For most of you your cat will feel like part of the family. The thought of losing it will fill you with despair. Cats, though they will be domesticated to varying degrees, are still animals. They must be allowed to express natural behaviour. Cats are adventurous and self reliant and they will roam to the full extend of what they consider to be 'their patch'.
Prevention is always going to be better than a cure, both practically and emotionally. To minimise the risk the most effective tool is a well established routine. The most obvious point to build your routine around is dinner. The cat is, not yours. If your cat gets into the routine of eating at a particular time each day it will time its adventures around dinner and always be back in time. Another good practice would be to not let your cat out again after it has had its dinner. This routine will ensure that your cat will stay safe and still be allowed to roam naturally.
Even if these steps are followed and you do everything in your power to keep your cat safe, they can still go missing. In preparation for this you can take significant steps to greatly increase the chance of you being reunited with your missing cat. The most effective step to take to ensure a speedy reunion is some form of identification tag.
Obviously the most basic and simple kind are pet identification tags. This must include on it your pets name, your name, your address and your phone number and be attached to your pets collar at all times. These days there are also many other high-tech options available, many of which are highly effective.
Implanted micro chips have been around for some time now. These allow for a lot of information to be stored on them and are very inconspicuous. The disadvantage of chips is that they need to be inserted under the skin, which your cat will not thank you for. You also need specialist equipment to read the information on them which could delay your reunion with your missing pet.
The next, and most high-tech option, is to attach a GPS - collar to your pet. This allows the location to be constantly monitored. With this information it is possible for you to be informed if your pet strays beyond a safe distance from the house, or enables you to very quickly locate them if you want to. This is by far the quickest and easiest way of finding a lost cat.
If you lose your pet and don't have a GPS collar fitted then it is important to go about finding them in the most effective way.
The most critical element of finding lost pets is time. If, as I suggested earlier, you have a well established routine then you will know very quickly when something is wrong. This is the time to begin acting, with no delay. As the owner, you will be in the best position to find your cat. You will know their favourite places in their immediate surroundings. Search them first. It far more likely that your cat will be in a common and familiar place than anywhere else and a very large proportion of missing pets are found at this early stage.
If you have looked in every place you can think of it is time to enlist some help. Get as many people as you can think of who know your cat and the local area. The more of you there are, the better your chances of finding them. If your searching still bears no result then it might be time to consider other options. Advertising that you have lost your pet can be very effective in producing results. You must make sure that the photo is a recent one and that the information on the advert is clear and accurate.
It is most important that you advertise on a local level. Use posters in locations which are very familiar to both you and your pet. You may also want to advertise in the local press. There are also lots of online pet networks which allow you to share photos and information with other pet owners in your area. All of these will increase the chance of reaching someone who might have seen your missing cat
After a day or two of no results it will certainly be worth visiting local rescue shelters. Someone may have found your pet and, not knowing who the owner was, taken it to a shelter.
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