What to do if your cat is lost? Here's a step-by-step guide to finding your cat

Nowadays, there is a consensus among the scientific cat-raising community that windows should be sealed at home, but these naturally curious little fur balls will still seize the opportunity to rush into the unknown outside world. A 2012 study showed that at least 15% of cat owners in the United States have lost their cats within 5 years.

As a companion animal, a cat, which is like a family member, is suddenly lost. The owner will be shocked and anxious to find it, so we often see various "high-value cat search" notices. But compared to finding a cat, prevention is the key.

Prevent problems before they happen

In 2018, researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia conducted an online questionnaire survey among owners of lost cats and found that among the 1,210 lost cats, 56% were free-range or semi-free-range, while 96% of non-free-range cats were lost through doors and windows.

So the first step to prevent cats from getting lost is actually very simple, that is, don't let your cats run free. When you let your cats go out of the house, you must be prepared for the possibility of them getting lost or even dying accidentally. For indoor breeding, the owner needs to seal the windows, because doors and windows that can be freely entered and exited are the biggest hidden dangers for cats to get lost and accidentally fall from buildings.

In addition, the owner must pay attention to his feet before opening the door, and make sure the door is locked when closing it. If the cat-raising family lives in a bungalow or a house with a garden, it is recommended to add a double-door structure to the entrance leading to the yard, which can enhance indoor insulation and provide a transition space to prevent pets from escaping.

Even after we have sealed windows and stopped free-range cats, and taken protective measures at the entrance and exit, accidents may still happen. In order to remedy the situation after an accident, many owners will put name tags with identity information and contact information on their cats. However, due to the characteristics of cats' activities, wearing traditional collars has the risk of getting caught and even causing accidental death. Therefore, when owners put branded collars on their cats, they must choose anti-suffocation collars - mainly to see whether the buckle of the collar can be separated by itself under a large force.

When choosing a collar, you should mainly check whether the buckle can be separated by itself under a large force.

To prevent pets from getting lost, the ideal situation is to implant microchips that record their identity information into each pet, so that they can be found by their owners and even held accountable for abandoning them. Data shows that lost pets with chips are 21 times more likely to be reunited with their owners than those without chips. A 2014 study found that 91% of 1,086 veterinary clinics in the southeastern United States can provide chip implantation and scanning services.

However, in my country, relevant laws and regulations are not yet perfect, and it is impossible to popularize chip implantation in a short time. This huge project needs to be promoted throughout society, and chip identification also requires a special scanner. Otherwise, even if the chip is implanted, no one will think of checking the chip when they encounter a cat or dog, and many areas may not have the conditions to check the chip.

Find the cat as soon as possible

If a cat is lost, it is important to search for it as soon as possible. According to the aforementioned study by the University of Queensland, one-third of cats that were eventually found alive were found within seven days of disappearance, and half were found within 30 days. The longer the time, the less obvious the increase in the recovery rate, and only a very small number of cats were found alive after 90 days.

Regardless of the rearing method, lost cats were not far from home when they were found. About 75% of lost cats were found within a radius of 500 meters from home. Cats that only moved indoors were found an average of 39 meters away from home, and semi-free-range cats were found an average of 300 meters away from home.

The chances of a cat being found alive are greatest in the first few days after it is lost.

Therefore, once a cat is lost, the sooner the owner searches for it, the greater the chance of finding it. At the same time, it is best to search near the home. Do not waste time on superstitious rituals such as "Scissor Method" at home.

Previous studies have shown that physical searches are the most likely to be successful in finding cats, including searching the neighborhood on foot. When cats are lost, they are very eager to return to a familiar environment after a brief excitement. If they are in a stairwell with complex odors, they will only have an impression of the direction of their own door, but not the concept of floors, so the doors of neighbors in the same location upstairs and downstairs are likely to have been scratched. After scratching the door to no avail, they panic and usually choose some corners that give them a sense of security as temporary hiding places.

So when we find that the cat is missing from home and understand their behavior habits, we need to plan to find them:

1. If possible, try to retrieve surrounding surveillance.

2. Confirm the status of the stairwell and unit doors during this time period.

3. Focus on visiting the residents who live in the same location as your home on each floor, and visit all neighbors in the same building as much as possible.

4. Key search areas include rooftops, emergency passages, water and electricity boxes, outside stairwell windows, ventilation ducts, air-conditioning racks, basements (underground garages), surrounding green belts, carports, waste accumulation areas, etc.

5. You can post a notice looking for a pet.

6. Prepare the trapping cage in advance.

If you miss the best time to search, then night will be the time with the highest success rate. Frightened cats are more likely to feel safe at night and start to move around. There are fewer distractions in the dead of night, and they are more likely to respond to their owners' calls. When searching at night, please try to control the volume of the call and do not disturb others. At night, cats are able to hear the gentle calls of nearby owners.

While searching, you can set up traps nearby, focusing on areas where animals can move stealthily, such as the base of a wall, corners of a building, and the edge of a green belt. The bait should be items that the animal often uses at home and that have its odor, as well as items that have the owner's odor. You can even use the owner's unwashed underwear, shoes, and socks, as well as items with strong body odor, such as their urine pads, feces, and used cat litter, so that you can trap more specifically.

Physical examination after recovery

If you are lucky enough to encounter a lost cat during the search, don't get too excited, and don't run and chase it. Cats who are still in a panic about being lost will not recognize their owners at first, and excessive behavior may suddenly stimulate them and cause them to escape again.

The correct way is to follow the cat slowly and approach it while continuing to call it softly. When it stops and looks at the owner for preliminary confirmation, the owner should slowly squat down and gently stretch out his hands to call it softly, waiting for it to actively approach. When the cat approaches, the owner should wait for it to identify the smell. After the smell is identified, the owner can stroke the cat's head and neck to comfort it, and control it when its emotions are stable.

If you find a cat has fallen into a narrow and dangerous place such as an air conditioner rack or sewer, the owner must not put himself in danger. Cats are good at climbing, so you can find the nearest vertical position to it, fix one end of a long enough bed sheet or quilt cover, and put the other end at a height that it can climb. In addition, you can also use a sturdy long stick such as a broom handle, make a fixed ring at the top with thick iron wire, fold the long rope in half and pass it through the ring, hold both ends of the rope tightly, and a homemade lasso is ready. After calming the cat, under the premise of ensuring safety, the rescuer will use the lasso to put the rescued cat behind the shoulder and tighten the lasso, and then lift and drag it to a safe area.

Homemade lasso | Photo provided by the author

If a cat is trapped in a gap and can't get out, the first thing we need to do is to check the surroundings to determine how it got in. Then use the above-mentioned lasso at the possible entrance, or place food and traps to wait for it to "take the bait". In short, whether it is active capture or passive trapping, the principle is to try to let it get out the same way it got in. Usually, we recommend self-rescue first, and if it is really impossible and the gap needs to be expanded, then ask for help from firefighters.

Cats that have been found should be physically examined, and if there are other pets at home, they should be isolated for a period of time after returning home, just like a new pet. In addition to avoiding stress and preventing the spread of disease, it is also necessary to prevent rejection and conflict when they re-engage with other pets at home.

The above is basically what a lost pet owner can do on his own.

The “cat-hunting team” is of mixed quality

In addition to finding cats on your own, there are many professional cat-finding teams on the market. The "fee-based cat-finding" business model has been around in China for about a decade, and it has developed as the concept of companion animals has become more popular. So how professional are these teams? As an old cat lover who has been on the front line of rescue for many years, through our observations over the years, we can only say that there are good and bad teams.

There are two specific forms of "paying to find cats": one is online guidance, and the other is on-site search. Among them, online guidance is divided into two types. One is to help the owner to develop a search plan, but inevitably some teams will piece together other pet owners' experience posts on the Internet and give them to the owner, and the success rate is average. The second is very outrageous, that is, divination, the success rate is completely based on guessing, but cat owners sometimes try all kinds of remedies in desperation.

In addition to online consultation, there are also offline search teams, which pet owners will feel more at ease. Some more professional teams of this type are equipped with equipment such as thermal imaging and life detectors, and even use some equipment used in wild animal protection to help find lost cats. However, this offline form may also have pitfalls. The news has reported many disputes caused by charging high fees but not finding pets, and there are even more in reality. Of course, sometimes this result is not controlled by the cat-finding team, because there are too many uncontrollable factors for cats in unfamiliar environments.

There are some reliable offline cat-finding teams, but there are also some scammers. 丨Screenshot

A responsible cat-finding team should not only try their best to find the cat, but also provide psychological comfort to the anxious owner. As for whether the service fee ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands is worth it, it depends on personal opinion, and it mainly depends on how the owner understands the fee and the process.

Accidents are always hard to prevent. As pet owners, we must understand what kind of responsibilities we bear. In addition to being responsible for the lives of our own pets, we must also be responsible for our neighbors, the surrounding ecology, and society. As an owner, it is your responsibility to manage your pets well.

References

1. Weiss E., Slater M., Lord L. Frequency of lost dogs and cats in the united states and the methods used to locate them. Animals. 2012;2: 301–315. doi: 10.3390/ani2020301.

2.Liyan Huang, Marcia Coradini, Jacquie RandSearch, et al. Methods Used to Locate Missing Cats and Locations Where Missing Cats Are Found. Animals (Basel). 2018 Jan; 8(1): 5.

3.Dingman PA, Levy JK, Rockey LE. Crandall MM1Use of visual and permanent identification for pets by veterinary clinics. Veterinary Journal, 13 May 2014, 201(1):46-50

Author: Huosi

Editor: Li Xiaoqiu