my cat came back and ran away

Question
QUESTION: my indoor only and very shy cat ran away and has not come back for 5 weeks.  i am going crazy looking for her.  i have tried a humane trap and fliers and spoke to neighbors.  any ideas? help@@!!

ANSWER: Hey Merryl thank you for contacting me.  Let's see what we can do to get your loved one back HOME and inside where she belongs!

How old is your cat?  Was she spayed?  Microchipped?  Have you checked with the local Animal Humane and Shelters and filed Lost Cat reports with a picture of her?  You also have to go down to each of these in your area every 2-3 days and look yourself - they are so overworked they may miss seeing her and calling you!

Another idea - does your local paper let you run Lost Pet ads?  The things that matter?  Not the sex or weight, only a short coloring description but put a reward large enough to get other folks helping you look!

I bet your cat is no more than 5 houses away from you - just in VERY scared mode and only coming out at night to seek food and water.  Yes, when indoor only cats get out they will RUN.  They really aren't running "away", they just lose their sense of safety and territory they knew and immediately "freak" out in a sense and get so scared they run and hide, hide, hide!

Get several bowls of fresh water outside right now!  And nightly (just before sunset), put fresh water and dry food out in at least 2 areas of your yard (especially near where she got out).  She will NOT go far!  I saw my lost indoor cat in the EXACT place she got lost for over 1 year, so they stay VERY close.  But, they must have fresh water and food to keep them staying close, so this is most important - keep the water flowing and enough food for many cats.

If your cat was shy, no-one may see her unless they stay up all night watching your free food stations.  She is the least likely to "go to someone", as you probably know.

You said you tried trapping?  I can only guess that you can get another trap or 5?  The more traps you can get down, the more chance you have of catching her!  
10 gives you 10 times the chances of trapping her, 1 trap gives you 1 chance - go for the most traps!

When you get as many as you can (I love the Tru-Catch ones, model #36), as it will NOT hurt any animal trapped.  But, you must get traps set next to your free food stations for at least 1-2 weeks before you even begin trapping or you won't catch anything - any cat is fearful of "new" things even in our homes, so have them set down and use a bungie cord to lock the front doors OPEN.  

Just having it sit next to the food will make any cat leery for a day or so until they see it's safe to go eat near.  Then in a week, you can put a tasting plate (a VERY small sample of sometime your cat LOVES), just outside the trap's front door, and one plate full of what she loves JUST inside.  This goes on for a week.  Then you can move the plate inside a little bit further back, but STILL keep the trap open.  After several more days (and for more folks on the weekends), then and only then it is safe and much easier to move the full plate/bowl to the back and set the trap.

If you didn't do small steps when you first tried trapping, especially the shy cats will not go in.  I am so glad you mentioned that she IS shy, this helps so much with the ideas.  I had a missing one that was SO shy, she only came out of hiding from 2-4 a.m. when most people would have given up - thank god not me LOL - I planned many nights and stayed up all night to watch the cat population come eat my free food stations and yep - I got to see her many times!  Especially with the shy lost indoor cats, you must move very slowly in able to trap them.

5 weeks is not too long but again, she must have fresh water (tons of it outside) and fresh food put down every night at the same time - This helps making it routine for you, and the cats that may be right there in hiding but watching.

When you have time, for most folks it's the weekends - Spend a couple nights up all night just watching quietly and putting in a note pad any cats you do see, their coloring, where they came from and after eating, which direction they went to - This will help us figure out where the "kitty paths" are - these are usually pathways that ALL cats can use without getting into a territory dispute and exactly what we need to know so we can adjust at least one of the free food stations.

If you can see your free food stations from a window in your house great!  But, if you have to set up your stations in areas you can't see - You can sit in your car very quietly and also watch.  For the most part, you don't want them to "scent" YOU, so sitting outside won't do much good as they have great scent glands and would smell you and just skip the night your sitting outside.

Remember to put a HUGE bowl, or several bowls of dry food down in case more than 1 cat comes to eat - If you see more coming to eat, please take this as GREAT news!  Somehow, cats "tell" other cats where the free food is and lead them there, so yours would be very likely to follow, but... I bet your shy indoor lost one is right there, only too scared to do anything right now but hide and wait.  

So let's try trapping again only this time, moving a lot slower so she has time to get more used to them.

Please let me know how many traps you can get your hands on and the set-up of your yard/feeding stations and we'll adjust from there.  Also when you are making notes when you can stay up and watch all night, the directions you see cats come and go.

Get the largest bag of catnip you can and sprinkle this heavily around your yard, trailing it towards your feeding areas to bring any cat in the area by!  We want yours (and any in the area), to feel safe and free to come eat and drink.  Don't worry, they won't scare her away - they "sense" other cats, and wait their turn.

I have many great "treaty" ideas to tempt your shy girl with, but tell me anything she loves to eat, loves to smell you cooking, or goes crazy for when you open a can?  Is she a fishy food eater or not?  

Thank you for caring and please let me know as soon as you can your setup so we can get her home to you again.

DebbieC

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi debbie, guess what? my cat came back after all of these weeks. she walked up to my glass door and looked in.  i opened the door slowly and put ham outside it (her favorite food), she looked at it and walked away.  they i saw her eating brazenly with the outside yard cats from their bowls!  she ran away and came back a few times that night (2 nights ago).  i haven't seen her since.  any ideas on how to trap that cat?

Answer
Hi Merryl!  What a brazen girl she is now :-)

You'll have to trap her just like we planned above - put the trap outside next to THAT particular food area she was at for a few days to get everyone used to seeing it again - Same nightly routine, only when she comes to the door and you see her again - plan ahead - put a pillowcase near the door and use it to snatch and grab her!  She WILL fight like she doesn't know you, but don't think - react and grab as fast as you can - you only get 1 shot at it so hang on tight and get her inside!  If you don't think you can do this, that's OK - now that she IS showing and you know she's hanging around eating YOUR free food - That is GREAT news!

So get your trap setup wide open and next weekend will be just the right time to set it and trap her if she won't just come in!

I'm SO excited that you've seen her now - HUZZAH!!!!  They do take a while after getting "lost" to show themselves, especially the shyier ones so Congratulations on SEEING her and get your trap right out there, wide open and let's get them used to seeing it again.

About Wednesday, begin putting the tasting plate outside the trap with a big plate of the "whatever treaty" just inside, Friday move the big plate of fresh treaty to the back and shut and latch the back end of the trap.  

Let's "chat" before then if you see her again ok?  Otherwise, email me and let's plan on trapping her this coming weekend!

:-D  Debbie