Merry Christmas!

I had a cat go missing for two weeks and he came back a bit dirty and hungry and skittish but he recovered. I lived in a rural mountaintown at the time and i suspect he got locked in someone's vacation cabin or wood shed and got out when they came up for the weekend or something. I thought he was gone for sure. I usually didn't let him out much but he had snuck out. A couple weeks later he got out again and went missing for two days. Usually if he didn't come in at night he'd be waiting for me in the bird feeder in the morning.

Yay! I'm so glad you were reunited!

Oh, that's fantastic! All's well that ends well.

Update: My cat "found" me this afternoon. I was hanging my second "LOST CAT - REWARD!" sign in an area we'd covered 2-3 times. Having a hard time with the wind blowing my sign all around and muttered, "God, please? A little help here?!?"

Out of nowhere, I hear a small "meow" and I froze. I called his name, he meowed back louder and sprang out of the bushes, not 10 feet from the stop sign where I was trying to post my sign. Literally, he saw me there and ran to me!

I started crying and hugged him; the neighbors couldn't believe he was in their bushes - they'd never seen him before. I took him to get my kids from afterschool care and gave them the best surprise their little hearts could handle today! It was AWESOME!

Thanks for all the good advice, resources, and good wishes!

OP here. I like the findtoto.com link and talked to someone who'd used it. She said she did get calls with sightings but never found her cat. The thing she said was best was using a tracking dog to help her know where the cat had been, dogsfindingdogs.com This sounds like the best plan to me, and I hope it works to at least give me an idea which way my cat took off so I can start calling and looking in the right area.

I lost mine for over a week when I moved to a new apartment complex. I went out looking for him every morning and afternoon. Finally someone called the number on his tag and asked if we would come get him because she was tired of feeding him! He was so relieved when I came to get him. It turned out all the apartments looked the same to him. He only knew I lived in the apartment in the upper right of a building. So everyday I had to go look for him and would find him sitting in front of an upper right apartment but never at the right building. He was always so excited to see me again.

Anonymous wrote:http://www.petharbor.com/detail.asp?ID=A131769&LOCATION=LODN&searchtype=LOST&friends=0&samaritans=0&nosuccess=1&rows=25&imght=120&imgres=thumb&view=sysadm.v_lodn&nobreedreq=1&nomax=1&bgcolor=ffffff&text=ff3333&link=003366&fontface=verdana&fontsize=10&col_hdr_bg=ffcc33&col_hdr_fg=003366&col_bg=%20336699&col_fg=ffffff&SBG=ffff99&zip=20197&miles=10&shelterlist=%27LODN%27&atype=&where=type_CAT

Is this your cat?

No, but thank you for the post and the link to the shelter. I'm going there in person today to see for myself if there are any other cats taken in yesterday or today. Loudoun also has a Humane Society, different from Animal Control that I will check. I had really hoped beyond hope he would be found by a family within the first 24 hours. We are all so bummed out and worried about him.

http://www.petharbor.com/detail.asp?ID=A131769&LOCATION=LODN&searchtype=LOST&friends=0&samaritans=0&nosuccess=1&rows=25&imght=120&imgres=thumb&view=sysadm.v_lodn&nobreedreq=1&nomax=1&bgcolor=ffffff&text=ff3333&link=003366&fontface=verdana&fontsize=10&col_hdr_bg=ffcc33&col_hdr_fg=003366&col_bg=%20336699&col_fg=ffffff&SBG=ffff99&zip=20197&miles=10&shelterlist=%27LODN%27&atype=&where=type_CAT

Is this your cat?

If you don't mind springing for the price, you could use findtoto.com. They will robo call 2,500 of your neighbors (or 5,000 if you pay more) and say something like "Your neighbor BARBARA has lost her GREY cat, FLUFFY. If you see the cat, please call xxx-xxxx". That can be effective, more effective than posters. I got many many calls using that service. A lot of people wrote down my number and kept it to watch out for my cat.

If you get the cat back, I would recommend you use something that I now have, a cat tracking collar. I have this ridiculous contraption I go outside with and it will beep and lead me right to the cat. Expensive but well worth it.

Good luck.

Where do you get the humane traps? I'm ready to put one out if he doesn't come home tonight. I called Loudoun Co Shelter and they said they didn't have any matches in the shelters or animal control calls. But I still plan to go by there mid morning tomorrow just to see for myself and also to put a face to a sad story. I had a cat come home via the shelter. Neighbor took him there, and both he and the shelter called me within minutes of each other, separately. I was so happy! I keep trying to tell my kids the cat may not come back immediately, but they are devastated.

Since your cat is friendly and you think he is likely to approach people, PLEASE visit your local animal shelters. There's a good chance that someone found him and brought him there. And speak to the people working there--most shelters will keep animals "in the back" for a few days so they can examine them before placing them out front to be available for adoption...so just because your cat isn't where you can see him, doesn't mean they don't have him.

Our "very" indoor cat was lost for five days -- we think she was under very large front porch and didn't come out when we called. Ultimately we used a humane trap and trapped her with stinky tuna food - on the first night we put it out. I don't think they usually travel far from home especially if they aren't used to being outside.

We also sent out notice on a neighborhood listserve.

good luck, don't give up yet!

OP: ask to go into backyards. I did. Everybody I asked said yes. I even asked people to open garages. Maybe focus on the 5 house radius thing...

This happened to us last year. Our indoor cat got outside right as we were leaving for a three day weekend and we didn't realize it until we returned home (she was sneaky). I found her that night crouched under our back porch. Keeping looking every night, there's a very good chance the kitty is nearby.