Many do. In two US studies about 60 percent of recovered cats came back alone, but that is roughly 35 to 45 percent of all lost cats, so still search.
Often, but not most of them
Many do, and it is the most common way lost cats get home. But the figure you may have seen, about 60 percent, is not your cat’s chance of walking back. In a national ASPCA survey, 59 percent of recovered cats returned on their own. In a Dayton, Ohio study, 66 percent of recovered cats did. Both numbers are shares of the cats that were recovered, and they leave out the cats that never were. Work it through and the picture changes. The ASPCA survey found about 75 percent of lost cats recovered, so roughly 44 percent of all lost cats came back alone. Dayton found 53 percent recovered, so roughly 35 percent. That arithmetic is ours, and rough. It still means more than half did not return by themselves.
Why the studies disagree with the search data
A third study gives a very different impression. In the survey of 1,210 missing cats, 96 percent of owners searched physically, and just 19 percent of the cats found outside were waiting outside the home. Those owners were unusually attached, and the survey asked different questions. So two studies suggest most recovered cats came home, and a third suggests most were found. Both can be true. A cat that appears at the back door after you have spent four nights walking the alley with a flashlight counts as came home on its own, even if your voice is what brought it. Searching and returning are not separate events.
Which cats are most likely to return
No study we found gives separate return rates for indoor and outdoor cats, so this part is reasoning and practitioner experience, not measurement. An outdoor cat knows its way around and has a habit of coming back, so if it does not, something has probably stopped it. An indoor cat is on strange ground. Kat Albrecht, a lost-pet specialist, says some displaced cats come back on their own the next day or a few days later, once the fear wears off. She also says skittish cats may hide too long and never return, and that some need about ten to twelve days before they break cover.
What keeps a cat from coming back
It helps to list what stands between your cat and your door, since each has a different fix. A closed space is the first, such as a neighbor’s garage, shed or basement. A second food source is another. Eleven percent of cats found alive were inside someone else’s house, and people often feed a friendly cat that seems to have no owner. Injury is the third, which is why vets belong on your call list. Fear is the fourth, especially in a cat that went out through a door it has never used. Being moved is the fifth, whether in a van, or in a stranger’s car on the way to a shelter. A cat that wants to come home cannot do it from any of these, and waiting will not change that.
Make sure a return gets noticed
Cats that come back do not always come in. A frightened cat may sit under your car at 4 a.m. and be gone by the time you wake. In the survey, cats waiting outside the home were one of the commonest finds, so the job is to be there. Point a camera at the door, or borrow one. Put a phone on a charger facing the step if that is all you have. Check the door at dawn and last thing at night, going out quietly, and tell everyone who uses that entrance that the cat is missing.
What about the litter box on the porch
You will see this advice everywhere: put the used litter box outside so that your cat can smell its way home. We did not find a study that tests it, so nobody can tell you whether it helps. Our own concern is that it may also draw other cats to your door. If you try it, keep it close to the house, and do not let it take the place of knocking on doors. Leaving a door open is a similar idea with a clearer downside, since it can let in raccoons and let out any other pets you have. A camera and a quiet check at dawn do the same job.
How long to wait before acting
Do not wait at all. The returning and the searching can run together, and only one of them is in your hands. Humane World for Animals warns that shelters may hold a lost cat for as little as 72 hours. In the Dayton study, cat owners waited about 3 days to contact a shelter, and the researchers suggested some missing cats may have been euthanized in a shelter because their owners never called or visited. So assume your cat might walk back tonight, and act as though it will not. Call your shelter and vets today, knock on the doors around you, and put up flyers. Only 19 percent of the Dayton cats had a tag or a chip when they went missing, so a finder may have no way to reach you unless a flyer tells them.
When your cat does come back
Close the door gently behind it and leave it alone for a moment. Then call your vet the same day and say how long it was gone, even if it looks fine, because a cat that went days without eating can be at risk of serious liver disease. Then call off the search properly: tell the shelters, the chip company and the neighbors, and take down your flyers. Our post on what to do when your lost pet comes home has the details.
Sources
Weiss, Slater and Lord, Animals, 2012: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4494319. Lost-pet recovery in Dayton, Ohio: news.osu.edu/lost-dogs-found-more-often-than-lost-cats-study-suggests. Huang et al., Animals, 2018: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5789300. Missing Animal Response Network, Kat Albrecht on lost cat behavior: missinganimalresponse.com/lost-cat-behavior. Humane World for Animals, how to find a lost cat: humaneworld.org/resources/how-find-lost-cat. Cornell Feline Health Center, hepatic lipidosis: vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/hepatic-lipidosis.