Lost Cats: An Urgent Situation
By Kim Freeman
Lost Cat Recovery Services
What if your cat went missing? You search and search; you’re beside yourself with worry and
grief. Chances are, you will never see your beloved feline again. There is a lost cat epidemic –
thousands of cats escape or go missing every week. How do you get your lost cat home? New
methods are the key to locating your cat and getting them back where they belong.
An estimated 12,000 lost cats per week are never found. Only 8% of lost cats come home on their own. If your
cat goes missing, it’s imperative to take action right away.
Let’s look at why so few are found and what people are doing wrong.
Why Lost Cat Searches Fail
In the Lost Cat Case Profiles people send me for analysis, I ask for a list of steps owners have taken so far.
What I see most often is:
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Driving around neighborhood calling
Visits to shelters and rescue groups
Left food and water outside
Put clothing/litter/urine/towels in yard
These are the typical old-school search myths perpetuated on the internet—and all four actually hinder an
owner’s chances of finding their lost cat.
Although these methods are counterproductive, people still have a sense they’re doing something constructive.
When all four techniques fail, owners are likely to fall into despair and give up.
Tunnel Vision
Many people fail to find their cat because they focus on a wrong theory or belief. For example, some owners
mistakenly believe a microchip tracks an animal's whereabouts or that they'll get a call when the cat “turns up."
But microchips only serve to identify an animal brought into a vet or shelter—and that’s if someone thinks to
scan them and the chip hasn’t migrated. It can be over a year before a cat is handed to a shelter.
Grief Avoidance
Often, owners fall into "grief avoidance" within the first week and give up all search efforts. After days of
feeling helpless and discouraged by others, they tend to give up rather than stay in the emotionally stressed state
of searching and worrying.
Sadly, this may be the biggest reason so many tame, friendly cats end up at shelters: the owners simply stopped
looking too soon to avoid the stressful emotions.
An example is a recent case of a cat found two years after her owner had given up the search then went to the
shelter to adopt a cat. There, she found one who looked very much like the one she’d lost. And it was. These
reunions are rare, but reaffirm how important it is to keep checking shelters long after a cat goes missing.
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The Silence Factor
Another reason so few cats are found is that owners assume their cat will come out of hiding when called.
But when cats are traumatized, whether indoors or out, they’re more likely to hide in silence. Just because you
do not hear your cat does not mean she is not within feet of you. This is why we always recommend what’s
called a “Bastard Search” a term coined in the world of missing persons cases when SAR search parties spent
hours in cold and snow only to find out the person reported missing person was home in bed, at a bar, or visiting
a mistress.
In the case of a missing cat, the bastard search is covering every inch of the house. Unless someone witnessed
the cat escape, the house should always be searched first. An example of why is clear in this case of a house
party event and the assumption the cat escaped into the woods. A thorough bastard search would have turned up
this poor little tortie long before she suffered nine weeks without food and water, locked in a window seat box.
Cat Hiding Places
As outlined in the checklist in chapter one of “How to Find a Lost Cat,” one should always search the home
zone first, especially in obvious places like under the bed and any box or containers stored underneath.
We found one cat that had been missing for two days trapped in an under-bed storage box. He had slipped in
through the opening but the overlapping flaps prevented him from getting back out. Another cat slipped into a
small hole in the wall where an electrical outlet had been and remained silent for weeks. Only when the owner
brought in a new kitten did she make a sound; her growling at the kitten revealed her secret hiding place.
Yet another example of an insufficient bastard search comes in this case of a cat who was still indoors and
eluded searches by hiding inside a couch—even after it was taken away to Goodwill, sold, and taken to a new
house.
The science of lost cat behavior
Each cat’s personality determines how to search. Some cats are shy, some are bold; these personality
preferences will determine the right and wrong search method for each type. Within three categories of lost cats
(indoor-only, outdoor –access, and outdoor-only) a lost cat profile begins with indoor/outdoor lifestyle and
habits. From there, an analysis breaks it down into four distinct personalities with top probabilities and search
methods for each.
For example, a friendly, gregarious outdoor cat who enjoyed heights and lounging on cars ended up many miles
away when he got transported on top of a work van into another county. Here’s the report from this client who
tells the adventure:
“Hiei rode in the ladder of a work van for 20 miles-- at speeds up to 80 mph on the highway. The driver first
visited his friend's house, then visited his girlfriend’s apartment--where he spent the night—drove 8 miles up to
Georgetown, where at last he was informed there was a cat on top of his van. Unaware it was our cat, he put
him inside the van and headed home. The plan was to release him when he got home but Hiei did not want to
leave the van. After he pulled Hiei out from under the seat, he said he shot across the front of the house next
door. At this point, we bought your book. We followed your advice and finally located him on the third day. He
was in the backyard of the house next door-- maybe 20 feet from where the van had parked.”
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Another story of a cat and vehicle comes from London, where a cat hid in a car engine for five days, traveling
with the owner to work and back until someone noticed a large amount of fur in the front of the vehicle.
Each of these cats could have been found by following the advice in “How to Find a Lost Cat” and perhaps
even faster in conjunction with a Lost Cat Case Profile. Sometimes good old-fashioned detective work
combined with “low tech” methods work best—if mixed with a good dose of common sense, diligence, and the
patience to “read the manual.”
In other cases, high-tech may be the key to solving a lost cat case, in which equipment can be very helpful.
Professional cat recovery equipment can range from infrared night vision cameras, motion alerts and borescopes
to bionic ear devices and special traps. In these cases, it may be cheaper to hire someone with equipment and
experience rather than buying it all and risking a technical misfire.
Robo-calls and K9 Teams
Several companies have set up robo-call services, which charge hundreds to send recorded messages to
landlines or faxes to vets. Even the best-run and most ethical of these businesses are only likely to be successful
in a few cases with specific cat personality profiles. For example, a cat that’s injured or hiding is not likely to be
seen by a neighbor, and counting on a robo-call service can put your cat’s life and safety in jeopardy.
Although tracking dogs might seem like a good idea at first, there are disadvantages here, too. A cat is likely to
be “flushed out” of hiding by a dog, making her harder to find or even chasing her further from home. The find
rates for K9-cat searches has been estimated as quite low-- around 6%.
Making a difference in shelter over-population
All over the country, animal shelters are full of friendly pet cats whose owners did not know the right way to
search for their cat or who gave up too soon. As we’ve seen, cats can end up in shelter months or years after
being displaced.
Next time you see a new cat wandering your neighborhood, think of it as LOST, not STRAY. Don’t scoop the
cat up and take him to an already over-crowded shelter. If you’re worried, take a picture & post on Craigslist
and your local HOA or neighbor newsletter, then hang big orange FOUND CAT posters in the area.
Meanwhile, if you lose your cat, search ground zero first, then contact a Lost Cat specialist for the right steps
and methods for your particular cat and situation.
"Never assume or give up too soon."
Kim Freeman, Pet Detective
Lost Cat Recovery Services
www.LostCatFinder.com
Kim Freeman specializes in lost cat behavior and recovery. She was trained and certified as a Missing Animal
Response tech in 2006 by Kat Albrecht of Missing Pet Partnership who now offers MAR training through
www.katalbrecht.com. Although trained to find various lost pets from snakes to horses, Kim specializes in cats
and the details of how their profile determines where they will be found.
{First Electronic Rights and FNASR}
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