Missing Cat... Any chance he'll come back?

[HopeydaFish]

Continuously leave food just inside the window. Chances are he's hiding somewhere close by and is starving. He can smell his food from a long way away, so if he's anywhere close, he should come home. Also, if you can make "filling the food bowl" noises near the window, this might encourage him to come home.

Check the animal shelter. You never know, he might be there, though if he has tags they would have called you.

My indoor cat escaped last fall and was gone for 4 days. We put up signs all over the neighbourhood, went out every evening searching for him, went to the animal shelter every day on my way home from work, and kept calling his name from the back porch every night. I left food out for him every night, but he wasn't coming home. I'd almost given up hope when he suddenly appeared at the back door, eating the food I'd left out for him. He ran off when I opened the back door to get him, but I moved the bowl just inside the house and waited. About ten minutes later he slowly walked inside...he was totally freaked out, but was obviously starving from being outside for so long.

So don't give up...he's probably just freaked out and hiding somewhere. Eventually hunger will bring him back.

[mason55]

Awesome story, gives me hope. Just talked to the girl who I got him from and I guess when he was about 6 months he disappeared for 3 or 4 days when he got out once. He came back a little beat up (he had walked through some chemicals downtown) but made it back.

Maybe I'll be able to sleep tonight.

[NotMitch]

[ QUOTE ]
So, I stayed at a friends house accross the city for the weekend. I always leave the window slightly cracked when I leave so that my cat can get some fresh air since I turn off the A/C.

Anyways, I came back, and the window had been pushed open and the screen had been knocked out of the window. The cat was missing. He's an indoor cat who's never been outside before except when I hold him and sit on my porch. I live on the first story of a huge apartment complex, so there's tons of bushes and places for him to hide around here. He has tags with my phone number.

Anyways, I've never had an outdoor cat before. What are my chances of having him come back? He's a big cat with front claws, so I'm not too worried about him getting beat up by an animal, but I'm just wondering how long cats can remember how to get home. He might have been gone for 4 days already.

Right now I had my porch door propped open with food outside the porch and the front door propped open with food sitting in it so that if he does wander home he'll want to stay. I also took off work today to sit home with the doors open so I could be here if he came back.

Edit: The cat was the one who opened the window and knocked out the screen. He has knocked out the screen before, I never would have guessed he could open a window.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not advice, but perhaps the best song ever will cheer you up.

http://core.ele-mental.org/~ecc/mp3/...0the%20cat.mp3

[HopeydaFish]

[ QUOTE ]
Awesome story, gives me hope. Just talked to the girl who I got him from and I guess when he was about 6 months he disappeared for 3 or 4 days when he got out once. He came back a little beat up (he had walked through some chemicals downtown) but made it back.

Maybe I'll be able to sleep tonight.

[/ QUOTE ]

Keep us updated. I really hope he comes back...the four days my cat was gone were brutal. I kept getting up every 20 minutes or so to go to the patio door to look outside for him. I felt extra awful because this happened in November and the weather was starting to get cold. I pictured him shivering, scared, and hungry under someone's deck.

And then there was the lovely day where someone called me and left a message to tell me they saw a dead cat on the road that matched my cat's description. I was at work when I got the message, so I had to wait all day to go check to see if it was him. Thankfully, I could tell right away as I was driving up to the carcass that it wasn't him.

[bravos1]

You may get lucky like we did. We have an indoor only cat who got out one day. After a week, we considered him gone. About 6-7 weeks later we got a phone call from someone 3 blocks over that found him in their yard. He dropped from 13 lbs. to 8 lbs., but other than that he was perfectly fine. Also, he was declawed and still survived. Cats have great survival skills.

[Eurotrash]

reading this thread made me feel sad. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]


godspeed, Turkish, I hope you find your way back.

[stabn]

Our record on a house cat that got out and came back was over a year. If it was more than a couple of days 2-3 months was pretty normal.

[Benal]

FYI - Cats can survive a LONG time without food.

[Blarg]

Inside cats are bone dumb outside the house. They don't know to run up a tree, avoid a dog, step out of the way of a car, or how to fight.

Unfortunately the prognosis is not good. Still, my family has had cats disappear for days or even weeks and come back. But there are so many predators out there, including people and cars and in some places coyotes and hawks, that chances are slim. Additionally, other cats can carry fairly common viruses that can literally kill a cat within two days. The lifespan of an outdoor cat is a short one, and for a cat that's been raised indoors all its life, even shorter. Good luck to you both.

[gorie]

that's sad [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] i hope your cat comes back.
a lady i work with just had her cat run away too, it's been gone 6 days now i think and doesn't have tags. i feel bad, that's gotta suck.