March
15, 2004
Thanks
so much for your website with valuable information. I used the information
in the site to find our lost cat. Here's our story.
Gabby,
our 16 year old (!!) cat escaped out of a garage door left open
on March 9. Gabby was a barn kitty her first two years of life,
an indoor/outdoor cat for a few more years and an indoor only cat
for the past 11 years.
She's
always had an urge to go outside, especially when lured by the smell
of Spring. [NOTE:
Spring always brings an increase in wayward kitties! Gabby is not
alone.] We are usually there to quickly shoo her back inside.
She is declawed on the front feet so we never left her outside alone
and never more than a few steps from the door.
Anyway,
I couldn't sleep March 9 and couldn't figure out why. I got up and
remembered that I forgot to leave some food out for Gabby (as I
usually do) and then it occurred to me that I hadn't seen Gabby
all evening. She's an old couch potato so it isn't unusual for
her to be upstairs hiding out all evening in some cushy location.
After
a midnight search of the house, I began to get a strong feeling
that she was not in the house. I suspected one of the kids had left
the garage door to the house open that afternoon and she'd escaped.
I put some food outside the front door just in case and tried to
get some sleep. The next morning, I printed up fliers, passed them
around, walked the neighborhood and talked to as many neighbors
as I could find. Called animal control...vets' offices...That night
I put more food out in several spots around the yard.
It
was, as you say, as if she had vanished into thin air.
The
next day, I distributed fliers to vets' offices, walked the neighborhood
and bought a humane trap to try to trap her (as you suggested —
though never had to use it). Well, that evening around 6 pm, our
next door neighbor came to the door and said he thought he'd found
our cat. I instinctively asked, "Is she alive?" because she's very
old...he looked surprised at that question and said "Yes"...
I went
over and in his garage, hiding behind his motorcycle, way in the
back was Gabby. It took about a minute to coax her out and she was
fine. Neighbor said he never heard her meow (she can but never has
meowed...she is basically a silent kitty) She had been hiding there
for 2 days.
So,
just as you said, she was within 1-5 houses from our home. I guess
their garage was open when she got locked out of ours. She came
home, ate just a bit of tuna and went to sleep on the guest bed.
She was a little jumpy that evening but is fine now.
Thank
you so much for the information and website. And
a note to anyone with an old cat — just because your old cat
is missing does not mean he/she has gone off to die. I had several
people tell me this and I knew that Gabby had really just stepped
out for fresh air!!
Shannon
