This week I found back my cat M.Lo who had accidentally slipped through my door-opening in the morning. She is is a Siberian female cat and has been used to living inside the house since she was young. I will gladly share my short story, which has both a happy and sad end at the same time, although the happy clearly predominates! Maybe I can inspire some people and help them to keep the faith when heir favourite petanimal gets lost.
What to do when you loose your cat?
Like me, probably you feel upset and miserable: your beloved petanimal isn't at home and you don't have a clue where he/ she is. So what to do? The first days I just wanted to sit down and wait for someone to call me (as M.Lo was wearing a necklace with her info) but after the third day, I still hadn't received this phonecall - except one about my other cat, a former streetcat who looks like he's permanently lost, however that's another story ;) so I had to take other measures than wait...
My advice:
Print labels or posters and stick them to lampposts in places. Make sure that the picture of your cat is bright and coloured; a black & white label won't do!!! Create them not too big; I made little papers of 8 by 22 centimeters (these are 3 on 1 A4), which are the exact size to fit on lampposts.
You want the papers to be seen by animal-lovers mainly, as they have the best 'eye' for animals... this means putting them on lamposts in the middle of streets, mainly at T-split roads, squares and so on. Put them not too high so that also children see them and besides, people walking with their dogs will keep their eyes focused downward, towards the height of their dogs.
Make sure the labels are there during the weekend; this is when people are more relaxed, enjoying there free weekend and looking around instead of rushing to work and other appointments.
Don't forget to ring the bells of your animal-loving neigbours and ask them to look at for your cat.
It all seems very obvious, but somehow you may feel so gloomy and pessimistic that it may not work, as your cat can be anywhere... which is in fact true, but don't forget: cats who are used to living inside the house, usually don't run much further than some 300s of meters and the reason you don't find them is because they are probably stressed out, and hiding, hiding really really well.
I my case, my cat was very much stressed out and actually traumatised. I found it as a result of the lamppost-labels; a lady walking with her dog called me on Saturday morning (4 days after I lost her) and told me: "I think I just saw your cat... but she seems to be missing a tail...". As this was some 150 meters from my house I decided to run to the spot immediately - although not totally sure this would be my cat, as she had an extravagant, fluffy tail.
Arriving there, I saw it was her. There she was, M.Lo sitting on a little wooden stairs in the middle of an excavation of where they are building a new underground railway. I couldn't reach the spot through the public road, but I didn't think a minute about falling down in my belly and drawing myself under the construction fences. The lady who had rang me was kind enough to stay and watch so she could shout to me when my cat ran some meters from the original spot. I walked towards her but, being a meter from her, she started runing from me. Apparently she was very stressed out and wouldn't let herself get caught. I was lucky when she was trying to pass behind a low construction-panel that gave me some hiding-place just before I grabbed her in the neck. I grabbed her firmly as she was trying to escape, crying of happiness, not releasing her until I was back home.
Her tail appeard to be very much infected, and unfortunately we will never know the reason as she cannot tell. The vet had to amputate her tail. If I'd found her a day later, probably she could not even have been saved. I am very gratefull to the people who helped my to find M.Lo, the people who adviced me to use labels on lampposts and the lady who noticed her and called me! This method, that seemed useless and gloomy to me in the beginning, seemed the key to finding M.Lo, who will now have to go around without a tail, but is alive!
You see how such small things can mean the difference between a life with or without your beloved pet! And hopefully, M.Lo will recover soon and become again the attractive and adorable lady cat whom she has always been to many cats.
