Help! Advice about our missing girl
Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:37 pm
Hi, I’m new to the forum and desperately need some advice.
We adopted our little cat Pinga from the Cat’s Protection almost 3 months ago; she was previously a stray found living in a log pile in someone’s back garden.
She’s a friendly little thing who loves being made a fuss off, with one of the loudest purrs I’ve ever heard. She’s young, about 2 years old, is very playful and loves hunting. She's confident in the house (although hates loud noises) but seems timed away from her home territory. We saw her once in a nearby field, called her, but she slunk off, when we arrived home a few minutes later she was waiting for us outside the front door.
She’s been going outside now for 2 months. Initially she’d hang around near the house and would be inside more than out, wanting a fuss made of her, to play and the occasional cuddle. At night she’d fall asleep snuggling on our bed, then throughout the night pop in and out as she pleased. To get her home for dinner, all we’d have to do was stand at the door, clack her food bowls and call ‘din dins’. As her confidence and territory grew she came indoors less often and wouldn’t always come home for breakfast. However, she was still coming home every evening for dinner and would still want to play and be made a fuss off. She never broke the habit of falling asleep snuggling in our bed and then coming and going throughout the night. Occasionally she‘d appear and cuddle on the sofa for hours. She enjoys her food, when I mentioned ‘din dins’ she’d run excitedly to the kitchen with her little tail straight up, doing the happy twitch. She’d cry and beg, and when eating purr away in contentment.
All was going great, until we went on holiday. I thought the kindest thing was to keep her at home rather than take her to a cattery (I now hate myself for this decision). My brother moved into the house, Pinga was still coming home for a fuss, play and her dinner, although he did say she seemed to be looking for us quite a lot, regardless, it seemed to be going well. At the weekend my brother went camping, he left her with loads of food, and was only gone for one night. When he returned there was no sign of her and she hasn’t been home since. I’m not sure why she left; I guess I’ll never know.
We’ve made flyers, gave them to the neighbour’s and put them through letterboxes over a wide area; we’ve also put up laminated posters in the local woods and a nearby village. I got in touch with her vet, her microchip company, animal search UK, SSPCA and Cat’s Protection. The later have given us a humane trap. We’ve been out at various times of the day and night, spending about 2-5 hours each day searching and calling. We’ve even tried hanging items with her and my scent on the washing line and left food outside overnight, which was eaten by a neighbour’s cat.
We live in a rural location and are surrounded by paddocks and fields with hundreds of potential hiding spots. My suspicion is that she’s set up a new home close by. Every so often one of the neighbours thinks they might have spotted her. We’re 95-99 % sure we saw her ourselves. One night about a week and a half ago we were out calling her and spotted eyes in our torch beam. I went one direction and my boyfriend the other. The little cat in question jumped into the field a little distance from where I was standing, I called her name and she came running towards me (my boyfriend also says he heard some timid meows), she then got frightened and slunk down, I called again and she ran towards me. Unfortunately, I wanted to make a positive identification and kept shining the torch at her and also raised my voice in excitement, at the last minute she got scared and ran off. We set up the humane trap in this area, but so far it’s not been successful.
Since this we haven’t heard or seen her. I have no idea what to try next, as searching and calling doesn’t seem to be working. However, I’m scared that if I don’t keep it up, she’ll forget about us and become a stray again. I’ve heard so may conflicting stories, I don’t know whether she’s out enjoying the ‘hunt’ and will just appear back when she’s ready, if she’s now living with another family, or has gone into ‘scaredy cat’ mode and is too fearful to ever come home. It’s killing me, I cry every day as I miss her so much. I know we haven’t had her long, but I fell in love with her very quickly. I can’t bear the thought that I’ve let her down and now my little friend might be having to fend for herself again.
Please, any advice / suggestions will be so gratefully received.
We adopted our little cat Pinga from the Cat’s Protection almost 3 months ago; she was previously a stray found living in a log pile in someone’s back garden.
She’s a friendly little thing who loves being made a fuss off, with one of the loudest purrs I’ve ever heard. She’s young, about 2 years old, is very playful and loves hunting. She's confident in the house (although hates loud noises) but seems timed away from her home territory. We saw her once in a nearby field, called her, but she slunk off, when we arrived home a few minutes later she was waiting for us outside the front door.
She’s been going outside now for 2 months. Initially she’d hang around near the house and would be inside more than out, wanting a fuss made of her, to play and the occasional cuddle. At night she’d fall asleep snuggling on our bed, then throughout the night pop in and out as she pleased. To get her home for dinner, all we’d have to do was stand at the door, clack her food bowls and call ‘din dins’. As her confidence and territory grew she came indoors less often and wouldn’t always come home for breakfast. However, she was still coming home every evening for dinner and would still want to play and be made a fuss off. She never broke the habit of falling asleep snuggling in our bed and then coming and going throughout the night. Occasionally she‘d appear and cuddle on the sofa for hours. She enjoys her food, when I mentioned ‘din dins’ she’d run excitedly to the kitchen with her little tail straight up, doing the happy twitch. She’d cry and beg, and when eating purr away in contentment.
All was going great, until we went on holiday. I thought the kindest thing was to keep her at home rather than take her to a cattery (I now hate myself for this decision). My brother moved into the house, Pinga was still coming home for a fuss, play and her dinner, although he did say she seemed to be looking for us quite a lot, regardless, it seemed to be going well. At the weekend my brother went camping, he left her with loads of food, and was only gone for one night. When he returned there was no sign of her and she hasn’t been home since. I’m not sure why she left; I guess I’ll never know.
We’ve made flyers, gave them to the neighbour’s and put them through letterboxes over a wide area; we’ve also put up laminated posters in the local woods and a nearby village. I got in touch with her vet, her microchip company, animal search UK, SSPCA and Cat’s Protection. The later have given us a humane trap. We’ve been out at various times of the day and night, spending about 2-5 hours each day searching and calling. We’ve even tried hanging items with her and my scent on the washing line and left food outside overnight, which was eaten by a neighbour’s cat.
We live in a rural location and are surrounded by paddocks and fields with hundreds of potential hiding spots. My suspicion is that she’s set up a new home close by. Every so often one of the neighbours thinks they might have spotted her. We’re 95-99 % sure we saw her ourselves. One night about a week and a half ago we were out calling her and spotted eyes in our torch beam. I went one direction and my boyfriend the other. The little cat in question jumped into the field a little distance from where I was standing, I called her name and she came running towards me (my boyfriend also says he heard some timid meows), she then got frightened and slunk down, I called again and she ran towards me. Unfortunately, I wanted to make a positive identification and kept shining the torch at her and also raised my voice in excitement, at the last minute she got scared and ran off. We set up the humane trap in this area, but so far it’s not been successful.
Since this we haven’t heard or seen her. I have no idea what to try next, as searching and calling doesn’t seem to be working. However, I’m scared that if I don’t keep it up, she’ll forget about us and become a stray again. I’ve heard so may conflicting stories, I don’t know whether she’s out enjoying the ‘hunt’ and will just appear back when she’s ready, if she’s now living with another family, or has gone into ‘scaredy cat’ mode and is too fearful to ever come home. It’s killing me, I cry every day as I miss her so much. I know we haven’t had her long, but I fell in love with her very quickly. I can’t bear the thought that I’ve let her down and now my little friend might be having to fend for herself again.
Please, any advice / suggestions will be so gratefully received.