Cat in heat, escaped!

Question
My female cat who is 1.5 years old is in heat. She is an indoor only cat and has never been outside before. Sometime Saturday night she escaped out a window. We live on the second floor and the screen is broken and she somehow got out it. We have been searching for her everywhere, inside and out. Not sure what else to do to find her. Animal control won't help "find" your missing cat.  Will she just mate and come back? Do cats instinctively know their way home? We are very worried about her!

Answer
Hi
Well yes she may go out find a mate and come home afterwards. But how long this may take is difficult to say.

I have a web page about missing cats, it has some ideas as to how to go about looking for your cat. Here is the page, I hope it is able to help
/lost-cats.html

best wishes Kate