DISPLACED INDOOR-ONLY CATS
If your indoor-only cat has escaped and is somewhere outside 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.
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!
This is because cats are territorial and their primary protective measure from predators is to hide in silence. Cats that are afraid or 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!
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!
This is because cats are territorial and their primary protective measure from predators is to hide in silence. Cats that are afraid or 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!
DISPLACED OUTDOOR-ACCESS 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). Displacement of outdoor cats can also happen when an outdoor-access cat is being transported to another location and accidently escapes -:
when involved in a car accident
escaping their carrier at a vet’s office
escaping a camper while on holiday
Most outdoor-access cats that are chased from their home end up hiding in a neighbor’s yard ten houses down, too disoriented and afraid to come home.
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.
when involved in a car accident
escaping their carrier at a vet’s office
escaping a camper while on holiday
Most outdoor-access cats that are chased from their home end up hiding in a neighbor’s yard ten houses down, too disoriented and afraid to come home.
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.
TEMPERAMENT AND RECOVERY
A 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 they will travel and whether or not they will respond to human contact.
Recovery techniques should be geared around a missing cat’s unique, individual temperament. If they are skittish, they will more likely be nearby hiding in fear, and you’ll need to use a humane trap to recover them. If they are gregarious, they could easily travel several blocks and you will need to knock on doors and post flyers.
Methods that should be used to search for a lost outdoor-access cat are much different than those used to search for a missing indoor-only cat!
When an outdoor-access cat disappears, it means that something has happened to the cat to interrupt its behaviour of coming home. 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.
Recovery techniques should be geared around a missing cat’s unique, individual temperament. If they are skittish, they will more likely be nearby hiding in fear, and you’ll need to use a humane trap to recover them. If they are gregarious, they could easily travel several blocks and you will need to knock on doors and post flyers.
Methods that should be used to search for a lost outdoor-access cat are much different than those used to search for a missing indoor-only cat!
When an outdoor-access cat disappears, it means that something has happened to the cat to interrupt its behaviour of coming home. 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.
FINDING YOUR CAT
Lost cat posters will not always help find your cat if it has crawled under your neighbour’s deck and is injured and silent. Area based social media posts should be targeted in the immediate area of where the cat disappeared. Most often this involves an aggressive, physical search of a cat’s territory. This means looking under and in every conceivable hiding place in your yard and in your neighbours’ yards!
In 2017, a study was conducted by the University of Queensland. 1,232 cat owners who had 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.
When an outdoor-access cat vanishes, the investigative question and mystery to solve is:
In 2017, a study was conducted by the University of Queensland. 1,232 cat owners who had 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 for missing OUTDOOR-ACCESS CATS was roughly a 17-house radius from their owner’s home.
- The median distance for displaced / escaped INDOOR-ONLY CATS cats was much less, roughly a 2 ½ house radius from their owner’s home.
When an outdoor-access cat vanishes, the investigative question and mystery to solve is:
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAT?
Eight probability categories related to lost cat behaviour1). YOUR CAT IS TRAPPED
Your cat could be up a tree, on a roof, under a house, inside a neighbour’s garage 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.2). 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.3). 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.4). YOUR CAT WAS INTENTIONALLY TRANSPORTED OUT OF THE AREA
Cases of intentional removal include a cat-hating neighbour who captures your cat and either takes it to a distant shelter or dumps it in a field far from your home.5). YOUR CAT IS INJURED, SICK, OR IS DECEASED
Injured or sick 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.6). 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.7). 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.8). YOUR CAT WAS KILLED BY A PREDATOR
This is sad to think about, but it does happen.ADDITIONAL LOST CAT BEHAVIOURS
The Silence Factor:
This is lost cat behaviour 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.The Threshold Factor:
Many of these cats initially hide in silence, but eventually, break cover and meow, return to their home or to 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 up to two weeks before they break cover.KITTY LITTER MYTH
Many websites recommend that if your cat is lost that you spread cat litter, cat feces, or scent articles of the cat owner around the home that the cat is missing from. The concept is that your cat ran away or is out of the area and by putting something with your scent on it (e.g. a used t-shirt) in your yard, it will attract your cat and encourage him to come back home. Some also advocate putting out dirty cat litter or feces—as if the cat needs this cue to help him find his way back home. We do not advocate this practice for the following reasons:
The first reason 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 we believe 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.
You can likely find many online testimonials from cat owners who claim positive results from scent luring scattering dirty cat litter or feces in their yards or placing their cat’s litterbox on their porch. It is more likely that these cats returned home due to one of two factors: a behavior called “The Threshold Phenomenon” (described above) or simply due to their temperament than due to anything that they smelled. Cat owners mistakenly associate the fact that their cat returned home due to a scent lure (used cat litter) when, in fact, their particular cat would have returned home on its own anyway with or without a scent lure because it finally reached its threshold (indoor-only cats hiding in fear) or the cat was trapped somewhere and finally got free (outdoor cat trapped in neighbor’s garage, up a tree, etc.).
The final reason why we do not advocate using dirty cat litter as a scent lure for cats is the most important one: it is a passive approach to finding a lost cat.
Cat owners might believe they are “doing something” by placing dirty clothing or cat feces in their yard. Some Internet folklore posts have claimed that “cats can smell a mile away” and advise you to simply put your cat’s litterbox outside, claiming “it works!”
However, scientific research has shown that these cat owners would have a higher chance of recovering their cat by conducting an aggressive, physical search of their yard and their neighbour’s yards.
We understand that it is less intrusive to your neighbors to set out a dirty cat litter box on your porch and hope that your cat will come home than it is to ask your neighbor permission to enter their yard and to crawl around under their house or deck.
The first reason 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 we believe 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.
You can likely find many online testimonials from cat owners who claim positive results from scent luring scattering dirty cat litter or feces in their yards or placing their cat’s litterbox on their porch. It is more likely that these cats returned home due to one of two factors: a behavior called “The Threshold Phenomenon” (described above) or simply due to their temperament than due to anything that they smelled. Cat owners mistakenly associate the fact that their cat returned home due to a scent lure (used cat litter) when, in fact, their particular cat would have returned home on its own anyway with or without a scent lure because it finally reached its threshold (indoor-only cats hiding in fear) or the cat was trapped somewhere and finally got free (outdoor cat trapped in neighbor’s garage, up a tree, etc.).
The final reason why we do not advocate using dirty cat litter as a scent lure for cats is the most important one: it is a passive approach to finding a lost cat.
Cat owners might believe they are “doing something” by placing dirty clothing or cat feces in their yard. Some Internet folklore posts have claimed that “cats can smell a mile away” and advise you to simply put your cat’s litterbox outside, claiming “it works!”
However, scientific research has shown that these cat owners would have a higher chance of recovering their cat by conducting an aggressive, physical search of their yard and their neighbour’s yards.
We understand that it is less intrusive to your neighbors to set out a dirty cat litter box on your porch and hope that your cat will come home than it is to ask your neighbor permission to enter their yard and to crawl around under their house or deck.
BEST METHODS TO FIND A MISSING CAT
- 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.
- The method that has resulted in the recovery of thousands of “missing” indoor-only and outdoor-access cats is the same method used to capture feral cats; the use of a humane trap.
- A physical search of your neighbour’s yards and in many cases a food lure (placed inside a humane trap or set down on the ground with a wildlife camera pointing at it) is the best type of lure to use and is a highly effective recovery method.
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