Panicking - my new kitten is lost in my house

[Anonymous]

Our kitten also hid on the first day. I found him wedged under the basement stairs and it took a lot of effort to get him out. 13 years later and he's now sleeping on my lap.

[Anonymous]

My kitten managed to climb inside the lining under our couch the first day. But she came out and was fine.

[Anonymous]

My new little kitchen was on my childhood bed nestled-in with my other stuffed animals.

[Anonymous]

In college my roommate got a cat and it crawled into the gap in the corner of our kitchen cabinets. We didn’t even know there was a hole to get in down there.

[Anonymous]

Our 10 year old cat disappeared once. We panicked because neighbor kids rang the doorbell and we opened the door and were terrified he somehow got out. DH and I searched the house. I went outside calling with a flashlight. Hours.
DH finally found him in the attic crawl area behind our closet. The door came open and he got in and went to sleep in a box. DH had looked there and missed him the first time. What's weird is his sister cat watched the whole search with disinterest and never gave a hint.
So look with flashlights in weird places like behind furniture and the refrigerator, in cabinets like under the sink that don't latch (we put a latch on that crawlspace door!), behind and in washers and dryers. Make sure all HVAC grates were on well.
Good luck. Kitten will be found.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kitten managed to climb inside the lining under our couch the first day. But she came out and was fine.

OP here. This is exactly where she was!!! The irony that she was under my husband the entire day.
Thanks for everyone here that made me feel better. We spent most of the evening letting her explore as much as she wanted while keeping an eye on her. She went to her food and water several times and even used her litter box. She's now asleep up in my daughter's room with the door closed.

[Anonymous]

I am so relieved. Thank you for updating OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kitten managed to climb inside the lining under our couch the first day. But she came out and was fine.

OP here. This is exactly where she was!!! The irony that she was under my husband the entire day.
Thanks for everyone here that made me feel better. We spent most of the evening letting her explore as much as she wanted while keeping an eye on her. She went to her food and water several times and even used her litter box. She's now asleep up in my daughter's room with the door closed.

PP whose cat was inside the couch: I used my old textbooks to block off where she'd used to climb in just because I was a little nervous about her getting hurt if someone sat on the couch suddenly. She got too big to get in there pretty fast.

The kitten stopped hiding pretty quickly, she bonded with our calmer older cat and goes to her when there's a loud noise or visitor.

[Anonymous]

If you have a recliner sofa or chair, don’t recline it/them until you find her.

You don’t want to know why I know this is a very bad idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kitten managed to climb inside the lining under our couch the first day. But she came out and was fine.

OP here. This is exactly where she was!!! The irony that she was under my husband the entire day.
Thanks for everyone here that made me feel better. We spent most of the evening letting her explore as much as she wanted while keeping an eye on her. She went to her food and water several times and even used her litter box. She's now asleep up in my daughter's room with the door closed.

Aww I’m glad you found her!

My cats also used to hide under and inside couches.

[Anonymous]

So glad she was found!! Thank you for updating us, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we first brought our kittens home, they loved to hide inside the sofa. Not under the sofa ... inside. They'd crawl underneath and find (or create) a hole in the lining material, then climb up inside the frame.

They always came out eventually. They want to feel safe, and enclosed spaces like that feel safe to them. Chasing them was counterproductive, just made them climb deeper into the frame. They came out when they were darned well ready to come out, and not a moment before.

My young cat did this when she got big enough to live in the basement at night. She started life penned in the kitchen then after a month or so she had free reign of the house during the day and confined to the full finished daylight basement where the food, water, cat scratching post, cat bed, and litter box were during the night.

It wasn't long before she got up inside the back of the basement sofa regularly. We didn't know until clumps of fluff started appearing on the carpet.

I also knew someone who lost a kitten in a small college dorm room for a day. It fell asleep in the bottom drawer of a dresser underneath a piece of clothing. It crawled in there itself. She couldn't see it because it was under the piece of clothing. She looked in the drawer several times. She didn't find the kitty until it got very angry about how long nighttime was lasting.

[Anonymous]

This happened when I was a child and adopted my first kitten. My siblings and I had friends over so my mom organized a search party thinking he’d slipped out. We had no success. Hours later he popped out of a kitchen cabinet. It was a relief and gave us a good laugh.

Back in the 80s, running the electric can opener became our way to bring him running. These days I just shake a container of dry food.

[Anonymous]

OP I am so glad you found kitty! Thanks everyone else for the cat stories!

[Anonymous]

I once lost my puppy within hours of getting him. I left him in my bed and went to take a shower. Came back and couldn’t find him anywhere and I was in a panic. He was behind the pillow on my bed sleeping and he was so tiny he couldn’t be seen until I picked the pillow up. Your cat will turn up.