Lost Cat Tips

With warm weather on its way, your indoor-only pet cat is more at risk of getting out– doors open and close more often as you enjoy the outdoors –  and if your cat is curious –  he or she may try to bolt when they see the opportunity.  This does not mean they are trying to run away – or would prefer living outdoors – it simply means they are curious.  They are more comfortable indoors as their territorial nature defines wherever they routinely live as their home – and anywhere they don’t live – as a foreign territory.

So what happens when cats run outdoors unexpectedly?  Most often they  realize they are no longer safe in their home and get scared – and then hide under the closest bush or porch or in an outbuilding or garage.   They don't keep running as dogs would.  If you see them get out and go after them – they will run away from you and end up further from your home but still be looking for a place to hide.    And – you can be pretty certain they’ll use their hiding spot as their new “home base” – coming out only in the dark when they are hungry and need food or to gradually work their way back to their home without being seen by potential predators.    Even if you call them and they know your voice they won't come out.

To find your cat start looking as soon as possible remembering the cat is almost certainly very close at hand.

1. Look in, behind and under any place the cat may be hiding, starting right from the exit point – in dense plantings, under a porch, in a garage.  And don’t neglect to look up – in trees and on rooftops.
2. Softly call the cat while looking.  It’s unlikely the cat will respond – it’s terrified of everything including you – but it may give a very faint “mew” reply so listen closely.
3. Try again at dusk and dawn using a flashlight to re-search all the areas you explored earlier.
4. Put some cat food and water overnight in the vicinity of the exit point.  The cat may go back into hiding after eating but this encourages him or her to hide nearby rather than getting further away looking for food.  If you have a live trap consider putting food in it – if the cat enters the trap you can easily get him back indoors without risking getting bit or scratched.   Putting food in a cat carrier may work too but tie a string on the door so you can close it remotely without being seen.  
5. When you do locate the cat, approach very slowly and gently – calming the cat.  It’s frightened and may bolt if found – even from you.  Use a carrier to take your cat home.  Trying to carry a scared cat is dangerous and if the cat gets away from you, you'll have to go through the process again.

Alerting  your neighbors (within a 3-4 house radius) and asking their children to help find the cat are good strategies.  Kids know the neighborhood better than most adults.  And posting a “Lost Cat” flyer  (with a photo if possible) in your immediate neighborhood, at the local pet stores, veterinary offices and animal shelters is also useful.

Most importantly -- don't give up -- it can take weeks or months to recover your cat and at least that long for them to turn up at a shelter as a "lost cat".    To learn more about lost cat behavior visit our web site.

Zimmer Foundation is now the Zimmer Feline Foundation

Just in case you haven’t noticed -- over the past few months we’ve been using a slightly different name for our foundation – Zimmer Feline Foundation.  It’s a subtle change but one that more depicts who we are and what we do.  And – it also is the last step in transitioning from a Michigan corporation (where we worked with cats from 2000-2009 to a New Mexico corporation where we’ve been working with cats since 2010. 

    

We no longer use Cat Spay of Santa Fe for our spay-neuter program either.  When we first moved to New Mexico we “assumed” we would limit our work to Santa Fe County – but soon understood the need for free-and-local cat spay/neuter for low-income pets here is great – and extends far beyond the boundaries of Santa Fe County.    So – with the help of 27 private and non-profit veterinary clinics – we now locally service north and central New Mexico including most of Bernalillo, Catron, Colfax, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Torrance and Valencia counties – and will add more counties as we find vet clinics to service them.

The Zimmer Feline Foundation vouchers are totally free to qualified applicants – individuals and households with gross incomes under $40K per year can apply for free spay/neuter vouchers – and those who receive food stamps can also apply for acute veterinary vouchers in the event of a treatable medical emergency.  The spay/neuter vouchers cover the complete cost to spay or neuter a cat – and a rabies vaccination given at time of surgery.  The acute care vouchers pay up to $300 toward the cost to treat a medical emergency such as broken bones, infections and fight wounds.

Our spay/neuter focus is expressly on the 15% of pet cats who are not routinely fixed when they are adopted –those in low-income homes who find the cost of sterilization even at low-cost clinics a burden that is easily put off.  Our experience (10 years working with both pet and feral cat caregivers in Michigan and 4 years working with pet caregivers in New Mexico), finds these unfixed pet cats are the root source of most of the feral colonies formed each year and most of the cats and kittens delivered to animal control shelters and often euthanized.

We no longer provide spay/neuter vouchers for feral cats (ie, cats you cannot handle) because we rely on our Participants making (and keeping) pre-arranged veterinary appointments so that the clinics we work with are not faced with last-minute cancellations because the feral cat didn’t show (or couldn’t be trapped) the morning of the appointment.

But – we can now selectively provide financial assistance to cat groups who work in situations our vouchers wouldn’t normally cover – outside our service area or special situations or events – provided the cat caregivers are not charged any co-pay and the project is well-defined and furthers our mission.

Many adoption and TNR (trap-neuter-return) programs are active in New Mexico to deal with the problem caused by leaving this 15% of pet cats intact – and we support and applaud their efforts.  But – we’ve come to the conclusion that the cat population cannot stabilize unless and until that 15% of unfixed pet cats is significantly reduced – and in our opinion that can happen only when cat sterilization services are free and local for all cats – that is our program focus.  To date we’ve helped 2,800 New Mexico caregivers sterilize – and keep – 5,200 cats.  

If you know anyone in our service area that could use our help, please ask them to call – applications are taken over the phone and vouchers are mailed within a day or two of approval.     Keeping a cat in its original homes is well worth it!