Missing Cat in Wicklow/Wexford

emmabrighton

My cat Mao has gone missing since last Friday. I don't live at home Monday - Thursday but my partner is there all the time.

I only really started panicking about him yesterday because since I got my job, Mao has started being gone for longer and longer periods of time. His max until now has been 5 days. That was reached yesterday.

The problem is that normally he is always home on a Friday and stays for the entire time I am there. Its as if he is not bothered sticking around if Im not there. The problem is that I was home for a few days last week which means that I would have thrown his schedule off. Obviously i know cats dont know the days of the week and cant count but it gave me a false sense of security that he was just off hunting in my neighbours sheds.

I live in a remote location and my nearest neighbour is about 500m away. So, its not likely that he is shacking up with another neighbour.

He has been neutered so he has not headed out looking for a mate.

There has been no sign of him on the roads locally.

There is an un-neutered tom around that has fought with Mao in the past 2 years. So there is a chance that he has been hurt in a fight and is unable to get home.

What I am really worried about is that he is still alive but cannot make it home. I am afraid that he has been caught in a snare or injured in a fight or just plain lost.

If anyone has any suggestions for tracing a missing cat, I would love to hear from them. I just want him to come home. I only have another 3 months of work and then I will be home full time and he wont want to stray anymore. I couldn't bring him to live where i work on the weekdays because my flatmate is afraid of cats but now I am killing myself with the guilt. I am completely distraught. He has two feline buddies that never leave the perimeter of the garden but he always goes off hunting. Ive already promised myself I will get him a cat tracker if he comes back. I just need him to come home.

So any suggestions would be really helpful:

How far can cats wander? Im planning a mountain rescue trip tomorrow to look for him when I get home.

My nearest neighbour is a complete a**hole and previously tried to run over my mother in laws dog in her own property so besides being afraid of him, I just know if i ask him has he seen my cat he will probably make a point of laying rat poison or running over cats he sees on the road.

I am already afraid he has done this. I am trying not to get worked up because I am 5 months preggos but he is my baby and I really want him back.

mymo

A cat can wander quite some distance, 3 or 4 miles wouldn't be much for them to travel. He probably has found someone that is making a fuss of him and is as you said confused by the days you were off.
My friends cat went to a house 3 miles away for almost a month, the lady was feeding him meat and fish so he stayed a while.
What my friend did was put up posters everywhere, shops, pubs and the vet and post office are most visited, don't worry if they are a good distance, people go to town for things.
Hope he turns up, it could be as in my friends situation, the cat got scared off during a storm and was looking a bit worse for wear, a lady spotted him and took him in, gave him food and attention and a nice fire to sit by so he stayed.
Thankfully since he came home he hasn't ventured far, I really hope you find your fella, he's lovely looking boy.
Also facebook or twitter can be good for getting word out to anyone local, most animal lovers in your area would probably repost for you.

emmabrighton

Thanks a million for your comments. That gives me some sort of radius to work off. My local neighbours really aren't the type to pamper some stray cat that is knocking around their farms so it would be safe enough to rule out that option. I think I will take the day off work tomorrow so I can go home this evening and go looking for him.

artyeva

as well as posters in local shops and the like, facebook is great for this sort of stuff i think. do up a quick post with a photo and send it to as many pounds, shelters, spca's, catterys and boarding kennels as you can think of, not just in your own county but neighbouring counties as well. someone might see it and share it with people in your area. i often see sucess stories on those pages of pets being reunited cause someone shared it with someone else who shared it with someone else etc etc. i hope you find him, he's a handsome boy.

Zapperzy

Put a notice on here http://www.lostandfoundpets.ie/ It puts a message out on fb which will be viewed by a few hundred people at least. It's also been very successful when people set up facebook pages dedicated to finding a lost pet and ask all the rescues to share it, a few months ago there was a thread here about a lost labrador who done the very same thing and it reached loads of people and was eventually found hiding out in an old house I think. There's a pet detective called happy tails I think also, I'v no idea how he works or how effective it is.

Has any of your neighbours got garden sheds? This time of year I'd imagine with an increase in people taking the lawnmower out of the shed cats can get locked inside.

Edited to add: Also ring all the vets in your county and beyond, if he was hit by a car or found injured someone might have brought him in.

Selfheal

Hi Emmabrighton

I hope Mao turns up for you. I'm an animal communicator and while I don't generally do lost animals I had a quick look at his photo and my gut instinct is that he's okay, has found a comfy quiet bungalow with an elderly lady who is at home all day and delighted to have him there. Let us know if he turns up.

emmabrighton

Thanks everyone for responding to my email. All your support and ideas on how to search for him have been a great help. xxx

I decided to leave work this evening and head back to Wicklow with the intention of looking for him during the night. By the time I got to Carlow - 2 hrs into my drive and 1 hr to get home - my OH rang to say he had just walked in through the cat flap! Phew!!!! 6 days after he left. I mean it when I say I actually started crying in the car when he told me on the phone. I was so relieved.

He is a bit shook and acting a little weird but I am putting it down to him being shy at the big fuss being made of him.

I am definately getting him the pet tracker and for now he is being locked into the house. The girls arent happy because they enjoy popping in and out as they please. But they are all getting stuffed full of fresh meat so I think that makes up for it.

Zapperzy

emmabrighton wrote: »

Thanks everyone for responding to my email. All your support and ideas on how to search for him have been a great help. xxx

I decided to leave work this evening and head back to Wicklow with the intention of looking for him during the night. By the time I got to Carlow - 2 hrs into my drive and 1 hr to get home - my OH rang to say he had just walked in through the cat flap! Phew!!!! 6 days after he left. I mean it when I say I actually started crying in the car when he told me on the phone. I was so relieved.

He is a bit shook and acting a little weird but I am putting it down to him being shy at the big fuss being made of him.

I am definately getting him the pet tracker and for now he is being locked into the house. The girls arent happy because they enjoy popping in and out as they please. But they are all getting stuffed full of fresh meat so I think that makes up for it.

That's brilliant news! What's a pet tracker?

SillyMangoX

Great news not trying to scare you, but if he is still acting funny tomorrow I'd advise you to get him to a vet, just in case you neighbour might have done anything - sounds like a really heartless person! But I'm so glad for you he's back, my cat came back after 10 months, it really is a wonderful relief to get them back

emmabrighton

Oh thanks for the warning. He seems much better this morning but I will keep an eye on him.

A pet tracker is a GPS wearable sensor that is worn as a collar on the cat and transmits the location of the cat at intervals so you can see where the cat is on Google Maps and go pick him up if hes lost. The one I saw was called paw tracks - its kinda expensive but I reckon that I spent so much time worrying about him this week it wold just be worth it for peace of mind.

The only thing is that he has never worn a collar because I was afraid of him getting snagged in a hedge or something. So, it will take a bit of getting used to.

Mao is happy out now, he is sleeping beside my laptop in his cat bed, has a full tum and getting his head rubbed periodically.

Thanks again!

mymo

So glad he's back, lovely to hear a good news return story, so many sad ones.
Can I just ask, when he comes home is is skinny looking or his normal self?
Could be he's found someone to give him attention while you're gone, I know of a family that are gone all day and the cat happily sits on the door step as they leave and is there when they get home. But one day he had a bow on:D, kids down the road were brushing and petting him all afternoon as they weren't allowed a cat of their own!

emmabrighton

Well, it is a tough call to make because he is a 5* hunter and there are plenty of wild rabbits and rats around locally to keep him well fed. So, no, when I saw him I didn't think he was skinny and his coat was glossy but he was just acting very shy/coy. He was following me around the house and wanted me to pick him up but then he wasn't giving me the usual hugs and loves he normally does. Just sitting in my arms.

I would be very surprised/delighted if there was someone I didn't know about that was giving him loads of lady love and attention and my OH can be a little rough with him - he grew up with dogs. But, like I posted earlier, and I could be wrong about some of the neighbours in the area but they really come across as the rough and ready men-are-men and sheep-are-nervous farmer types. This is, of course, coming from the city-slicker who brings her cats to the vet when they so much as sneeze. Maybe I will put a collar on him as well with my telephone number and a note attached just in case there is another crazy cat lady out there just like me