Search the house first, wait out any lightning, then look in the quiet after the noise stops. A scared cat often hides nearby and stays silent.
Tonight, in this order
Check inside your home first. A cat that vanished during a loud bang is often behind a washer, up inside a box spring, or at the back of a closet, and it may stay there for hours. If it really is outside, wait until it is safe, then search close, slowly and quietly. Start at the door or window it used. Practitioners report that scared cats tend to go under the nearest cover and stay there. The Merck Veterinary Manual lists noise among common cat fears and hiding among the ways fear shows up. We found no study on cats lost in fireworks or storms, so what follows draws on what is known about lost cats in general. Quiet is on your side once the noise stops.
Rule out the inside properly
Do one full sweep with a flashlight before you go out, and open everything. Look under and behind furniture, in cabinets, in recliners and sofa bottoms, behind appliances, in laundry baskets, the garage, the attic hatch and any crawl space door. Take your time. A frightened cat may press itself somewhere you would not think it could fit. Close any door or window that is open, and check screens: a cat that slammed through a screen will leave a gap or a bent corner, which tells you where it went. Keep your other pets in one room. In a survey of 1,210 missing cats, 4 percent were found in their own home, and with a cat in a panic, that is the cheap thing to check first.
Wait for the lightning to pass
The National Weather Service says there is no safe place outside when thunderstorms are in the area, and that if you can hear thunder you may be close enough to be struck. Do not go out with a flashlight while a storm is overhead. Look from windows, use the time to call your vet and neighbors, and pull up any doorbell or yard camera footage. Stay out of flood water and away from downed lines. Once the storm has moved on, go. After fireworks, wait for the nearby noise to die down if you can, as a cat may not move until it does. If people are still lighting them on your street, keep your search to your own yard and next door.
Look where a frightened cat goes
In the survey, indoor-only cats found alive were a median of 39 meters from where they got out, about 130 feet, and 75 percent were within 137 meters, about 450 feet. Cats with outdoor access went farther: a median of 300 meters, about 1,000 feet. So give the first night to your own lot and the lots touching it. Use a flashlight and look for eye shine under decks, porches, sheds and parked cars, and in dense shrubs. In that survey, 16 percent were under vegetation, and 10 percent under a patio, deck or porch. Practitioner Kat Albrecht says frightened cats hide in silence and will not meow, so look rather than listen, and move slowly.
After a storm, check what changed
Rain and wind can change a hiding place. A cat that went under a deck in dry weather may be pushed out by water. Check the higher, drier spots next: sheds, garages left open, wood piles, and parked cars. If a storm brought down a fence, fix it or block it, as it opened a route that did not exist yesterday. Look in window wells and drains only from above, and do not put your arm into running water. If you find your cat soaked, cold, limping or breathing hard, call a vet right away and do not try to treat it yourself.
Fireworks nights are several nights
Around a holiday, the noise can come back the next night and the night after. Cornell’s Riney Canine Health Center, writing about dogs, says the source of firework noise can confuse pets, so they may frantically try to get away. Expect a repeat, and time your search around it. Go out at dawn, when streets are quietest, and again late at night after the last bangs. Tell neighbors you have a missing cat before the next round starts, and ask them to check garages and sheds that they may have opened to fetch chairs or coolers. People throw parties, and gates and side doors get left open, so ask them to look before they close up.
Tell people, and keep telling them
Knock on the doors around you in the morning, then file a lost report with your shelter and animal control and call nearby vets. Do not assume your cat will show up at a shelter soon. Humane World for Animals says a lost cat can take weeks to arrive at one, so keep checking. Have flyers ready for the houses nearest to you, and put out food with a motion camera. If it is a holiday weekend, the shelter may be closed, so leave a message and use any online form. In the survey, the median time to be found alive was 6 days. A cat that has not appeared by morning has not run out of time.
When your cat comes home
Check it over, and call your vet if it is limping, not eating, or hiding more than usual. Do not punish or crowd it. Merck says punishment is discouraged because it can make a cat fear its owner. Keep it inside for now. For the next round of noise, keep your cat in a closed room with litter, food and bedding, well before dark, and shut the windows. Cornell advises using the room farthest from the noise, with few windows, for dogs, and it is worth asking your vet if that fits your cat. If your cat is terrified of noise, your vet can build a plan. Do not give any medicine without talking to them first.
Sources
Huang et al., Animals, 2018: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5789300. Merck Veterinary Manual, behavior problems in cats: merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners/behavior-of-cats/behavior-problems-in-cats. Cornell Riney Canine Health Center: vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/riney-canine-health-center/canine-health-topics/fear-fireworks-and-thunderstorms. National Weather Service: weather.gov/safety/lightning-safety. Missing Animal Response: missinganimalresponse.com/lost-cat-behavior. Humane World for Animals: humaneworld.org/resources/how-find-lost-cat.