Conference misery::feline_v1

    Hello Greg:
    
    I know you don't want to hear sad stories about other lost cats,
    but it might interest you to take a read through note 1811, where
    I posted a notice of our lost calico cat, who has not yet been
    found. (It's only (!) been two weeks for me, as well.)
    
     I have gotten lots
    of support and info. from folks in this notesfile, and it's
    a good place to look for help. Also, although I can't give you
    any positive feeling right now about finding your cat, at least
    you can know that other folks understand and are going through
    the same emotional hardship you are experiencing. We can compare
    notes on what we've done in our search, etc.
    
    As seen from my experience (and others' in replies to note 1811),
    cats *will* roam long distances, evidently *especially* to find
    their own (old) homes. Sigh, it's really frustrating -- I guess
    hearing that doesn't help you, does it? Well, keep in mind
    that cats are free spirits, to say the least, and many a cat
    has gone for a "walk-about" for a week or a month and then came home
    looking for a home cooked meal. I fear, in my case, we won't
    be so lucky, but you are close by and can keep a close eye out
    for your friend. 
    
    So, keep up the faith.
     
    Regards, Barbara Corman

    well, when my house was robbed Argus got out. I was sick with worry
    but I did eventually get him back. I canvased the neighorhood with
    a friend and passed out flyers. Gus was seen as far away as two
    streets over, covering about a half of a square mile. He was spending
    most of his time in the woods in back of my house. He was a little
    beatup, and thinner, but he was OK.
    
    According to the yellow pages, in Lexington Ma there is (believe
    it or not) a pet retrieval service called "Suzi the Retriver" who
    goes out and looks for lost pets. I don't know what she charges,
    or anything else about her, but you might want to call and find
    out about the service that she offers.
    
    Deb

    Greg,
    
    I live in Leominster (kind of far away), but if there is anything
    I can do to help, Please contact me.
    
    Have you tried calling all the local shelters?  Some nice person
    may have picked him up and brought him there.
    
    My prayers are with you, in hopes that everything goes well.
    
    Good luck 
    
    Kathy
    

    This is probably NOT your cat, but I wouldn't feel right not to
    mention it:
    
    I live between you and your friend (it sounds like, anyway).  There
    is a black and white outdoor (or indoor/outdoor) cat in the 3-family
    next door.  He often hangs out on the porch on the other half of
    my duplex townhouse.  I wouldn't know if it is always the same cat
    or not, but there is a black and white cat running around here...
    maybe, just maybe there are two of them?
    
    I hate to raise hopes in case this is nothing to do with your cat...
    
    	Pennie   617-648-9020 (Arlington, about 1 block up from Cumberland
    				Farms, 1/2 block off Mass Ave)

    Barbara, thanks for the quick response.  Everyone here seems to
    be really supportive.
    
    It does seem like we have similar problems, although there is a
    lot of hope in the fact that the weather here has been so good lately
    that it wouldn't be any problem for a cat to manage to find adequate
    food and shelter.
    
    Also, I have heard a several stories where cats have traveled 40
    or 50 miles and found their old homes; even in densly populated
    areas.  I even heard one person say that they had a cat that had
    to cross the Merrimack River to get home, and was none the worse
    when it got home.

    I'll keep my fingers crossed for Both cats to come home safely.
    
    /greg
    

    Hi,
    
    I'm Greg's (the author) wife, and just wanted to add a few things.
    
    First, thanks for the quick responses and the empathy provided by
    all.
    
    Also, Elroy is an outdoor cat, so his outdoor skills are pretty
    honed at this point (he's 6).  This case is unique, unfortunately,
    since he didn't disappear from our house and that he got a 2 week
    head start (on whatever he's doing right now!?) before we got home
    from our vacation.  Our friends tried finding him, but he's just
    not going to respond to them like he (hopefully) will to us.
    
    Again, thanks, and please keep the ideas coming.  We've already
    followed up on a few of these very helpful responses.
    
    Leslie

    Have you asked your friends' neighbors to check any place he might
    have gotten accidentally shut in like a garage or shed?
    

    Those that we managed to find at home we did.  We'll keep trying
    the others, though.
    
    I even searched our friends' house for an hour last night to see
    if maybe he had crawled into the eaves and down into a wall or
    something like that.  I also checked under each piece of furniture,
    in the oven, in boxes, etc, just in case he freaked out and was
    catatonic (no pun intended :) ).
    
    My friends thought I was totally insane (I didn't disagree with them),
    but it's amazing what you'll do when you're desperate ...
    
    Thanks for the good idea.
    
    Leslie

    A friend over here in Reading said that she lost a cat several years
    ago, and went around stuffing notices in neighbors' mailboxes 
    requesting that they search their garages, etc. Evidently,
    it worked; the cat was returned within a day. I think that
    mailbox idea is brilliant! You might want to consider it.
    
    Cheers, Barbara

    Re:  Notices in mailboxes
    
    It is against the law to put things in peoples mailboxes.  You may
    want to stick flyers in newsspaper boxes instead.
    
    

    Sounds like a great idea (the mailboxes).  I've done it to a very
    limited extent.
    
    It's interesting that it's against the law.  Unfortunately, there
    aren't any newspaper boxes in Arlington.  It's also awkward to put
    the flyers in mailboxes, since the boxes are attached to houses,
    not out by the street.
    
    We'll keep trying.
    
    Again, thanks ...
    
    Leslie

    As a political activist, I have yet to meet a doorway that didn't
    have some place to leave flyers -- partlyt under the door mat, tucked
    inside the screen door, etc.
    

    You know, when my chrisue was lost I didn't know at the time that
    putting fliers in mailboxes was against the law but you know what?
    If I did know, I'd still do it no matter what.  I walked for miles
    to put them in mailboxes, on doorsteps, stopped joggers, cars at stop 
    signs, the local rod and gun club (of which they put his picture
    behind the bar and got several calls) anything to get him back.
    
    I GOT HIM BACK!!!                                                 
    
    I really wish you luck and don't give up especially walking around
    calling his name because he could  be a little mad you left
    and he's trying to give you a scare!!!! 
    
    
                              
    
    

    Well, if he's just trying to scare us, he succeeded at that a long
    time ago!
    
    Yes, we agree with the "do anything and everything" approach.  This
    weekend, we are going to canvas as much territory as possible.
    
    By the way, can you give more details on the situation with your
    cat?  How long was it gone?  Where was it?  How did it get lost
    in the first place (e.g., indoor cat escape, escape from strange
    place, etc.)
    
    It's really inspirational (and we can use all we can get at this
    point :^(  ) to hear success stories.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Leslie

    Well, I'm sorry to say he was only gone for 6 days (I shouldn't
    say only since it seemed like a lifetime to me).  It was at my
    future in-laws house in Marlboro.  My fiance and I just went to
    visit and left for a couple of hours to do errands. Now Chrisue 
    frequently visits there and knows the surrounding (inside).  He is 
    an indoor cat but I had previously several times let him out on a 
    leash to get to know the surroundings just in case something like this 
    should happen. But the only thing (the most important) I didn't do was 
    keep a collar on him inside so when he got lost there was no 
    identification. It's a quiet neighborhood with woods but a busy 
    street nearby.   Needless to say, he snuck outside when a door was
    opened.   He was 8 months old then.
    
    I received many phone calls saying they saw him (in different
    areas but in the same vicinity) so I immediately went there and
    kept walking up and down the street calling his name.  I also left
    his food outside, this was the 3rd or 4th day I did this.  Food
    was gone the next morning but I didn't know if it was him or another
    animal.  I kept thinking it was him though.
    
    Well sure enough at 5:30 in the morning on the 6th day the future 
    in-laws called me and said he was scratching at the door to come 
    in and that he was safe.  At 5:40 I was at their doorstep (normally 
    takes 20 min) and he was in my arms.  Do you know that he was as clean 
    as the day he left, no scratches, nothing!  The only conclusion we 
    came to was either he was locked in a garage that someone didn't know he
    was there, or someone kept him thinking he was a stray with no id,
    saw the flier and just let him go thinking he would find his way
    home or he was just having one heck of a time and didn't want to
    come back.
    My question to you, is your cat familiar with the surroundings
    outside?  I'm sorry but I forget if you said yours was an indoor
    or outdoor.  Well anyways if he is familiar, maybe leave some food
    out or his favorite treat.  And if he's not (I forgot to mention
    I did this) I took his cat litter from the box and spread it in
    the wooded areas near the house to hopefully attract his own scent
    and to lead his way home.  That was the main thing I was most nervous
    about was that this wasn't his home (Marlboro) and that he would 
    never come back, but he did.
    
    There are many notes in here with happy endings that helped me through
    this time.  Many people told me that cats tend to do this and sometimes
    don't come back for many weeks because there having too much of
    a good time, but ultimately they miss there loving parents at home 
    and come back!!!!!!
    
    I sincerely hope we can share our happy endings soon!!
    
      

    The problem with putting flyers in mailboxes is not that it's illegal
    -- it's that if the letter carrier finds them and he's feeling nasty,
    he'll throw them away.
    

    Elroy is an outdoor cat, so I'm not concerned about his survival
    skills out there.  He NEVER takes off from our house for more than
    a few hours at a time.  He pretty consistently checks in.
    
    Again, in this case, we took him to unfamiliar surroundings, thinking
    (obviously naively) that he would become acclimated within a couple
    of days (he does do this at my in-laws' in N.Y.) and be OK.  He
    was kept inside for a couple of days, then did come back his first
    day out, but didn't after that.
    
    We have gotten numerous reports about his possible appearances and
    have chased down them all, sometimes to find that it's another cat
    and (worse) others to not see the alleged cat and never know if
    it's him.  So, it's impossible for us to see a pattern in all of
    the reports.  FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I called our answering
    machine this morning and got a message "I saw your cat out back.
     Good luck."  Some people just don't think (or perhaps sadistic)!
    
    Also, in our local paper, there are 3 other cats missing with similar
    descriptions.  So, maybe there's a Black Cat With White Paws Cult
    that has kittynapped all of these cats.  Actually, we're going to
    call those owners and try to at least coordinate efforts ...
    
    Anyway, we're just hoping that he's still in the vicinity (maybe
    he followed us to our vacation in California :^) ? )  We will continue
    to distribute flyers, every way we can, and roam the streets calling
    him.
    
    Thanks for the details, and I'm glad you got yours back ...
    
    Leslie

    Leslie, just wanted to let you know that I'm still praying for 
    Elroy's safe return!!  
    
    Please keep us posted of any news!
    
    Sue                    
    

    Sue,
    
    Thank you for your well wishes.
    
    The latest is that we got several calls yesterday, 3 of which turned
    out to be confirmed to be other cats, all looking like ours!
    
    So, it doesn't sound like anyone has spotted Elroy, but it's really
    difficult to tell.  We certainly do have a lot of people in Arlington
    doing everything they can to keep any eye out for him, though. 
    It's incredible how people respond.
    
    We've been hoping that he's still in Arlington, but he may be in
    Syracuse by now :) :(
    
    So, we're still plugging away ...
    
    Will keep you posted, and thanks again.
    
    Leslie