Good vibes needed for lost kitty!

Our 13 year old guy, Zorro, slipped out the screen door on Sunday morning and I'm just sick about it. He's strictly an indoor kitty, but not declawed, and I'm sure he's cowering under a deck somewhere in the neighborhood because he's a really skittish cat with no outside experience.

I could use some good vibes or prayers or whatever to help him find his way home...or to help us find him so we can get him home.

I've put an ad on Craigslist and talked to all our neighbors. I'm hoping he'll hear us calling and meow back so we can find him and possibly lure him out of hiding.

He's a funny cat. When he gets stressed or scared he will not eat anything you offer, no matter how tasty it is. I've seen him turn down yummy cat treats, chicken, and his favorite, tuna. Hopefully his stomach will start to take over so we can get him back home.

Thanks, everyone!

(he's the black and white one in the picture)

Oh dear, I had a family of feline Houdinis, so I understand your pain (they all disappeared and they all, eventually, came back). Sounds like you are doing everything right. One of mine was recovered with a newspaper ad (this was pre-Craigslist). Another was hiding in the neighbor's garage, so be sure to ask the neighbors to check nooks and crannies if you haven't already.

Good luck. The saying about cats having nine lives got started for very good reasons, so I'm optimistic for you, and sending all our best vibes and wishes.

Pam

the good news: Mercury is retrograde and cats usually come back.
Late tonight when it is quiet do a tour of the neighborhood, checking garages and cellars.
Since he is an indoor cat, he will not go far. (now, this is barring being eaten by coyotes, I don't know what your neighborhood is like)

A friend of mine lost an indoor cat. 5 weeks later, we spotted her right across the street from her house. In 5 weeks she had stayed that close.

good luck, keep us posted.

Oh, I do hope you find your kitty soon.
I hate seeing 'lost pet' posters, it's so sad.
When my dear departed Ranger went missing for days I was a mess.
Yes, even worse than now.

I think Zorro cat is very nearby right this minute.

My dearly departed kitty would come running whenever I opened a can - any can. When she disappeared, I ran around my neighborhood opening up cans of anything i had in the house.
I found her three days later under a bush right next to the front steps.

Ellen, I will focus my mind on getting Zorro back to his home.

Hi Oxy,

So its just over 24 hours. Zorro is still around your property. He wouldn't stray too far.

Can one of you sleep outdoors tonight so he knows to come crawling to one of the family members. Also this may sound drastic, but can you borrow a medium size animal trap cage kind of course. and set it with his favorite food and or toy or clothing.

And yes they do stay around the house and by all means have his favorite food and water available by the door.

We have managed to recover several cats in our rescue group this way.

Wish for safe return,

Smilingcat

Just said a prayer for your kitty's safe return!

Thank you all for the kind words of encouragement. :)

Smilingcat: Actually, I do have access to a Hav-a-hart trap from work (I work in the pest control industry). I was going to wait until we found out where he is so we can set it nearby, but maybe I'll just bring it home tomorrow and set it near our house with some food.

I'm heading out here in a few to see if I can hear him meowing. When he is in the house he always comes to his name or the tried and true 'kitty kitty kitty'.

***Vibes*** ***Vibes***

I hope your fur kid is home soon.

Good LUck... I am crossing my fingers for you. It's so scarey to know they are out there alone.

Have you flooded the neighborhood with flyers? Don't forget to send them to all the animal clinics/shelters in your area as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and your buddy. Keep us posted.

So, I don't know what you know, so forgive me if I am stating the obvious.
Take that trap and put it somewhere protected, under a bush, a dark quiet place. Put towels or blankets OVER it. Your cat will find the food with his nose, not his eyes. Cats usually prefer dark enclosed places and a bare cage isn't necessarily going to attract a cat.
If he's been trapped before you should actually wire the cage OPEN for a while so he can come and go (and not have the cage slam shut and scare him away from it!) and once he gets accustomed to eating out of that cage then let him trip it.

good luck

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Originally Posted by Biciclista

So, I don't know what you know, so forgive me if I am stating the obvious.
Take that trap and put it somewhere protected, under a bush, a dark quiet place. Put towels or blankets OVER it. Your cat will find the food with his nose, not his eyes. Cats usually prefer dark enclosed places and a bare cage isn't necessarily going to attract a cat.
If he's been trapped before you should actually wire the cage OPEN for a while so he can come and go (and not have the cage slam shut and scare him away from it!) and once he gets accustomed to eating out of that cage then let him trip it.

good luck

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Yep...I forgive you. :D;):p

I figured on wrapping it with a tarp and sliding it under our deck so it looks like a nice cozy place to 'hang.' Plus, if we happen to trap something else like, say....a SKUNK!!!...there will already be a tarp over it so the probability of getting sprayed will be less.

I went out at about 9ish last night with a flashlight and looked under most of the neighborhood decks, porches, and around in the occational heavy shrubbery. It was pretty quiet, but I didn't hear any meowing when I called for him. Unfortunately, coyoties are around. We're right on the edge of town just over from various vineyards, vacant fields and farming properties, so that's always been in the back of my mind. Our local animal control doesn't pick up cats, but I left my name, number, and his description with them anyway.

More prayers and good thoughts!! Have you gone outside and just sat sit for a while? Poor guy is probably terrified. I hope you find him soon!

I so feel for you! My little girl, when she first went into heat, bolted out the door and was gone. As I said to people - she was on a mission from God! But I lived in an area with a horrible feral cat and dog population and I was terrified for her. She was all white (mix-eye) and everywhere I looked I saw white plastic bags, that from a distance look like a white kitty. It was horrible. I put a bowl of food in front of my apt door and one night I could hear chewing. I was so excited - I ran to the door, some random neighborhood cat getting a free meal. Then, one day, I came home and there was little Chelsea-cat, sitting at the door, her meticulously groomed white coat all dirty, a little nick in the top of her right ear. But home again! She never tried that again until about 18 yrs later, while dying of renal failure, one day she decided to escape the deck and tour the neighborhood. This time she came back home about 2 hrs later. OY!

But she was gone for over a week, and she came back home. So fingers crossed for your little Zorro. I'll say a prayer to St Anthony. He was my mum's favorite saint, he found all sorts of lost things for her. :)

she was gone for a week and came home pregnant, yes?
lol

Well we will never know, because she came home and immediately went to a co-worker for a spay. And he kept her over a couple extra days because the stress was beyond me (the local tomcats were still coming around and howling) as I was a grad student and preparing for mid-terms.

Odds are, yes, she was 'with kitty'. :) But she lost her girl parts as soon as she came home! I did ask him if he could tell and he said that it was possible but not noticeable when he spayed her.

I hope you find your guy soon!

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Originally Posted by Possegal

Well we will never know, because she came home and immediately went to a co-worker for a spay. And he kept her over a couple extra days because the stress was beyond me (the local tomcats were still coming around and howling) as I was a grad student and preparing for mid-terms.

Odds are, yes, she was 'with kitty'. :) But she lost her girl parts as soon as she came home! I did ask him if he could tell and he said that it was possible but not noticeable when he spayed her.

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hey, that's a happy ending. She ended her life of debauchery as a happy neutered pet.

Here's one. Last July DGF and I went camping, a friend comes and feeds the cats(7), we take the dogs with us. We always leave the kitchen window open a little over the sink, just to let some air in. Anyways, we get a call from Mary(the friend who feeds the crew), saying that a raccoon had chewed through the screen and the one cat was stuck in the screen:eek:, and wasn't sure if any of the other cats had gotten out. We make a trip home(only 1 1/2 hrs away), find Ben outside, couldn't find Murray(3 yrs old), but thought he was probably hidding because he such a big baby. Well, Murray was gone, we called for him all over the neighborhood. DGF went to the animal shelter every few days to see if he got picked up, took photos around the neighborhood, put an ad in the newspaper. No one seen him, nothing, we were afraid a raccoon got him, or he had a new home. Now, 54 days later, Sunday night I'm sitting on the couch on the laptop, DGF is in the kitchen, I hear a cat 'meowing', one of the cats(Ben) is in the living room window(cause now its September), I keep hearing this meowing. We got outside, in the back of the neighbors, sure enough its Murray. We couldn't believe he was gone 54 days and came home, the big baby we think was just in the woods behind our yard. BTW, DGF, read somewhere that to keep a photo by the bed, around, to help bring the person, animal, etc... back. Maybe there's some truth to this. Sorry this is so long. I hope you find your baby.

I had a cat when I became engaged. (Cooler, Sr.) He disappeared once in a while...just didn't see him every day, but would always come back. (His namesake, Cooler, Jr., does the same thing. Goes out before it rains and won't come back until after it stops. I know where he hangs out, though.)

Cooler, Sr., went out at some point and then didn't come back. He was gone so long, I gave away his food, at least 2 months after he left. The wedding is looming, and the week before we get the truck in the driveway and we're loading it up to move to Nashville. I come out with another box, and there's Cooler, Sr., sitting on his favorite chair in the back of the truck! He was gone for at least 3 months. He moved to Nashville with us, then we moved to a new house, and he would go back to the old house in the middle of the night, over a mile away!

I hope your kitty comes back. He's probably sitting very very quietly, and hiding even when you peer in at him under someone's porch. They're very hard to find when they don't want to be.

Karen

I'm envisioning your sweet catfriend safe in your arms again. My childhood kitty, Tabitha, disappeared during a stretch of wintry weather and when she didn't come home, we assumed she, in her old tough, independent way, had gone off to die in solitude. We missed her and were very sad, as we didn't think the old girl would have survived the snow and ice. About a week later, the family had just started talking about adopting another kitten someday -

and an outraged Tabitha appeared at the front door. ;)

Angels In Charge of Our Animal Friends - please guard Zorro and bring him home!

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Originally Posted by latelatebloomer

I'm envisioning your sweet catfriend safe in your arms again. My childhood kitty, Tabitha, disappeared during a stretch of wintry weather and when she didn't come home, we assumed she, in her old tough, independent way, had gone off to die in solitude. We missed her and were very sad, as we didn't think the old girl would have survived the snow and ice. About a week later, the family had just started talking about adopting another kitten someday -

and an outraged Tabitha appeared at the front door. ;)

Angels In Charge of Our Animal Friends - please guard Zorro and bring him home!

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she hasn't found him yet (that i know of) but I love hearing stories of cats coming back.

Put up flyers. We have a constant visitor I have dubbed "Charlie" that sleeps on my porch or in my shrubs, even lets me pet him or comes and sits with me while I am planting flowers. I am mindful not to feed him so he will go home because being a friendly guy I know he must be a pet (no collar). Maybe someone found Zorro and started feeding him since he is a pet cat and was friendly to them? Wishing you the best, we had a cat Sylvester growing up that would disappear for weeks it was so stressful but he came back.

Oh, this just breaks my heart. I don't know what I'd do if Ruthie ever got outside. It's nice to see all these happy endings, I truly hope your story turns out the same.

Cecil was about that age and on daily medication for hyperthyroidism when he went walkabout. Gone for 6 weeks!!!

I'm a vet but I had given him up as gone. One day I was working on a dog for a down-the-road-about-half-a-mile neighbor and I showed her Cecil's picture.

Cecil was home within an hour. I'm certain that she had him or knew who did and went right home and turned him loose. He had lost a lot of weight but he needed his meds.

I'll send prayers and positive thoughts for you finding your kitty.

Quick update...I haven't seen or heard him, but last night something ate the food left on the porch. It's been out for two nights and this is the first night that it's been eaten. I know it could be another cat, or racoon, or whatever...but it still gives me hope!

I also love reading the happy ending stories. They really lift my spirits!

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Originally Posted by oxysback

I also love reading the happy ending stories. They really lift my spirits!

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I have a happy ending story. A friend of mine was in India when one of the people subletting her NYC apartment accidentally let her cat out. All of her NY friends went looking, and couldn't find the cat. When she heard they were giving up after several days of looking, my friend left India and flew back to NY. Within a couple of hours of returning home, she found the kitty in the neighboring building's basement!

My mother also found her neighbor's cat in the basement. It had fallen through the window and broken her leg. She didn't make any noise, so know one knew she was down there. She was okay after a trip to the vet!

I'm keeping up hope!

Here are some more happy endings.

Dusty: We had just moved to a canyon area near LA and on move-in day, amidst the boxes and commotion, our oldest cat Dusty, took off. We put up posters, walked around calling her name.... It was a remote area, full of coyotes and we were so fearful that was it. One week later, DP was out walking calling her name when she heard a faint meow from down below in a valley. Tramped through the scrubrush to find an abandoned camper trailer with one scared but happy Dusty cat hiding underneath. Apparently the trailer was too low to the ground for the coyotes to get underneath.

Boo-Boo: In his younger years, he used to go out during the day and come back in at night. After these couple of experiences, he spent the rest of his life as an indoor kitty and seemed to content to keep it that way. ALL our cats became indoor kitties after these trials with Boo-Boo. (a) Did not come home one evening. Looked, called... 2 days later while out searching, heard his meow, could not figure out where it was coming from and finally found him behind a basement/crawlspace screened window of the neighbor's house. He had gotten in and could not figure out how to get out. (b) Took off one day and did not come home. Days passed, weeks... The local animal shelter (who we were in touch with) called one day saying they had found a cat matching his description, dead, hit by a car. Because the cat was not looking good, they didn't want us to look inside the box that they gave to bury. We buried this cat, cried and cried and went on with life. TWO MONTHS later, a meow at the front door at 5:30 AM and there sat Boo-Boo looking no worse for the wear. Some cat had a nice burial but it was not Boo-Boo, who was only 3 at the time. We just lost him last year at the age of 19 and had many wonderful years with him.

Sending positive thoughts that Zorro will find his way back home.

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Originally Posted by Norsegoddess

Boo-Boo: Took off one day and did not come home. Days passed, weeks... The local animal shelter (who we were in touch with) called one day saying they had found a cat matching his description, dead, hit by a car. Because the cat was not looking good, they didn't want us to look inside the box that they gave to bury. We buried this cat, cried and cried and went on with life. TWO MONTHS later, a meow at the front door at 5:30 AM and there sat Boo-Boo looking no worse for the wear. Some cat had a nice burial but it was not Boo-Boo, who was only 3 at the time. We just lost him last year at the age of 19 and had many wonderful years with him.

Sending positive thoughts that Zorro will find his way back home.

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what a funny story~!
I have some too.
My cat disappeared, not an outside cat. after 24 hours i was worried. I had a friend who was an astrologer and she did a chart for me. She said "your cat is being held prisoner by someone else who is a prisoner!" i thought, this is really silly, who would be a prisoner... but wait! my neighbors had a dog that was chained up to a huge tree. We went out back in that direction, and sure enough, we heard faint meowing, the cat was in the tree and couldn't come down because BUDDY the dog wouldn't let him. When the neighbors got home, we convinced them to take Buddy inside and the cat climbed down the tree and ran like mad for home.

WOW Mimi, that is some story! :eek: :eek: :eek:

I keep looking at this thread hoping for good news :(

Sending many good kitty vibes--- hoping that Zorro comes home soon!!

My friends Bob & Jack live in the Oakland hills and had a humongous cat. I forget the cat's name, let's call him Huge Cat or HC for short. ;) He was regal and pure black. If he was any bigger he'd have been a panther.

This cat had appeared at their door and just let himself in. Mixed indoor and outdoor he was "their" cat. They got him a collar, a little cat name tag. Periodically he'd leave for a few days but he always came back.

One day a phone call "your HC is our Bernie". Seems HC was double dipping and had two homes. The two families swapped numbers and would call each other "Bernie is here" "Is HC there?".

Another one more incredible when I was a kid people always dropped litters of kittens on our country road. What are they thinking that kittens will be happier on the road in the country :mad: but we had cats and cats and ... one litter included twin brothers we nicnamed "Mo" and "Less". Identical tabby cats right down to the pattern. Less was tan, Mo was grey. We found a home for Mo with a student at the nearby college and kept Less.

About 4 year later on top of the patio fence I see a bedraggled dehydrated scruffy dusty skinny cat and cry out "It's Mo!"

And it was.

He had not been to our home since he was a tiny kitten. He looked pretty bad from what might have been a 4 mile journey from the college area. We imagined his "forever home" got their degree and moved on leaving the cat. :mad: But Mo came home, cleaned up, ate, filled out and their he stayed till the end of his days.

He still drooled a little :rolleyes: but he was home.

Cats are certainly amazing creatures. Just amazing. :)

That is a great story, and great NAMES!

Another story reminds me of Otis. It was a dark and stormy night (really!). My parents and I (I was 14) came home from dinner one night in the driving rain, and there, sadly, was Otis, dead in the street. My father waited for the rain to slack off, and went out and buried Otis in the woods while I mourned.

The next day dawned beautiful as it is wont to do, and, as cats are wont to do, Otis came back to life and was scratching at the front door when I left for school!

Karen

p.s., We had a cockatiel named Cosmo'...cuz he cause mo' trouble den he was worth!

Okay, I had a cat named Pepe. My DH meant Peppy, but i thought he meant Pepe' like Pepe la pew. :-)

We were renting a house and didn't get along with our landlord very well. He lived 2 houses down from us. After about a year, he evicted us (ah, those were the days) and we moved to a house about 4 miles away. Two weeks later we went on vacation to Texas to visit my mother. When I returned, the house sitter told us Pepe had gone out the first day and never came back. Another week went by. We mourned our kitty. One night D was watching the news and the news caster talked about how he lost a cat and found him again at his old home. So DH kept bugging me to go back there. I didn't want to since we didn't exactly leave on good terms. finally i did. There was a new lady in the house. I described my cat, and she said she'd heard a cat under the house but hadn't for a while... I ran out and the crawl space was all boarded up. With super human strength, I started pulling out the boards because i could hear Pepe meowing!
I got the boards off and lifted my emaciated little cat and took him home, crying all the way. less than a week later, he was looking pretty good. He never strayed again.

Just a quick update: No sign of Zorro at all. I'm bringing home the Hav-a-Hart trap today (since my van is back from the shop) and getting it set up.

I'm still loving the stories!

Zorro is home where he belongs!!

We knew something had been eating the food we put out every night. We put the trap on the porch with a tarp over it and some food in it without setting it for the first few nights. We started setting the trap on Monday, but whoever was eating the food wasn't springing the trap. Last night we decided to close one end of the trap and put the food deep inside and it worked! Hubby stayed up later than I did last night and he heard it spring. Inside was a very dirty, disheveled Zorro!!

He's still scared and currently hiding behind the couch, but he's home! Poor thing did NOT get a warm welcome from our two other cats. I'm sure he smells funny to them.

Thank you all for the wonderful stories and words of encouragement!!

oh fantastic! I was thinking about you and Zorro just last night!

congratulations. You might help him get cleaned up :p

and the other cats will get over it too.
I'm so glad he's home.