My Cat Spunki Is Lost !!!

spunki1

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Well this is the first time i have ever used a site like this but i am so desperate for some feedback or someone to share their lost cat stories with me because i am running low on hope of ever finding him at this point.

My cat - Spunki  went missing on 7/18  I let him out around 9:00pm as usual. He would stay around our yard or cross over to the neighbors house. He enjoyed the large grassy lot to hunt mice and critters in. Spunki is a very large tiger cat - he weighs 18lbs so he does not wander too far and roam the neighborhood.

But when he wants to he can jump and run like any other cat!!  So i can only imagine he was probably chased away from home by another animal.

I started looking for him as soon as i realized he was not responding when i called him home around midnight.  He was nowhere in the general area.  I talked to all of my neighbors, searched their yards, put up flyers and large posters.  I received 2 calls one on 7/26 and on 7/28 both callers saw Spunki in the area of Cromwell Pizza. They both saw he was wearing his red collar with a bell and that he was a very large black/grey tiger cat.  So i know for sure it was him.

I set out traps and had no luck catching him.  Now about a week has passed-no sightings of him at all.  I borrowed a wildlife camera a set up a bunch of food in hopes he would come out of hiding.....I filmed a cat that looked like him but it was hard to tell the color cause its a night vision camera. Anyway I was sure it was him.  Last night i caught a cat in the trap only to realize that he was the one i saw on the camera and it was not my Spunki after all. 

I am just beside myself!! I cannot even function today. I had my hopes up so high I cannot tell you how sad and scared i am that i will never get him back.

Has anyone lost their cat for long periods of time and end up getting them back. Please share and strength and hope you may have i really could use some.

If you have any suggestions feel free to share them.

Thanks,

Pam
 

catlover73

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I am sorry no one replied to your post.  One of my cats got out years ago and hid in the wetland near my home.  It took me three weeks to trap her and bring her back home. One of my friends had a cat get out of her house and it took her almost 2 months to find her cat.

I was a wreck when my cat was missing and I know my friend was too.  Have you put up fliers with your information in your neighborhood?  My friend kept expanding where she was putting the fliers and someone finally realized that they had been feeding her cat in their yard several blocks from home.  The person was older and did not think to take the cat in to check for a chip.  This cat was chipped.

If  your cat has a microchip you may want to call the company and verify your information is up to date and make sure they know your cat is missing in case someone reaches out to them.  Also let other people know you are trying to trap your cat. We had an elderly couple who spent a lot of time outside on their deck and they were able to watch our trap and let us know when something was in it.  Since we both worked they would watch the trap and contact animal control to release the wildlife. 

I know it is hard but please do not lose hope.  I trapped quite a bit of wildlife before I got my cat back. My friend also trapped quite a few of the neighbors indoor/outdoor cats in the process of looking for her cat.  

I hope someone who has more experience with this can give you some more answers.

I am hoping that someone on here with TNR experience will reply with tips for you. They would have a lot more experience with what foods you could try in the trap.  You can try looking in the forum caring for strays and ferals to find tips for trapping.  There are a lot of people that post there that have experience trapping.  Even though your cat is not a stray or feral there may be some helpful tips there.
 
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spunki1

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Thank-You so much for the reply. I am working with a lady who helps find missing pets. She gave me a wildlife camera and i have a trap from animal control. He was seen at a pizza place on 7/26 and 7/28. Since then i have not seen him on camera or trapped him. I am scared he left the area or maybe something happened to him.

I won,t give up.....I can,t !!!!

Maybe just maybe he will go to someone for help.

Thanks for your kindness.
 

catlover73

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Alert anyone you can in the area of the pizza place about your missing cat.  Perhaps you can make arrangements with the manager of the business to give flyers to customers or put up a flyer in the business.  Also perhaps you could see about leaving some canned cat food at the pizza place with the employees in case she does show up there again. Also if there are other businesses in that immediate area reach out to them.  People take breaks and go outside while they are at work.  The more people that know about your missing kitty the more eyes you have out there watching for her.

I also remember years ago when my neighbors black indoor cat got out.  He was a very friendly people cat.  We put up flyers in the neighborhood and went door to door handing out flyers.  I can't remember how long it took to get him back but I remember them telling me that their cat went to a neighbors front door and started meowing loud enough to wake them up.  This neighbor also had cat so she put a can of food down on her porch and pounded/rang our friends doorbell until they woke up and answered the door.  I remember they got their cat back overnight.  They called and woke us up to tell us.  I was glad they let me know because since I was unemployed at the time I was spending most of my time looking for their cat when they were at work. I was also their catsitter and considered their cats part of my family.

Also try going out looking for your cat at night.  That is when the cat is more likely to be about looking for food. What are you putting in the trap?  Some other posts I read where people where trying to trap cats mentioned can tuna or fried chicken.  Does your cat have any favorite treats?  Perhaps you could put treats in the trap with the food.  Another thing you could try would be to take a piece smelly dirty laundry and put it in the trap. If your cat is hiding in the area perhaps something with your sent on it would encourage the cat to get in the trap.
 

peterbald love

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I am so sorry you lost your cat, mabye you should try putting tuna in the trap or put some of his favorite toys in the trap and also tell your neighbors that you lost Spunki. If Spunki still does not come back after you put tuna or toys in the trap then go to animal control and see if Spunki is there.
I hope you find Spunki.
 
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spunki1

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Thank you for your suggestions.

I put sardines and tuna as well as his favorite canned food.  I also used different items of ours and his in the trap.  I wonder if he is in another area.  I will be

adding more posters and flyers in a neighborhood behind the pizza place. 

I wonder if he can survive this long out there.  He does know how to hunt so that helps me feel a bit better.

I am so afraid i will never find him. 
 
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spunki1

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Thanks--I will go to all the stores on Main St on Saturday and talk to them / Post a flyer.   Oh the owner o the Pizza place is one of the people who called with a sighting of him. All of the people who work their know about Spunki.

I still leave food and water.  There is a lady i met who feeds feral cats close to the pizza place she is looking out for Spunki and took my #. 

Animal Control has been helpful with giving me a trap to use.

Now I have to find out where exactly he is so i will put up more flyers and posters they are the only thing that has worked so far.

Just hope I can find him before anything happens to him.
 

catlover73

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It seems like you are doing everything you can.  It is good that you are going to follow up with the other businesses in the area.  I really hope you get some more sightings once you talk to other businesses in the area.  I too got a trap from animal control when my cat got out.  

All you can do is keep on hoping and keep moving forward with the search.
 

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Hello Pam... yes I found your comment about Spunki.  I am so sorry for you - this is the single most awful thing that has happened to me in a long time and the desperation I know you are feeling at the moment is beyond horrible. 

To be honest - this is day 12 for me now - I have no option but to hunker down and wait, which is the worst bit because my imagination - and yours no doubt - is running riot day and night.  What breaks my heart about this is that Rubis started her day off in the same way she always did.  She had become such a happy little thing.. she would literally skip around.  We found her desperately thin and wary of people, although she was used to them.  Seemed to me she had been teased because if you picked her up she'd just freeze,  I think kids were involved and teased her or pulled her about because she didn't like being handled. Also I believe she was a housecat because although she was only young. she was old enough to breed and she had never had kittens.  I also had to teach her to eat grass and mark territory.   But after 18 months with us she was picked up, kissed, her belly was regularly rubbed and kissed and she was loving it.  She was out and about as and when she wanted to be.  She knew her territory and how to mark.  I saw her do it and she had developed into a beautiful, healthy independent cat.  Now all I think of is she is back to where she was.  Hungry, cold and wet and frightened.  A couple of times we got a tip off and spend days and nights following it up, all to no avail.  Just when we were coming to terms with things we got our hopes up again and it put us back to square one.  I am actually going back to England for a few days next week to break this horrible spell of hoplessness and depression.  I can't do anymore, all I can do is keep her alive in my heart, call her in my mind every day and hope and pray we see her again.  The French are largely indifferent to stray cats and are not likely to bother even if they know it's her.  The English are more concerened.  I hope with all my heart she is found, taken to a vet and returned to us.  If not, I hope she is at least fed.  If she was dead, I could handle it... it's the not knowing and the ever diminishing hope that is so awful. 

Pam... this is early days for you.  You clearly love your baby and you are going to go through some agonies.  You live in a place which has people around, so someone will see him ... he sounds like a big old boy and hard to miss.  Don't give up yet...have you tried going out at night?  Sound travels further at night... take a bag of dried treats so you can rattle them.  Be aware though that it will be instinct to avoid a cage.  Very best of luck - he'll be back.
 
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spunki1

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Hello,

I must say it has been a so draining i had to stop going online for a day i really could not take the agony of this whole thing.

I put up more posters yesterday in a new area close to where he was seen last.  Time is passing so quickly - yesterday was 3 weeks since he has been gone. 

I do see alot of people from England on line about their cats - they really seem to care deeply for theirs and others.  Did you lose her in England or France? I was a bit confused.

I hope you get word soon about you cat like you said its the not knowing that hurts the most. The questions go thru my mind .... Is he hungry, thirsty, scared ....lonley.  I have to stop now

because i am crying too hard.

Tlak to you later...Best of luck
 

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I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through.  It's been two weeks today for us and I honestly don't know how I've got this far; how you feel a week on from this I can only imagine.  I decided not to put up any more posters of my little Rubis, because I don't think she will look much like the picture now anyway.  And I don't know what direction she could have gone in, it's just like looking for a needle in a haystack.  We are in deep rural France and a long way from anyone else.  Who knows where she could be.  It would be so much easier if we knew she was dead.

Pam you have start laying some foundations for yourself now.  Here is where I am with my situation, right now.  This may not work for you, but just read it anyway.

I am content that I have done every-singe-thing I can to find her.  I cannot do anything else.  I simply cannot do anymore.  I walked for miles each day since she went; we have driven around and around everywhere; night and day.  Each time we go out we look and look.  I've been out every few hours and called her from dawn to dusk and nighttime;  I've looked in every bog and ditch, hedgerow, tree, pond, roadside, field, and meadow a thousand times in daylight and by torch.  I've spoken to everyone near here, knocked on doors, put posters in the mailbox, in the village shop windows, I've posted her online, a friend has put something out on Facebook, she is registered missing with organisations, and shelters, I've notified the village 'Maries' I've contacted the local council, I've scattered her litter everywhere and left trails; I've sprayed my own urine all around and beyond; I've left an old workout top so she can pick up my scent;  I have set up instant notifications from these shelter places that alert you to a cat that has been found which fits her description - yet still I look.  I can't do anymore.  So what is left?  Lots...

I will never ever give up on her and I will call her in my mind and heart every  day - forever. 

I will keep the bond strong because it will help her.  I will never let her feel that she is alone.

I will carry on looking for her whenever and wherever we go

I will be so thankful that we had her for 18 months, and so glad to have given her a wonderful loving family... and new skills to help her survive.  When she came to us she knew nothing because she was an escaped housecat... by the time she went she was an ace hunter and a strong little feline.  She had the countryside to live in and she came and went as she pleased.  No more housecat.

I will hold on to the hope that someone has either taken her in - she is very beautiful and cheeky -  and will feed her and give her a good home.

I will hope that someone else will do what we did - find her, take her in and get her to a vet for a check up - then they will read her chip and contact us.

Or someone will take her to a shelter or vets or other official place, where they all check for a chip... and she will be reunited with us.

Never forget that cats can go missing for a long time and still turn up.  My cousin's cat disappeared for 2 months

But I will also start to move on because I've got to.  Whatever has happened to Rubis or Spunki is something we will never know and it will drive you insane with second-guessing.  You can't do that.  I have just one lonely cat now, but after I come back from England, I will look at maybe adopting another cat, or even a puppy.  Give another little soul a chance.  Rubis going may have opened a new door for us and an opportunity for a loving home for another animal.

Be strong and send out love to your baby.

Best S
 
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