nice there doesn't seem to be much incentive for her to go indoors. I feel bad for the neighbour really as this is not her worry, but she said she would rather continue, for the moment, to try to get her to go inside, rather than try to trap her. we have gone along with this as we have some holidays coming up and the neighbour is quite happy to carry on until the weather gets colder and wetter and see if that tempts her in. once the winter comes we shall probably have to re-think. I am still comforted by the fact that my next door neighbours cat was missing all through the winter months, for almost 6 months, and when he was finally caught he was in pretty good condition so he had been managing somehow. he was also a timid kind of cat although not as timid as ours.

[boxtops]

Good luck, glee - at least you know where she is, and that she's feeding.

[iloveglee]

GOOD NEWS. Molly is back home. we had a call from our neighbour to say that she had managed to get Molly into the house and had shut the door behind her. the cat had immediately hid behind her sofa, and between us we managed to get hold of her and into the cat box. she was a bit grotty, had something stuck to her which she had been overgrooming to get rid of, and she had lost a bit of weight. but considering having been living kind of wild for 10 weeks, not too bad. she has a vet appointment in a couple of days for a check up, worming and de fleaing. looks like she might have to be a house cat now. at least its not something we have to consider until next summer as its too cold for having the doors and windows open now.

[boxtops]

I'm VERY pleased for you,. ILG- I remember how almost incredulous we were when Rover was finally reunited with us.....

without wading back through all the thread, I can't remember - is Molly microchipped? If not, definitely worth doing, just in case she should get out again. If you can at least keep her in through the winter months, that will get her used to living indoors again.

We left Rover alone for several days in a bedroom with food and a litter tray, just to get used to our smells again, and to having people around - it seemed to work well, we let him back into the house after about a week.

[iloveglee]

Yes she is chipped, also has a collar and tag although that had come off and hadn't been put back when she went missing. she appears to remember the house and us, she ran straight into her house hidey place, and knew where the food water bowl was, and where the litter tray was. she is coming out to be fussed, but is wandering around a lot miaowing but not sure quite what it is she wants. maybe just re-orientating herself. I am surprised she has settled back in so fast which leads me to think she wasn't staying away voluntarily. I am pretty sure she wasn't able to establish herself an outside territory around our garden, probably because of the cats each side, and was just frightened to try to come back in case they were around. in the case of the two on one side of us, that sadly was the case, they are out and around 24/7 so there was no safe time for her to get back here. she obviously felt safe in the small area around the neighbour's house, and as she was getting fed no doubt thought it best to stay around there. I am pretty sure if she does out, the same thing will probably happen again. I am just thankful we got her back as the bad weather was setting in, and of course bonfire night coming up soon.

[boxtops]

Good luck ILG - keep us informed!