Hot weather can result in uncool cats. In the UK, when the weather is genuinely summery we are pleased but one downside for cat lovers is that their cat is more likely to go walkabout and not come back.
There has been a 13% increase in lost cats in the UK for the months of June, July and first half of August, so says the RSPCA.
The reasons for the increase are believed to be a combination of the following:
- Cats naturally roam more in warmer weather, a common sense reason. They want to get out more and explore. This might mean a cat goes further. Going further might result in getting lost. The argument that when a cat goes further he might get lost is against our knowledge of cats as good navigators. Cats can return home over long distances when moved to a new home. Clearly not all cats are good navigators.
- Roaming and exploring cats are also inquisitive. They enter garden sheds and get locked in. That is certainly a possibility.
- The RSPCA also think that cats will be more likely to meet people who are outside, for example having a barbeque. This may upset the cat, which may lead to becoming confused and lost.
- I wonder too if, as people are outside more, there is a greater possibility that cat and human are more likely to come into conflict. Some people are unhappy with strange cats wandering into the garden. The cat may pee on the person’s prized plants. The person may become upset and the cat may be hurt. I don’t know. This seems like a possibility to me in which case the cat may not be lost but dead (perhaps).
Search results for ‘lost cat’ on PoC
Both neutering tomcats and microchipping all free roaming cats are two steps that cat owners should take to help protect their cats from getting lost or being unable to return home. Neutering reduces the male cat’s desire to roam and male cats usually roam further than females. Microchipping identifies a cat’s owner if and when he is far from home and no one knows where he came from.
Nine-year-old silver tabby Pablo disappeared from Brockley, south London, last October, with distraught owner Siobhan Campbell giving him up for dead. But last week Pablo strolled into a branch of TSB bank in Rosyth, Fife. His owner was traced thanks to the microchip.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2465348/Mystery-cat-set-reunited-owner-year-went-missing–later-bank-450-miles-away.html
That is a good story. Thanks Sarah for picking it out. I haven’t microchipped my cat 😉 Sounds bad but it is like he is glued to me. Microchipping has massive benefits. There is a slight downside as you know – cancer at the site. It is a risk/benefit decision but microchipping is positively beneficial for the vast majority of cats.
Monty would be less likely to roam in warm weather. He lies in the shade, sprawled out, trying to keep cool. His black fur makes him hot, I suppose. I worry most about him deciding to wander in cool weather– not bitterly cold, but brisk. That is his favorite– and mine too. But he always has stayed in his fenced yard so far.
I can just imagine you climbing over the fence in hot pursuit Ruth lol
I would try. Were I still in my teens or early twenties I could scale that fence as easy as breathing. Not sure I could make it now, but I surely would try. Luckily, Monty seems to have little interest in the world beyond his back yard paradise. He knows where his food bowl gets filled.
Before I’d attempt scaling the fence I’d try yelling out “Monty, treat!” That probably would get him right back on his own side without my embarrassing myself.
Ad has changed – much better – its about vet services!
Red went further in the hot weather. I think that was the last ingredient that enabled him to cross that road and perhaps fall asleep the other side and wake up after the traffic had started. He went much longer and I assume further with the hot weather. He died when the first really hot summer nights hit. I was aware of it and I hoped he was being careful 🙁
so very sad 🙁
Hurrah. I think I prefer Yahoo and Bing these days as search engines because Google has become so aggressive and “American”. Yahoo and Bing treat PoC better.
Wow, that is a tough reminder of what good weather can do. Whenever you mention Red, I feel sad.
I feel like I’m missing something. I don’t see any of the ads many of you talk about.
Thanks Dee 😉 Pleased. I have changed the ad that is in the right hand column. I was thinking about doing it anyway as Yahoo have agreed to me advertising on PoC. That ad is now a Yahoo advert.
He looks like Zorro up there. He is staying high up. That is where cats outdo humans. Pleased he feels better.
I’m not a happy boy today, I hate vets and I hate taking medication.
Looks like antibiotics. Although I can’t read it. What is wrong with the boy? I don’t like hearing about your cats going to the vet.
Update: I didn’t read your comment fully. I’ll update this comment!
Update: Interesting pollen allergy. I might do some work on that. The best of luck to Jozef.
He had an antibiotic/steroid injection to start him off and has a course of each to start tomorrow night for a week, then go back.
Remember he was coughing back in January and had tests and X rays and they found nothing wrong and he was better quickly. He’s been back a few times since early July as it started again but each time the vets found nothing wrong at all because it comes in bouts. It felt like they didn’t believe us until today when we managed to see the vet we trust most.
It doesn’t affect Jo’s life or eating or playing or hunting at all but we are worried it keeps happening and going back and forking out more money and no further forward. Our vet is hopeful this treatment will put him right once and for all and we hope so too, vets trips are such a trauma for him and for us!
It is concerning because cat allergies seem to be troublesome for vets. Often, they can’t “cure” them. What they do is “treat” them which basically means removing the symptoms. I hope this works for Jozef. I wish him the best of luck.
Thanks Michael, it’s almost impossible to track down the cause of the allergy as it could be one of hundreds of things, but if this treatment works and it ever flares up again it will be in his records what to give him.
He seems a bit better already from the injection, his course of 2 sorts of tablets start tonight, he is a nightmare of a cat to dose. Babz says she will do the deed so he doesn’t hate both of us lol
I’m feeling much better and haven’t coughed for 2 whole days and nights now but I hate taking the tablets and pretend they’ve gone down and spit one out.
The vet said I can eat and drink more because of the steroids and our Walter is jealous so I said OK you can go to the vets next week for a check up instead of me, that shut him up!
Yes Cats Protection lost and found have had an increase in missing cats this Summer.
Also I think the unusual heat we have had is bad for very old cats. Four friends have lost their very old cats, only one was PTS, the other three chose their own time to say goodbye.
Allergies in cats are on the rise too, we’ve just been back to the vets today with our Jozef, he’s on a course of treatment to try to calm his down, our vet said she is seeing more cats with allergies this year. She thinks Jo’s is a pollen type of allergy, like our hay fever. She also said she is seeing cats with allergies caused by mould spores in damp houses after all the rain we had. So indoor cats are faring no better than indoor/outdoor cats, worse off in fact because they are shut 24 hours a day in a damp house with no escape from it.