Kitty Missing

[Lollie]

Hi

As a small stray Kitty walked into our house just over a year ago.  We checked no one had lost her, then had her chipped and spayed and vacinated..  Unfortunately two weeks ago, almost year to date that she walked in she walked out!!!  Well we like to think she has gone back to her wild life rather than the other thought.

We have posted all the neighbours and have a notice is in the local boulangerie.  Many sightings but she has not returned.

Questions,   is it common for them to return to their former life.  Is it possible she could come back.   She was our first cat and we miss her.

 We are keen to get another kitten, but is it too soon.  I dont think we would bother with a microchip in future but would certainly spay. What about injections, are they all necessary, considering how many live out in the wild without.  

Lollie

  

[ali-cat]

Hi Lollie,

Really sorry to hear about your kitty!!

It's awful not knowing what has happened to her - but don't give up hope.  I have heard reports of cats returning months after disappearing - & it sounds like you are doing everything right to find her.  Maybe contacting some animal sancturies in your area may help - they may not have facilities to scan for an identichip.

Personnally I think that the vacinations & chips are very necessary as it would be awful to think she may be picked up & not traced back to yourself.  Due to the number of strays in rural France cat influenza & feline AIDS are especially worring, although I believe that rabies is not very common.

Good luck & please let us know if she returns. [:)]

[Anton Redman]

Our outdoor foundling cat can disappear for a couple of days if both Isabel and I feed him ( he attended the Marcel Marseau school of mime for I am very hungry/near starving)  and he steals the indoor cats's food. At this time of year there are loads of field mice etc so I would not get too worried.

[Rob Roy]

It might have got shut in somewhere. Do you know of anyone nearby who has either gone away for the school holidays, or was on holiday and gone back to their home?

[Lollie]

We live on the edge of town,  no holiday homes here really, neighbours down the road say a black cat is around and they have left out food, but they cant catch it.  I cant understand how one day she is happy to snuggle up all day on the bed, and the next live in the fields!!!

Still we live in hope.

Lollie 

[mooky]

Lollie

Don't give up yet. one of my cats goes for about nine weeks then returns. I think they are both living in a maize field Harry will often be asleep in a little bed of leaves. I bring him back he has a cuddle, feed, sleep, then goes through the cat flap, without so much as a goodbye!
They were six weeks when I had them now 18 months. I fed them well, had the vacine, wormed frontlined,and both done. Harry looks fantastic. They had all the love in the world (still do). But, please please pussies come back home. Good luck. I hope cat returns.

[Frenchie2]

Once I had a cat  , Linda, she went away for a year and came back !! [Www]

Fingers crossed that your kitty is going to turn up soon !!

[Nicos]

My SIL 's cat returned after a year..wandered in, ate a hearty meal, hissed at the other housemate and 2 newbies, wandered upstairs to sleep on a bed ....Huh????!!!!

[Lollie]

Kitty stll not come back, but we like to think she is out there having fun and will return one day.  However, my son says he cant wait for her to come back and is desparate for another kitten.   So we have been to the refuge and reserved a tiny kitten that was left at the side of the road last week with her brothers.   Once she has been vacinated and tatooed we can bring her home,   then we take her back later to be sterilised,   80€, a lot cheaper than when Kitty walked in and we paid individually for all of this to be done.  Are all refuge's the same regarding a complete service?

Lollie

Hope this doen't sound too fickle, we just need another cat around.

[Chrissie]

No, you're not fickle, you're giving a good home to a needy kitten!  And maybe the first cat will stroll in one day as well.

Our local cat refuge does the same "complete" service, as they have a special deal with the local vet.  It benefits everyone in the long run of course by cutting the numbers of kittens in the next generation.  We live on a stretch of road where people regularly dump kittens and it makes me so hopping mad.  Wish there was more publicity to persuade people to get their pets neutered. (But would they listen? - I suppose not.) Grrrr.

Wishing you joy from your new kitten.

Chrissie (81)

[Frenchie2]

Seconded !!

You re doing a great thing ! Please post a pic when you got your new kitten :!!  X

[Lollie]

Hi

Picked up our new tiny kitten today, will post photo when have worked out how to!!  Questions,    she is tiny, around 7/8weeks old!!  Only our second kitten ever and Kitty was around 5 months when she arrived.    So firstly, she does smell a bit, well alot acually,  after being in the refuge, how do we get rid of the smell??    As she is so tiny we are restricting her to one room at the moment, with no electrics plugged in etc, daughter is feeling quite proud as she has just got her to use litter tray:: she is gonna be a clever one!!  but I am looking for advice on how to introduce her to he rest of the house and the dog.  and in what stages!!  Also when we are out and leave her should we keep her in her carrying cage?

 

Lollie

 

ps  Kitty still not back. and still desparately missed!

 

 

[londoneye]

What does she smell of?   And is she making any attempt to clean herself?   I ask because she is very young.   Our cat was abandoned in a cardboard box at about 4-5 weeks old, taken to Battersea by a passer-by, and thence to us.    However, it took him months, and I mean months, to master the washing thing, we believe because he was not with his mother long enough to actually work out how to do it by example.

You can give her a little wash with warm water and some cat shampoo .... if you dare.   Personally I'd never wash cats normally, as they should be more than capable of cleaning themselves, except for real nasties, like concrete-walking.    If it were me, I'd leave it a while and see if it wears off.   But check her over carefully, because unless it's her own poo, or wee, then I don't really understand what she smells of ??

[Lollie]

Hi

Wee!   she was abandoned with her siblings at 4/5 weeks, left at the side of the road,  so she has been at the refuge in a cage with them for three weeks, and I have not seen her clean herself yet, so you might be right.  She is too small for us to wash, so we will put up with it and see how she goes!

Lollie

 

[londoneye]

She'll get the hang of it eventually, although I have to say my cat was well over a year before he 'discovered' that he could wash with both paws, so for the first year he had a perpetually dirty left hand side of face, and clean right hand side !!!!   Weird ...

[Rob Roy]

[quote user="Lollie"]

Hi

Wee!   she was abandoned with her siblings at 4/5 weeks, left at the side of the road,  so she has been at the refuge in a cage with them for three weeks, and I have not seen her clean herself yet, so you might be right.  She is too small for us to wash, so we will put up with it and see how she goes!

Lollie

[/quote]

Don't worry about her being too small. I had to wash all of my cat's last litter of 4 kittens at 3-4 weeks old as they were flea infested, although mum wasn't. A gentle wash in just warm water and washing up liquid did the trick though. I washed and dried one at a time, washing, drying and a gentle 'fluffing up' with the hair dryer on cool seemed to work ok. They were all fine, but made a lot of noise at the time about the torture they were enduring! As she hasn't any siblings to cuddle up to afterwards you could give her a towel covered hot water bottle.

Re. introducing to the dog. In the past I have put the dog on his lead and OH has held him while I have brough in the kitten. Usually it is the kitten who spits at the dog, rather than the dog going for the kitten. Let them get used to each other in stages, keep praising the dog for being good and let the kitten do his own thing. They will soon find their own levels with each other and probably end up the best of friends, sleeping together like ours did.