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.
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