A bit of background, and pardon my venting/ranting.
Some of you know that in January 2011 a friend ("T") and I moved four (eventually a fifth) cat from the cat colony I take care of to a spare room in my friend's house. The goal was to resocialize them and adopt them into Forever Homes. "Princess Leia" was one of the first ones ready to be adopted out. She is a pretty, lovely, playful, cuddly cat; she routinely slept with "T". Best guess as to her current age, around 1.25 years old.
She was adopted in October 2011 by a man I work with who has two children, wife; they are experienced cat owners. They live in a townhome development, no woods to speak of, medium amount of traffic.
I learned yesterday that PL escaped from their home on Saturday the 15th.
They did not realize she was missing until they saw that their other cat (seven months old) was outside crying, and then they thought to themselves, well, where is PL? To date she has not been seen. At my strong suggestion, they put out food last night. (And, don't get me started about why they didn't think to do this five days ago.) I made other suggestions, such as putting out used cat litter so she can 'smell' her way home, contacting animal control, etc. I told them that even though PL is spayed, it is prime mating time. Male cats don't care if the cat is spayed, only that it is female.
I do not think they realize the seriousness of the situation; they think she'll come back eventually.
So some questions, some hypothetical: is she scared or lost? (Yeah, I know "dead" is another possibility.) After almost seven months, do you think she'll try to go back to "T" house or the colony--20 miles away? Any other suggestions? I'm certainly willing and able to set out humane traps, but not sure what good that will do, if PL doesn't even come around for the food.
Some of you know that in January 2011 a friend ("T") and I moved four (eventually a fifth) cat from the cat colony I take care of to a spare room in my friend's house. The goal was to resocialize them and adopt them into Forever Homes. "Princess Leia" was one of the first ones ready to be adopted out. She is a pretty, lovely, playful, cuddly cat; she routinely slept with "T". Best guess as to her current age, around 1.25 years old.
She was adopted in October 2011 by a man I work with who has two children, wife; they are experienced cat owners. They live in a townhome development, no woods to speak of, medium amount of traffic.
I learned yesterday that PL escaped from their home on Saturday the 15th.
They did not realize she was missing until they saw that their other cat (seven months old) was outside crying, and then they thought to themselves, well, where is PL? To date she has not been seen. At my strong suggestion, they put out food last night. (And, don't get me started about why they didn't think to do this five days ago.) I made other suggestions, such as putting out used cat litter so she can 'smell' her way home, contacting animal control, etc. I told them that even though PL is spayed, it is prime mating time. Male cats don't care if the cat is spayed, only that it is female.
I do not think they realize the seriousness of the situation; they think she'll come back eventually.
So some questions, some hypothetical: is she scared or lost? (Yeah, I know "dead" is another possibility.) After almost seven months, do you think she'll try to go back to "T" house or the colony--20 miles away? Any other suggestions? I'm certainly willing and able to set out humane traps, but not sure what good that will do, if PL doesn't even come around for the food.