First: Make Some Calls. Call animal control for your town AND surrounding towns (numbers found HERE). Give them current information about your cat. Call your local AND surrounding shelters in case your cat travels. Give shelters current information about your cat. Check back every few days. Call local veterinarians/emergency clinics. Then: Search & Take Action. Search the entire area surrounding your home. Check inside, too! Take along some food or treats and a flashlight. Walk your neighborhood, and remember, lost cats hide in silence. Ask your neighbors for permission to check barns, under porches, bushes, yards, garages -- anywhere your cat may be hiding. A scared or injured cat will NOT meow or respond to your voice. Their survival instinct is to hide in silence. Place something familiar to your cat outside your home. Smelly cat food or canned tuna, your cat's bedding, litter box, or a favorite blanket may help draw your cat to a familiar scent. A baby monitor placed nearby may help to alert you to faint meows or sounds. Set a humane trap to catch your cat. Many hardware stores rent or sell them. MLCR and some shelters will loan them. Search often. Revisit places you've already searched. Search at night, too. Hang LOTS of full page sized flyers on telephone poles within a 3-5 mile radius of where your cat was lost. Place the flyers in plastic sleeves/sheet protectors upside down to keep out the elements. Attach to telephone poles using a staple gun. FLYERS ARE VERY IMPORTANT. Without real time sightings, it becomes very hard to track your cat's movements. Signs placed at intersections work great - and are known to generate sightings calls. Post to Social Media. Post to your own FaceBook, to MLCR's FaceBook, to Craig's List "Lost & Found". Ask your friends and family to post, too. But do not rely on social media alone. Flyers are a critical piece to reaching everyone in the community - the more people who know your cat is missing, the more eyes will be on the lookout. Finally, Don't Give Up. Stay hopeful. There are many instances of lost cats found days, weeks, even months after they went missing.
Effective posters include a PHOTO (color is best), DATE and LOCATION your cat went missing, and YOUR PHONE NUMBER. Include any identifying features or markings, collar, etc. (For security reasons, do not include your name, your address, or the amount of reward if you are offering one.) You are trying to generate sightings. So, be specific, use good photos, and use large text and bright color to make your poster more impactful. Fluorescent posters are highly visible and make a bold statement. Missing Pet Partnership has more tips for effective posters HERE. Below are some examples.
Maine Animal Control Officers: http://www.maine.gov/dacf/ahw/animal_welfare/animal_control_officers.shtml.
Maine Shelters: http://www.maine.gov/dacf/ahw/animal_welfare/shelters.shtml. Maine Federation of Humane Societies' List of Maine Shelters and Rescues: http://www.mefed.com/. MLCR lost cat reporting form. MLCR FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/MaineLostCatRecovery. Maine Craigslist Lost & Found page: https://maine.craigslist.org/search/laf. https://maine.craigslist.org/search/laf?query=cat. The case of a lost cat is an investigation, according to Missing Pet Partnership and PetFinder. The investigative question with displaced indoor-only cats that escape outside — or even outdoor-access cats that bolt in panic — is, “where is the cat hiding?” When an outdoor-access cat vanishes, it is very different. The investigative question for outdoor-access cats that are missing is “what happened to the cat?” Cats are very territorial creatures. In unfamiliar territory, lost cats (particularly cautious cats) may look for the first place that offers concealment and protection. They instinctively and silently hide to protect themselves from predators. How long they remain in that hiding place and what they do when they emerge depends entirely upon their temperament. If you have a missing cat, don’t wait to see if she returns. Start searching immediately. WHEN INDOOR-OUTDOOR CATS GO MISSING When an outdoor-access cat vanishes, the question to ask is “what happened to the cat?” Something may have happened to the cat to interrupt her customary behavior of coming home. The cat could be:
WHEN INDOOR CATS GO MISSING |
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