Lost Pet | Ahcinf

Lost Cat Behavior

How do cats behave when they get lost?

History

Back in 1997, MAR Network Director Kat Albrecht began to study the behavioral patterns of lost cats and dogs. Due to a background in search-and-rescue (searching for lost people), Kat understood the critical connection between behavior and the distances that people travel when lost. It made sense to Kat that the behavior of cats (and dogs) would also influence the distances that they travel.

Lost vs Displaced

If your indoor-only cat has escaped and is somewhere outside or in unfamiliar territory there is good news — your cat is probably not “lost” at all!

In most cases, a cat that is unexpectedly transplanted into an unfamiliar area is considered a DISPLACED CAT. Most cases of displacement involve indoor-only cats that escape outside.

However, outdoor-access cats can become displaced as well.

When cats are displaced into an unfamiliar area, the cat is most likely hiding in silence, often not far from the escape point, and they will not meow!

Not Meowing - Hiding in Silence

This is because cats are territorial and their primary protective measure from predators is to hide in silence. Cats that are afraid (and cats that are injured) will seek areas of concealment such as under a deck, under a house, under a porch, or in heavy brush and they will not meow! Meowing would give up their location to a predator.

Their behavior has nothing to do with whether the cat loves you, whether it recognizes your voice, or whether it can smell you–it has everything to do with the fact that a frightened cat will hide in silence!

Equipment Needed: Traps

We highly recommend the Tru-Catch brand of humane traps (the brown trap shown on the right – which is the size “30D” and fits small cats like this 10 pound gray tabby).

Order the size “36D” if your cat is larger). Compared to other traps (like the one on the left) which close loudly when shut, the Tru-Catch is much quieter and is less likely to panic a cat when initially trapped. You can order them on-line at http://www.trucatchtraps.com.

We do have traps to lend out, please contact us for more information

Recovery Through Trapping

The method that Kat Albrecht and her network have pioneered (starting back in 1999) that has resulted in the recovery of thousands of “missing” indoor-only cats (and displaced outdoor-access cats) is the same method used to capture feral cats–the use of a humane trap. We call this “trap-and-reunite” or “TAR.” These wire cages are available for rental from your local shelter or veterinarian or for sale at hardware stores, pet stores, or online. Humane traps have a trip mechanism that when triggered by a cat (or other small animal), will shut the door and contain a cat inside.

Equipment Needed: Cameras

To better track the movements of your cat, we recommend placing security cameras with night vision pointed at the front and back porches - or the entry point from which your cat escaped and where you place their bedding (something that smells like home and the trap).

We use Yi or Wyze security camericas becuase they are cheap and easy - purchase them off amazon. another alternative is a trail cameria. We pick these up a the feedstore, best buy or amazon. If we have cameras you may request we lend them to you for a refundable $25/camera.

Lost Cats

They Don't Stray Far

Cats are territorial and they do not just run away from home (like dogs do). Thus the tactics and techniques used to search for a missing cat should be different than those used to search for a missing dog.

Importance of a Physical

Search Lost cat posters will not always help find your cat if it has crawled under your neighbor’s deck and is injured and silent. Large, neon lost cat posters should be used, and social media posts (especially for area-based social networks like Next Door), however, social media posts and neon posters should be a supplement to a targeted search in the immediate area of where the cat disappeared. Most often this involves an aggressive, physical search of a cat’s territory. And yes, that means looking under and in every conceivable hiding place in your yard and in your neighbors’ yards!

They're often frightened or in survival mode

In one of the investigations that Kat Albrecht solved, her cat-detection dog located a missing cat named Gizmo who was missing for 3 days. Gizmo was hiding inside an abandoned bathtub in a yard just two houses away. While some cats have the remarkable ability to use the homing instinct to work their way back to their territory, other cats that are displaced either don’t possess this skill or they’re too frightened to use it.

In cases of displacement, even though the cat is technically an “outdoor-access cat,” it is a DISPLACED CAT when it ends up in an area that is unfamiliar.Cat temperament will help find out where they wentA cat’s individual temperament can range anywhere from a bold “clown-like” cat to the other end of the spectrum which is a catatonic “feral-like” cat. This temperament will also influence how far he/she will travel and whether or not he/she will respond to human contact.

Recovery techniques

Recovery should be geared around a missing cat’s unique, individual temperament. If he or she is skittish, he/she will more likely be nearby hiding in fear and you’ll need to use a humane trap to recover him/her. If he or she is gregarious, he/she could easily travel several blocks (even a mile or two) and you’ll need to knock on doors and post fluorescent posters at major intersections in the area.

In 2017, a study was conducted by the University of Queensland, Australia (Kat Albrecht and Dr. Jacquie Rand conceived the study and UOQ and MPP collaborated on the study). Here is a summary of the study results:

1,232 cat owners who’d lost a cat took part in the study.
The number one method that was the most successful in recovering a missing cat was conducting a physical search of the area.
The median distance found (how far the cats traveled) for missing outdoor-access cats was 315 meters (344 yards). This is roughly a 17-house radius from their owner’s home.
The median distance found (how far the cats traveled) for displaced / escaped indoor-only cats was much less—it was only 50 meters (54 yards) which is roughly a 2 ½ house radius from their owner’s home.

The results of this scientific study confirm what Kat Albrecht discovered years ago and that she teaches in the MAR course—the physical search for a missing cat needs to focus within your immediate neighborhood! Social media posts are important, but obtaining permission from your neighbor to search their property is critical! Simply handing a flyer to your neighbor and asking them to “search” for your cat IS NOT ENOUGH! Your neighbor is not going to get on their belly to look under their deck or under their house, yet that is where your cat is most likely to be! It is up to you, the owner, to conduct this type of slow, methodical search with a flashlight.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAT? There are basically eight things that could have happened to your cat–we call these “Probability Categories.” As you search for your missing cat, consider which category seems the most likely for your particular cat:

Categories of Lost Cats

YOUR CAT IS TRAPPED –Your cat could be up a tree, on a roof, under a house, inside a neighbor’s basement or shed. This means that your cat would likely be within its normal territory, usually a 5-house radius of your home. If your cat has ever vanished for a few days and came home very thirsty or hungry, he might be prone to becoming trapped.
YOUR CAT IS DISPLACED INTO AN UNFAMILIAR AREA – Cats that are chased from their territory either by dogs, people, or other cats who beat them up and cats that are panicked by fireworks will often become “displaced” into unfamiliar territory. Many of these cats, once their adrenaline levels have subsided, will work their way back home, often showing up the next day or a few days later. But many of these cats, especially those with skittish temperaments, will be so panicked by the experience that they will hide in fear and will be too afraid to return home.
YOUR CAT WAS UNINTENTIONALLY TRANSPORTED OUT OF THE AREA –Cases of unintentional transport include your cat climbing into a moving van or service vehicle and being transported to another city or even across the country.
YOUR CAT WAS INTENTIONALLY TRANSPORTED OUT OF THE AREA –Cases of intentional removal include a cat-hating neighbor who captures your cat and either takes it to a distant shelter or dumps it in a field far from your home.
YOUR CAT IS INJURED, SICK, OR IS DECEASED –Injured or sick (or displaced, panicked) cats will hide in silence. What this means is that before you print up lost cat posters or drive down to your shelter to look for your lost cat, SEARCH under and in every conceivable hiding place on your own property and on your neighbors’ property!
YOUR CAT WAS RESCUED –By “rescue” we mean someone found your cat and assumed it was an abandoned stray and they took it into their house. This happens frequently, especially with cats that are not microchipped or that do not wear a collar and ID tag.
YOUR CAT WAS STOLEN –Thankfully, this is just not very likely. While some purebred and exotic cats are stolen, the incidents where someone knowingly steals a cat are quite rare.
YOUR CAT WAS KILLED BY A PREDATOR –This is sad to think about, but it does happen. Coyotes and Great Horned owls are predators that occasionally prey upon cats and small dogs if the opportunity presents itself. If you live in an area where these and other predators (hawks, eagles, cougars, etc.) roam, then this is a factor that you should consider. However, although coyotes can and do sometimes kill cats, not all coyotes are cat killers! We’ve encountered many cases where cats were lost for weeks in areas where coyotes dwelled and the cats were never harmed.

The Silence Factor

The Silence Factor: This is a term that Kat Albrecht coined to describe the lost cat behavior when a sick, injured, or panicked cat will hide in silence. It is a natural form of protection for a cat to find a place to hide under a house, a deck, a porch, bushes, or any place they can crawl.

The Silence Factor kills many cats because while the cat is sick or injured and hiding under a neighbor’s deck, cat owners are typically busy “looking” for their cat down at the local shelter or they are busy posting flyers on telephone poles. Instead, the proper search for most cats in most situations is to conduct an aggressive, physical search of the immediate area while understanding that the cat might be close by but hiding in silence.

Kitty Litter Myth

We don’t recommend the kitty litter method is that the urine/feces scent could attract aggressive cats into the yard where a missing cat could be hiding.

Cats are territorial and when an indoor-only cat escapes outdoors, that cat is often hiding within the territory of another (outside) neighborhood cat. Dirty cat litter can attract community “tom” cats (intact male cats) or other territorial neighborhood cats and that scent could predispose them to want to defend their territory, drawing them into the area where a displaced cat is hiding in silence. These territorial cats are put into defense mode when they detect the pheromones from another cat’s urine and feces, causing them to be ready to fight. These cats are then more likely to beat up and chase the lost (displaced) cat from his hiding place, making a recovery more difficult.

However, using cat food (and a wildlife camera) will draw a territorial cat in also, but the scent of food will not likely trigger the same level of aggression/readiness to fight as urine and feces would. None of this has been proven in a scientific study (yet), but it is the opinion of the MAR Network that you are better off investing time and effort in conducting a physical search for your lost cat and using wildlife cameras or a humane trap than you are in putting out dirty cat litter.

Lost Kittens (under 3 months)

Kittens will be drawn to the sound of a mother cat calling them. They have been taught by their mother to not make noise to survive so you will need to play the sounds of a mother cat calling her kittens in order to prompt them to call back or come out of hiding. Otherwise they will only cry when hungry or in pain.

The Threshold Factor

The Threshold Factor: This is an interesting behavioral pattern that Kat Albrecht observed with displaced cats. Many of these cats initially hide in silence, but eventually, break cover and meow, return to their home or the escape point (window or door), or finally enter a humane trap. While some cats take only hours or a few days to reach their threshold, many others take several days (typically ten to twelve days) before they break cover. We suspect the threshold is reached due to their thirst, although more research needs to be conducted into this lost cat behavior.

Cat Stuck Up A Tree?

If you locate your missing cat trapped up in a tree and you need assistance, visit the Cat in a Tree Rescue. Find a local tree company to assist.

Using Cameras

The use of cameras to recover lost and displaced cats is a primary way to confirm a cat’s location and can provide details on where to place humane traps.

Here’s a link to an article that proves the benefits of security and game cameras.

Sometimes setting a humane trap is not the best method to use to recover a missing cat. In many cases, the use of digital wildlife cameras combined with feeding stations is a better way to confirm possible sightings or to confirm that your displaced cat is still in the immediate area. Cameras work especially well in cases where a cat is displaced in an apartment complex where there are zillions of cats, in areas where there are many raccoons, or in other situations where a humane trap would be difficult to use. The concept is setting out food with a wildlife camera that will snap photos of all the animals that eat that food so that when you come back the next morning, you can pull the SD card, put it in your computer, and see photos of raccoon, raccoon, raccoon, CALICO!! THERE IS MY CAT!!

We recommend infrared cameras that do not flash (because then no one sees them and they are not likely to be stolen).

Outdoor Access Lost Cats

Displacement for outdoor-access cats happens when the cat is chased out of their known territory (i.e. beat up by another cat, chased by a dog, or even panicked by fireworks where the cat bolts in fear and ends up in a yard he has never been in before). Displacement of outdoor cats can also happen when an outdoor-access cat is being transported to another location and accidently escapes—like when involved in a roll over car accident, escaping their carrier at a vet’s office, or escaping a camper while on a camping trip. Over the years, we’ve discovered that outdoor-access cats that were chased from their home ended up hiding in a neighbor’s yard ten houses down, too disoriented and afraid to come home! In these cases, even though the cat is technically an “outdoor-access cat,” it is a DISPLACED CAT and you should follow the instructions for displaced cats.