Quote:
Originally Posted by dragon.eda14life
My cat went missing the night before last and we have a huge snow storm I went calling for them and walking through the snow for 8 miles and found nothing at all I'm freaking out they didn't have much experience out side they were like 6 or 7 months I'm so scared I'm going to go out looking again today got any suggestions on how to bring them running through the snow back to me because I just can't find them!!!!!!!
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I opened my door and left it wide open for hours.
Story:
One day, one of my cats jumped to the top of their cat tree that I had positioned next to the window so they could look out and watch things, the window was open, but had a screen on it. He got excited over something and proceeded to push the screen out and fall from the 2nd story to the ground outside. I knew as soon as I got home that something had happened simply because the screen was sitting on top of some bushes under the window.
I searched everywhere. I was crawling through the bushes, muck, mud, underbrush of the small foresty looking areas around where I lived...knowing full well that I was crawling amongst 8 legged demon spawns...I walked all over the neighborhood, I talked to people in the area I didn't even know, and I was up for hours every day and night looking for him.
I left food out, other cats came and ate the food, not him.
I called for him, repeatedly, day and night, over and over and over.
Then I went online, desperate to find the best way to get my cat to come home. What I read is that they could be right close to you, but because they are outside, something changes - they are in fight/flight mode, often, and even though they know you, and they hear you, they may not come to you for that reason alone. There was a suggestion given on how to get your cat to come home, I tried it, and it totally worked.
When I called the town, and the vets that I had contacted, just in case he was brought in by someone, not one of them would recommend the tactic that worked. On the one hand, I can understand it, but on the other hand, all I know is that it worked when nothing else did.
You decide - keeping in mind the weather.
I put all of my other pets in my bedroom, closed the door to the bedroom, went downstairs, opened the front door, and left it open. Wide open. I then went back up to my room and slept for a couple of hours. You don't need to sleep, I was just dead tired after spending 2 days looking for my cat. And when I say "2 days", I mean I literally spent the majority of my time actually physically looking for my cat - not just sitting on the front door step hoping.
I woke up at about 2-3 am. I had left the door wide open at about 11pm, so it was just a few hours. I had gone towards the bathroom, and when I turned to close the door to the bathroom, I saw a cat running down the hallway towards me. I recognized that outline, immediately.
It was my cat. He came home.
Of course the city or a vet won't recommend that tactic because they think of all the bad people out there and believe they would walk right into your front door. As far as I think, if someone wanted to break in that badly, the door being closed isn't a deterrent, and in fact, I believe having it wide open would confuse them too much.
Regardless, you don't have to walk away from your open front door. You can sit there, in the dark, or in the day (although they will most likely move around when they the cover of darkness), on your couch, quietly, not doing anything, and wait.
If it's blizzards outside - maybe not something you want to do, I'm simply stating that this worked, and it worked fast. How long had he been back inside the house, I don't know. He couldn't come into the bedroom because I had closed all the other pets in the room with me. He could have come in 5 minutes later, I'll never know. What I do know is, after 2 days of serious searching and no prospects at all, it was only 4 hours from the time I opened the door wide open, went to get some sleep, woke up 4 hours later, and he was home.
I'm not "recommending" it, I'm simply sharing it. You have to make the choice to try it or not.
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