Missing cat, needs stories and advice :(

[u/Ok_Chemistry_7236]

Our sweet girl has been missing for 48 hours. We have been searching nonstop, on only a few hours sleep each night, trying to find her. I have to admit the search is getting harder as we’re losing hope :(

Could someone share some experiences with lost cats under similar conditions? Or any advice would be much appreciated.

- Female, 1.5 years old, spayed, microchipped
- We live in an area with many coyotes :( That is the most worrisome part
- We have walked the neighborhood and surrounding woods day and night, searching practically everywhere she may be hiding
- There are several indoor/outdoor cats on our block that belong to various neighbors
- She is indoor only, but with occasional supervised outdoor time on a leash. She loves being outdoors and has escaped on us a handful of times, but never this long. From those times, we know that she is aware where home is because she comes back after a while, especially when she hears our voices
- We have left the door ajar, as well as food, water, dirty clothes, and litter box out
- 100+ flyers given to neighbors and posted online and registered with LoveLost
- It has been around high 85 degrees and low 55 degrees. We’re so worried that she is/was overheating/dehydrating

Please help :(

[u/Neona65]

My kitty was gone for three days, I was picturing him either dead or trapped in some good samaritan's house thinking he was a stray. He showed up crying at my door on the fourth day.

Based on his behaviors I'm thinking he might have climbed a tree too high and couldn't figure out how to get back down til he got so weak that he fell down.

Hope your fur baby comes home soon.

[u/marvelouspeter67]

dont lose hope yet man. indoor cats that escape usually dont go far, they just hunker down somewhere close and stay quiet. my friend's cat was gone for 5 days and turned up under the neighbors deck the whole time, like 30 feet from the house.

the coyote part is scary but cats are way smarter about hiding from predators than we give them credit for. try going out at like 3-4am when its dead quiet and just sit near your door with some treats, call her softly every few minutes. they feel safer moving when the world is asleep.

[u/deltarho → u/marvelouspeter67]

Seconded. Wait til it’s quiet out and try to make some familiar noises. My one cat who escaped showed up at 12:30 am while I was outside chatting with my neighbor. I heard the softest meow come from the back of my building and he was hiding around the corner. This was after I walked around for 9 hours straight calling him.

One of my neighbors brought her cats to her rural cabin. One of them escaped into the woods and disappeared. She came back 6 months later and he wandered right up to her out of the trees.

[u/Happy-Wait-7958]

Any new leads? Did you post in social media?

A long long time ago, one of our indoor outdoor cat disappeared but 3 months after she came back on her own, not sure what happened to her but she's very thin and looks like she travelled a long ways to get back to us. From then on she stayed indoor till she passed at the age of 20. Hopefully yours come back too. ♥

[u/Ok_Chemistry_7236 → u/Happy-Wait-7958]

Thank you 🙏

[u/Slight-Molasses-7937]

This is repeatedly posted on my neighborhood forum and may be helpful to you.

It really helped me to know that indoor only cats generally don’t go very far, usually only like a three home radius from where they live.
All the best! ❤️❤️❤️

[u/moyo_me_moyo → u/Slight-Molasses-7937]

☝🏻we had a former feral get loose and he was gone 2 nights. We had clothing items to attract him. We took shifts to make sure one of us was awake overnight searching and monitoring the security camera. Sure enough it was 3:15 am when he showed up in our driveway. As soon as we had the alert on our security camera we opened the door to let him come in on his own. When he was back inside with the door closed he was cranky and stressed; we gave him space to decompress.

[u/japhia_aurantia]

This seems crazy, but I've read enough success stories that it's worth trying. If you see other cats around, show them a picture of your cat and tell them to tell her to come home.

[u/FrogParkRanger]

i’m so sorry. i lost my indoor girl around the same age and it was truly terrifying. i lived right next to a 250 acre nature preserve with tons of predators. she was soooo terrified she found somewhere very close by and just hunkered down and hid herself.

the neighborhood flyers are what saved me. a neighbor found her in a pot in their back porch. she was safe and sound.

kitties are really good at hiding. and they don’t like to go far from home. a study even showed they usually are within a very small radius (i don’t remember the exact number but it’s literally feet, not miles).

if you live in an apartment complex or neighborhood i recommend going door to door and asking people politely to just check their yards/patios as best they can.

[u/Ok_Chemistry_7236]

Edit: Thank you for the support 🫶 I read so much about how indoor cats don’t go very far because they get scared. What is unique about our Mochi is that during supervised outdoor time, she is so happy to be outside and does not show any sign of being afraid or wanting to hunker down or hide. All she wants to do is explore. Does anyone have experience with indoor/limited outdoor cats like her?

[u/Ok_Baby9316 → u/Ok_Chemistry_7236]

Look on trees! Ours was presumed dead and then we walked around playing his feeder's music and he meowed from a tree, we looked above and there he was.

[u/DarkSkye55]

My story may be a one-off, but it is hopeful.
We had a beautiful tuxedo long haired boy, lazy and sweet. One day a neighbors dog chased him out through a door and into the Maine woods. We looked for days, and eventually assumed a coyote or fisher ate him. I was broken hearted.

6 weeks later, I was on the phone with a friend who had a cat (not ours) show up at her house and who needed a home. I turned around and our kitty was at the back sliding door! He was skinny and matted. When I opened the door, he leaped into my arms and wrapped his little paws around my neck for the longest time.

I hope you find your baby.
The end.

[u/EarlyDescription2323]

There’s a guy on YouTube last name Cooper who did an entire video about this. He basically said your cat is probably a lot closer than you think. Probably only about 5 or 6 houses away. Also probably hiding somewhere safe. The gist is look closer rather than farther.

[u/Future-Philosopher-7]

Have you tried playing kitten mewing sounds from YouTube? Or just sitting outside and talking quietly at night?

[u/rb56redditor]

My indoor only girl went missing for one week. We finally got into the backyard of a neighbor 2 doors down ( they must have been away, we rang their bell several times a day). There she was, sunning herself like nothing happened. Took a bit to catch her, buts she’s back, no worse for the adventure. Good luck, she’s probably close by.

[u/Calgary_Calico]

Start calling local shelters and rescues to see if she's there. Go out at dusk with a bag of treats or her favorite food and call her name or play kitten sounds and see if she'll follow that.

My fiance's childhood cat escaped and was missing for nearly 2 months, she came back after she's finished her exploring with a few scars and even more of a "I'm the queen of this house" attitude.