If You’ve Lost Your Cat
Where to Start
Check any place inside your cat could be hiding.
Such as closets, empty boxes, and under furniture. If you live in an apartment building, check hallways, stairwells, the basement, storage closets, laundry rooms, and any vacant apartments that may have had a door ajar. Be sure to check with your neighbors, as well.
Ask family, friends, and neighbors to help search.
As soon as you realize your cat is missing and organize your search assigning each person or group of people a specific area. Make sure everyone has supplies with them that will help catch your cat such as treats and towels.
Walkthrough your neighborhood.
Walk every day and more than once to look for your missing cat—your cat may travel three or more miles from your home, so make a wide search.
If looking outside, think like a cat and look in every hiding spot.
Check in your yard and your close neighbors’ yards. Frightened cats will remain hidden and quiet even when you call for them—check under bushes, in wooded areas, in garages and tool sheds, under cars, porches, and any other tucked away place. Call to your cat with the kind of voice that you normally use to greet him and listen for a reply. You can also use noises that your cat usually responds to such as a can opening or shaking a treat bag.
Don’t give up when it’s dark.
Your cat may be too fearful to come out during the day and nighttime is when the streets are quiet. Take a flashlight with you and search under parked cars, in yards, under bushes, and in alleys. Take food and treats to attract your cat.
Put Familiar Items For Your Cat Outside
Set up an outdoor feeding station.
On your property, place your cat’s favorite food or treats as well as some familiar scented items such as a blanket, toys, litter box, or cat bed. If your cat should return while you are asleep or away, food and shelter may save his life.
Consider placing motion detection cameras around your home.
This will notify you of movement in the yard so that you may be made aware if your cat returns. Some of the popular motion detection brands are Ring, Wyze and Defender.
Check & Notify Appropriate Agencies
If your cat is microchipped, contact the microchip company.
Make sure your contact information is current. You also can put a “lost or stolen” alert on the cat’s microchip so that if it is scanned by an adoption center or veterinarian, they will know that a concerned owner is looking for that cat.
Call all the animal adoption centers and veterinary hospitals in your area.
Start with the municipal animal control agency. Check continually and frequently until your cat is found.
If you are in the St. Louis area, go to stllostpets.org:
Report your cat missing and search through found cat listings. Here you can notify local adoption centers by making a Lost Pet Report. Once you file a report online, it is kept on file for 30 days. if your cat has not been found after 30 days, you can resubmit the report.
If a cat matching your description comes to any participating locations, you will be notified. It is very important that you continue checking the database of Found Cats in addition to making a report. Include in your report as many details as possible including any special conditions your cat might have (allergies, seizures, special medications, etc.). The more details you give, the greater the chance for a happy reunion. Link to submit lost cat: http://www.stllostpets.org/cats-form/
Notify Your Community
Put signs around the area where your cat was last seen.
Make sure your contact information is current. You also can put a “lost or stolen” alert on the cat’s microchip so that if it is scanned by an adoption center or veterinarian, they will know that a concerned owner is looking for that cat.
Post information on your social media pages and announcements online.
Let your friends know that you are looking for your lost cat and ask them to share your information. Post announcements on local/neighborhood social media groups like NextDoor. Include copies of your flier.
Ask to post your flyers at restaurants and stores in your area.
Such as gas stations, restaurants/fast food places, convenience and grocery stores, veterinary clinics, pet salons, pet supply stores, emergency veterinary clinics, laundromats, churches, and community centers.
Additional Resources
Check the following resources for additional information on finding your cat: