Sometimes people living in suburbia see what they believe to be a friendly, domestic cat who looks lost. The cat comes up to them looking for company. They are still there in the afternoon hanging around and it’s getting late. They decide to do something about it. The best way to reunite a neighbourhood lost cat with their owner is to take the cat to a vet to check for a microchip. That presents problems because you might not have a cat carrier. But then again you can buy microchip scanners on Amazon for about $30 and scan the cat yourself.
If the microchip is up-to-date, the contact details can be used to reunite cat with owner. If the cat is not micro-chipped and if the cat is friendly enough to come into your home and finally if you don’t have any other barriers to a cat coming into your home, I would suggest the method as set out in the Infographic below.
There is no certainty of success but over a period of a few days or a week there is a fair chance that the neighbour who has lost their cat will walk past your house and knock on your door having seen the sign.
Method has been successful deployed
Where did I get the idea? From my neighbour! About a month ago I went for a walk to the town center. On the way I met a man and a ginger tabby cat. He was not the caregiver of the ginger tabby but the cat was very friendly towards him. He explained that he believed that the cat was lost and he was knocking on doors to try and find the owner.
As it happens, he knocked on the right door but they weren’t in because they were on holiday. The owners of the cat had asked another neighbour to check-in on their cat and to feed him while they were away for two weeks. I don’t think that’s a great idea because you don’t know how reliable the neighbour is, and secondly you don’t know how your cat will respond to an unknown person coming into the home.
And it went wrong. The ginger tabby left his home and wandered around the neighbourhood. The man I mention above couldn’t find the owner and went about his business. The next day I walked down the same road and saw a sign outside a house about four houses down. It was the same kind of sign that you see in the Infographic on this page.
I knocked on the door and spoke to him. He said that he had found a ginger tabby and taken him in. He described the cat as very friendly. I suggested that he get a veterinarian to scan for a microchip. He did that and found out that there was no microchip. He also put the sign up on the chance that it might work.
About a week later I met him again and he told me that it had worked. The cat’s owners lived about six houses down. Soon after they arrived back from holiday, they saw the sign and knocked on his door. The cat was ready to be picked up.
Cat and owner were reunited. The owners have since had him microchipped. The reason why this method worked is because my experience tells me that about 90% of lost cats live within about 500 yards of where they are found. Their owner doesn’t live far off. There’s a reasonable chance that they will see this kind of sign.
It doesn’t have to be the kind of sign you see in the Infographic. It could be much more temporary than that. And if the cat’s owner does not see the sign perhaps a friend or neighbour of the owner will see it and pass the message on.
Below are some more articles on lost cats.
The most vulnerable time for a domestic cat is when their owner is away on holiday
Does a pet microchip prove legal ownership?
Pet cats missing after homeless encampment bulldozed in San Jose, California
Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.