My indoor cat escaped: what to do in the first 24 hours
Your cat is probably very close and hiding silently. Search slowly near the door, then bring in the neighbors and put up flyers.
The short answer
If your indoor cat got out, start right where it escaped, because it is probably very close and hiding. In a study of missing cats, half of the indoor-only cats found alive were within about 130 feet of where they got out. Check under bushes, decks, porches and parked cars with a flashlight, talking softly and moving slowly. Do not call loudly or bring a group. Then tell your neighbors, put a flyer on the nearest doors, and call your local shelter. Search again at dusk and at dawn, when the street goes quiet and a nervous cat is more likely to move.
First confirm it is not inside
Check the whole house before you go out, since cats can hide in places you would never expect. Look behind and under appliances, in closets, inside the back of a sofa or box spring, in cabinets and in the laundry. Open a food tin or shake the treat bag in each room, then stay quiet and listen. In one study, 4 percent of the cats found alive were found inside their own home. If you have other pets, keep them secure before you open any outside door, so you do not end up with two searches.
Search like a cat, not a person
An indoor cat outdoors for the first time is frightened and will hold still. It may hear you calling and stay silent, even if it knows your voice. Get down low. Look under and behind things, not across the yard. Check every bush, window well, deck, stack of wood, trash enclosure and car underside within your first ring, and go back over the same places. A cat that was not visible at noon can be there at 9 p.m. Use a flashlight even in daytime, because a cat’s eyes shine back and they are often the first thing you see.
Tell the neighbors today
Your first flyer should go to the houses on both sides, across the street and behind you. Ask them to check garages, sheds, crawl spaces and under decks in person, or let you check. Tell them if the cat has a chip or a collar, and whether it might bite if grabbed. The study found 11 percent of cats found alive had ended up inside someone else’s house, so it matters that people actually open their doors and look. Ask anyone with a doorbell or yard camera to look at the footage from the time your cat escaped.
Set up the house to welcome it back
Keep the door it went out of in view, and have someone home at dawn and dusk if you can. A clean, familiar blanket or an item you have worn, placed near that door, gives the cat a familiar smell. Add a small amount of strong-smelling food or a little water, and take the food up if it starts attracting other animals. A cheap camera pointed at the area will tell you if your cat is visiting. Almost one in five cats found alive in the study was waiting outside the home, so make sure you would notice if yours did.
Make your reports the same day
Call your local animal control and nearby shelters, and give them a photo and description. Ask how to file a lost report, and ask whether you should come in person, since many shelters say online photos are not enough. Contact your microchip company and mark your cat as lost, and check that your phone number is current. Add a post to your neighborhood group and to local lost pet pages. In a study of lost pets in Dayton, Ohio, cat owners waited about three days before calling a shelter, compared with about one day for dog owners. Do it today.
What to do when you see your cat
Stop. Do not run at it, and do not grab. Sit down sideways, look away and talk quietly, and put a small amount of food down near you. Let the cat come to you. Have a carrier or a pillowcase ready, as a scared cat can scratch and bolt, and you will only get one good chance. If it runs, note where it went and come back quietly. If it keeps its distance for days, your shelter or a local rescue may be able to lend you a humane trap. See our post on using one for a lost cat.
Do not give up after one day
Many owners stop too soon. In the missing cat study, 34 percent of the cats had been found alive by day 7, and the figure kept rising after that, reaching 50 percent by day 30. Repeat your search at the same quiet hours every day for the first week. Put up a fresh flyer if anything changes. And keep your own routine loud and normal in the kitchen around dinnertime. If your cat is close by, it may be listening.
Sources
Huang et al., Animals, 2018: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5789300. Lost-pet recovery in Dayton, Ohio: news.osu.edu/lost-dogs-found-more-often-than-lost-cats-study-suggests.