Missing Cat! FOUND 6/8/08! ^_^

[Moondust]

Merlin escaped our apartment last night through a broken screen door. I just changed apartments within the same complex last week. He is a medium hair neutered male. Tuxedo. He has a reflective, glow in the dark collar with 2 tag, one from the shelter and one with my name, number and his name. I've withheld his name on flyers that I am posting, in hopes that when someone finds him I can ask them to read it off his collar for me to make sure he's the one. He's also microchipped, so that if any of the shelters around here find him, I will be notified.

Merlin is the "Friendly Walkabout" type of cat. He has no problems approaching people or even dogs. He has no fears of other cats or animals, but isn't good at communicating with them (the other cat might be hissing or the dog might be growling but he doesn't care). He's never been out for more than 10 minutes at a time, usually he escapes for attention and will only stray 10 or so feet from me as I try to catch him. We live an in area with many coyotes, I am extremely worried he'd walk right up to them. After he got too far from home, I would not be suprised if he switched to feral-mode if something did scare him. The only thing he is afraid of is car engines and lightning. He hate's getting is feet dirty and almost always followed pavement when he escaped previously, because he seems to dislike grass and dirt.

It was nice out when he escaped, but started raining within 3 hours. It's been raining all day now, he escaped 10PMish last night. We've searched every crevice within about a half-mile radius. When I get home from work we are planning to go further. We live in a rural area. The apartment complex is on the highway, but my building is one of the furthest away. We have agricultural fields on the side and across the street. I am going to knock on doors and ask. I just moved and can't for the life of me find where I put his pictures, but he really does look like most other medium-hair tuxedo's out there, it's his personality that makes him different. I'm afraid of showing people a well-groomed photo because his hair mats fast (he has no guard hairs, soft as a bunny) and he might not look anything like it within a day or two in the rain.

I've called the local vet and am flyering all of the bus-stops, mailbox clusters, stores and billboards in radius. My landlord is also aware. I have no idea what else to do or where to look. If anyone has any tips for me, they would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I have a second cat. This is a FIV and feline-leukemia positive area. I am getting him tested for both when I find him, but what other tests should I run with the vet and how long should I quarantene him for? I don't want her to get sick.

[Marybelle]

It sounds like you've covered all the bases.  I hope you find him.

[Moondust]

Thank you for the hope.

Updates: Still no Merlin.

We now have flyers with colored pictures in every mailbox in the area for a half mile radius. There are posters and every shelter/animal contol/vet in the area has been notified.

There have been three sightings. Two happened an hour apart on opposite sides of the complex, so I believe one of them to be wrong. One was from someone who knew the cat and is 100% sure she saw him; she didn't realize he was out and thought it to be a new cat in the neighborhood that happened to have a look-alike.

The first was behind the local seven-eleven on the opposite side of the complex. There was a new black and white cat chasing squirrels on the dirt road near the dumpsters at 8AM about 36 hours after he disappeared.

The second took place around the same time (the person didn't know the time), about 1//4-1/2 mile away near the river. Ran.

The third was 6PM yesterday in the woods trotting towards 7-11 "like he owned the place." This was from my friend who is 100% sure it was him once she knew he was missing.

The cats in the building nearest to 7-11 have been acting strange. One completely left his territory and was running in fear for a couple days (we thought it was my cat at first glance and chased him, having never seen this cat near our building before.) Another grey cat was acting wierd and before we mentioned our cat an older man asked us if we thought the cat in the driveway was okay because it was acting diffrent than it had before. I think these are all signs that a new cat is in the neighborhood.

We borrowed a trap from the local animal control and have gotten permission from 7-11 to set it near their dumpster. We checked it at 4AM and found a skunk. Right color, wrong species. I'm hopeful we'll find him if we keep it up.

I know it doesn't sound like typical indoor cat behavior but Merlin isn't a typical cat. When I first brought him home from the shelter he jumped out of the box and immediately troted over for kisses then rubbed on everything in the household. He's never reacted to a new situation by hiding and greets every new person that comes into the home. It wouldn't suprise me that rather than reacting in fear he's trotting around; every other time he's escaped he's shown the same behavior, albeit never for this long before!

It was nice when we set the trap at 10 PM and even when we checked it at 1AM but by 4AM it was pouring. We took in the trap at that time so as not to give any wildlife pnemonia. It's raining on and off right now. I'm hoping the weather clears soon so that we can resume detailed foot-searches. We haven't found his collar so I'm assuming it is still on him and I hope someone reads the "INDOOR ONLY--PLEASE CALL IF FOUND" tag on his neck.

[Marybelle]

Sightings are a good thing!  I hope that either the trap catches him, or you find him.  At least you've got an idea of where he's hanging out now.   

[strangeduck]

Keep searching and don't lose hope.  I had a cat go missing for two weeks one time and I had pretty much assumed he was either dead or someone had taken him.  The one  morning I opened the door to let one of my other two cats at the time go out and there he was, sitting on the front door mat, looking at me like, "Geez, it's about time you opened the door, how dare you keep me waiting?"

It sounds like you're doing all the right things.  I'd be scouring local newspaper lost and found sections as well, and visiting the shelter personally every day or every other day.  At least call them and let them know you've lost a cat and give them a pic or description.

Good Luck!!   I hope you find him soon!!

[Heather]

Try posting on craigslist and petfinder.com or have you done that already? Also putting an ad in the paper is good too.

[Moondust]

Thank y'all for all of your suggestions!  Craigslist was the first place I went, and very kind people called me just to offer support.   

Merlin has been FOUND!

Last night we set the trap around 10 PM and were checking it frequently. I set it by the dumpsters near the pizza store this time, because I could have sworn I had seen Merlin sitting with another B+W kitty there, I thought the other one was him at first but as I tried to get a better look both bolted. While walking back home empty-handed, I asked my boyfriend if we could walk around shining a flashlight to see if we could catch his eyes. We found not hide or hair of any of the local cats, nm my Merlin (it was heat-lightening and sprinkling rain out). While we were walking back to the door I could have sworn I heard a small meow. I turned around and stared into the darkness. After 2 minutes (it was a while I was stading there just looking for a long while,. freaked my boyfriend out a little) and my boyfriend was like "Hon, it's time to go in." And suddenly, I see Merlin, darting under the mailroom shed from the direction people had said they'd seen him. I just knew it was him.

Flashlights and lying on our bellies confirmed it, but he was terrified and trapped and unwilling to come out again. My boyfriend lay still and shook the treatcan lightly out of sight. Within 5 minutes Merlin came out to investigate, but was definitely in wild-kitty mode. My boyfriend held on for dear life, got him upstairs in a room and dropped him. He was freaking out, but once he calmed down it was an instant switch to pet-kitty mode. He was shedding up a storm, has pinesap in his fur but is otherwise healthy. No injuries, scratches, sneezing, lost wight or anything except a bit of dehydration (I was surprised because it's been raining since he was gone!). He's going to see a vet as soon as I can make an appointment, in the meantime I have my cats separated.

He's reverted back to behaviors he had when he came home form the shelter. If we are in a different room he'll sometimes freak out and start howling in fear as though he'd been abandoned. He's overly affectionate and is back to clinging to me and staying by my side everywhere. We had gotten him somewhat out of these behaviors but they are back. Hopefully we can get him back to the comfort level he was; we actually got the second cat to help Merlin's separation anxiety because he's bonded to me and gets upset when I leave his sight =/. Now when I go outside he starts fear-howling as though something is VERY wrong. I'm trying to let him know it's okay.

We had been using tuna in the trap, and it seems the skunk we had caught really enjoyed it because the next night he was definitely hanging around despite the rain! On a funny note, when we caught Merlin I hurriedly grabbed the trap, plopped it in the kitchen and rand upstairs to tend to Merlin. About a half-hour later we hear a funny clang, and I come down to investigate. There's my other cat, completely oblivious that she was trapped, looking proud of herself while she munched the tuna. I suppose it's a good idea to have them associate the trap with treats, neh? I waited till she was done and released her. She likes the trap. Rubbed against it to make it hers and everything *laughs*.

I'm making a few found posters to put in the public places. In this ordeal I have had very kind people call me, offer their support and I even had a group of strangers get together and keep and eye out for Merlin, calling every cat-lover they knew. I had perfect strangers give me their phone-number if I needed a sympathetic ear. I never want to go through this again, but it was very nice to realize what a fantastic community I live in.

Thought I'd update and let everyone know what came of the story!

~Moondust

[Marybelle]

Hooray!!  I'm so glad he's home safe and sound. 

[strangeduck]

Yay!!!  I'm so glad you found him.  Hopefully he'll calm down quicker than he did when you got hime...

[Moondust]

Now that he's with the other cat, he's back to normal...although now they don't fight at ALL!  They are just so happy to see eachother.  He had his vet visit, he's lost 10% of his bodyweight.  Other than the matting and the over-shedding (and the resulting hairballs) he seems fine.  They are going to run the tests in a month, but the vet and I discussed options and quarintine and agreed that due to the low risk of transmission and how merlin doesn't have a mark on him, that it would be best for both cats to let them be together (Kashisti had completely stopped eating, and we are in the middle of a heat-wave and the room for quarintine heats up as bad as a car interior with no relief)

[NutKitty]

I'm glad you found him!!   It put a big smile on my face when I read the word "FOUND".   

Your other cat getting caught made me laugh...