Lost kitten in Pacific Palisades - NEED ADVICE

[Faun]

Hi, I live in California, and it doesn't seem like too many people here are American, but that doesn't totally matter. More than anything else I just sorely need advice. I am at a COMPLETE loss.

My 6-month-old kitten, Dove, (if it really matters: medium-length solid grey fur, green eyes) disappeared 3 nights ago, on Sunday November 19th. Out of completely nowhere. She had dinner, I saw her last at 6:30 PM, and then when it came time for me to close up the house for the night at 9:00 PM, she was absolutely nowhere to be found. I searched every nook and cranny of the house and the yard, and must've spent at least a collective hour walking up and down every street of the surrounding neighborhood with a flashlight and a jingly cat toy, calling for her. No responding meows, no glimpses of shining eyes in the dark, nothing at all. Eventually, I microwaved some cat food and put both it and her favorite blanket out on the deck, then had no choice but to turn in for the night. I left the door cracked open all night and I woke up every few hours, hoping to god I'd step outside and find her curled up on her blanket. But I never did.

This was rapidly alarming, because since she's so young, I've only had her for a few months, and she's yet to explore outside very much. Not only that, but every time she's ventured past our own yard (which doesn't happen often), she's started frantically meowing for me to come rescue her because she doesn't know where she is. She seems to have a rather dependent personality, on top of just being young... So, for her to just disappear like that is terrifying. Especially considering coyotes sometimes like to venture into the outskirts of the neighborhood.

Now, it's been three days.

My mom (whom I live with) and I immediately put up "missing cat" flyers around the neighborhood the following morning, and posted an alert on some online forum thing for people in our neighborhood. That same morning, we got a call from someone saying that they spotted Dove -- startlingly far away. You see, we live in a mobile home park nestled right between the Pacific ocean and the seaside bluffs, and there are two tiers of the park with a steep hillside separating the levels. My mom and I live at the very entrance of the lower level, but the person who called us spotted Dove deep in the center of the upper level. Distance-wise, it's perfectly plausible for her to have traveled there within probably just an hour (at a cat's pace, that is), but it would have been extremely difficult for her to navigate there on her own. For that reason, we're wondering if she followed something there, but obviously we can't know for sure.

When we got that call on Monday morning, my mom and I immediately rushed to the upper level and walked up and down every street with the jingly toy while occasionally calling for Dove, but mostly just talking to each other, since I read that a missing cat is most likely to come to the sound of your normal speaking voice. Again, though, absolutely no sign of her.

Yesterday morning, we got one more call from someone who spotted her in the exact same area. So, again, we rushed up to see if we could catch even a glimpse of her. When we got there, the man who called us was still hanging around, and he pointed to an orange tabby sitting in the street and said, "Where that orange cat is looking, that's where I saw the grey cat disappear to." We stuck around, looking under and between everything we could, calling, hoping she'd show herself. But she never did. Again.

Now, the orange tabby, we know. He belongs to a friend of ours who lives on the upper level. Supposedly he's quite interested in and friendly with other cats, but we've yet to introduce Dove to other cats. We have two dogs with whom she's more than comfortable, but we're thinking that she's scared of this other cat, she's in HIS territory, and she's just too petrified to do anything about it.

Nobody's seen her since, but we're... assuming she's still in that area. It's all we can do with nothing else to go off of. For the past two days, I've been leaving blankets and changing out a bowl of food in a nice little corner where she was last spotted, but absolutely none of it has appeared to have been touched.

So, she's... afraid, right? She must be. The only other explanation for why she's utterly refusing to show herself is that she's injured, but... well, I'd rather presume she's simply lost and panicking, y'know?

So here's the question: WHAT DO I EVEN DO NEXT?

I was considering contacting a local TNR organization to borrow a drop trap, or commit to making my own, but... if she's not even coming out of hiding to eat food, what on earth would lure her into a drop trap? Also, I'm not even AT ALL positive that she's still in the same general location, so I feel I could easily set up the trap and then sit there for hours with still no sight of her.

I've read every tip, I've done everything that's plausible in this scenario, and I still can't even say for sure that she's alive! I'm falling apart over this and I don't know what to do anymore. If there's anything I haven't thought of, anything I'm not considering... Any help at all would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[bobbys girl]

Sorry to hear Dove is missing. It sounds like you are doing all you can. The trap sounds a good idea (though I wouldn't make one!) We have caught ferral cats that needed treatment. We put food in the trap and left it where the cat is usually seen. You don't have to stand around and wait.
I am just trying to get a picture - where was you neighbour pointing when he said he had seen the cat? Is the area accessible to humans? I hope you get some good news soon.