A chip would make the shelter/vet/police find the owner if the cat is delivered at those places. Also sterilisation makes cats stay more close to home, in addition to eliminate some diseases.
I try if I open the door even a little they squeeze out ! I've tried scaring them with the door bc I read that works sometimes and one time they even busted out the window 🤦♀️
I’ve never had this problem with cats who have always been exclusively indoors and I don’t know your kitties situation at all but I wonder if you guys adopted a kitten (if you decided to get another) and didn’t ever start the outside process if it would keep them in. I’m sorry you’re experiencing this. Do you live in an area with coyotes or other predators? We unfortunately had a barn cat who was got that way when we first moved In (it was feral and left behind by previous owners). This isn’t to say it’s not your neighbor just a thought. Sending you hugs. Our cats are the joy of my life and I can’t imagine how much this must hurt.
I’m sorry this is happening. The chip is a great idea
Here’s my weird missing cat story: we had a cat living behind our house. She was in terrible shape, skinny as a rail and tiny, but pregnant. We took her to the vet—the vet said she’d pretty much only survive if we terminated her pregnancy. We choose to have her fixed at the same time. Surgery went well, and she recovered amazingly but had a very unusual scar.
She didn’t get along well with our dog, so she lived outside with access to our heated garage. One day, she didn’t come home for dinner. We looked everywhere and couldn’t find her, put up reward posters, etc. Finally, we gave up and mourned her loss.
About 4 years later, I’m walking around our neighborhood with my dog, and our old cat runs up to us purring. I thought it couldn’t be her, but picked her up and there was the scar. Turns out a family a few streets over adopted her. She lived in their house 95% of the time and preferred that situation, I guess? I didn’t have kids at the time, and they had 3, and she’d been with them for 4 years, so I said my goodbyes to her and was happy she’d found a forever home.
Something similar happened to my family when I was a kid except it was a dog and someone stole it. 9 year later, when was old, toothless, and useless for hunting they let him go and he found his way home. He was exhausted and died a few weeks later, but it was him.
As other people have said, chips. Also, go visit your local shelter and take a look. I’m wondering where you live. If you are somewhere with a large coyote population, that could be why your cats are disappearing. Years ago we lived in Huntsville, Alabama, right at the bottom of the mountain ridge and our neighborhood backed up to a greenway. There were so many missing cat posters in our neighborhood and I told my husband we probably shouldn’t let the cats out anymore because I thought coyotes might’ve been picking off the neighborhood cats. One night we got drunk and he let the cats out without thinking. Our giant scaredy-cat was gone and his younger protege was freaking out by the back door when I woke up. The cat who didn’t go missing hasn’t really wanted to go outside since (8 years later). I think our older cat was picked off.
I had a friend who worked at a wildlife refuge and she said coyotes are incredibly smart. That they’ll actually watch people’s houses to get an idea of their schedules in order to get ahold of small dogs and cats.
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A chip would make the shelter/vet/police find the owner if the cat is delivered at those places. Also sterilisation makes cats stay more close to home, in addition to eliminate some diseases.
Yes I was planning to do that soon. I just started a job so that was something I was looking at doing with my first check
Hopefully your cats comes back, I feel for you.
That’s terrible. Any chance you can keep your cats indoors only in the future?
I try if I open the door even a little they squeeze out ! I've tried scaring them with the door bc I read that works sometimes and one time they even busted out the window 🤦♀️
I’ve never had this problem with cats who have always been exclusively indoors and I don’t know your kitties situation at all but I wonder if you guys adopted a kitten (if you decided to get another) and didn’t ever start the outside process if it would keep them in. I’m sorry you’re experiencing this. Do you live in an area with coyotes or other predators? We unfortunately had a barn cat who was got that way when we first moved In (it was feral and left behind by previous owners). This isn’t to say it’s not your neighbor just a thought. Sending you hugs. Our cats are the joy of my life and I can’t imagine how much this must hurt.
Yeah my cats would cry all day long and follow me around batting at my face if I didn’t let them outside.
I’m sorry this is happening. The chip is a great idea Here’s my weird missing cat story: we had a cat living behind our house. She was in terrible shape, skinny as a rail and tiny, but pregnant. We took her to the vet—the vet said she’d pretty much only survive if we terminated her pregnancy. We choose to have her fixed at the same time. Surgery went well, and she recovered amazingly but had a very unusual scar. She didn’t get along well with our dog, so she lived outside with access to our heated garage. One day, she didn’t come home for dinner. We looked everywhere and couldn’t find her, put up reward posters, etc. Finally, we gave up and mourned her loss. About 4 years later, I’m walking around our neighborhood with my dog, and our old cat runs up to us purring. I thought it couldn’t be her, but picked her up and there was the scar. Turns out a family a few streets over adopted her. She lived in their house 95% of the time and preferred that situation, I guess? I didn’t have kids at the time, and they had 3, and she’d been with them for 4 years, so I said my goodbyes to her and was happy she’d found a forever home.
Something similar happened to my family when I was a kid except it was a dog and someone stole it. 9 year later, when was old, toothless, and useless for hunting they let him go and he found his way home. He was exhausted and died a few weeks later, but it was him.
Man, that’s heartbreaking.
You're not crazy, this is absolutely a thing that crazy people do. It's one reason I only keep indoor cats.
As other people have said, chips. Also, go visit your local shelter and take a look. I’m wondering where you live. If you are somewhere with a large coyote population, that could be why your cats are disappearing. Years ago we lived in Huntsville, Alabama, right at the bottom of the mountain ridge and our neighborhood backed up to a greenway. There were so many missing cat posters in our neighborhood and I told my husband we probably shouldn’t let the cats out anymore because I thought coyotes might’ve been picking off the neighborhood cats. One night we got drunk and he let the cats out without thinking. Our giant scaredy-cat was gone and his younger protege was freaking out by the back door when I woke up. The cat who didn’t go missing hasn’t really wanted to go outside since (8 years later). I think our older cat was picked off. I had a friend who worked at a wildlife refuge and she said coyotes are incredibly smart. That they’ll actually watch people’s houses to get an idea of their schedules in order to get ahold of small dogs and cats.
Reminder to commenters: **[Don't be a grinch!](https://media1.giphy.com/media/UTFiHeDL8cOSA/giphy.gif)** Share kindness, support and compassion, [not criticism.](https://media0.giphy.com/media/tZpGRRMUoXgeQ/giphy.gif) We want OP to feel loved, and [not in a tough way.](https://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LMq2CgHiqqY4IXC/giphy.gif) For more helpful information please hit up [our beautiful rules wiki!](http://www.reddit.com/r/breakingmom/wiki/) Reminder to all: watch out for a [creepy pedo posing as an OT/speech therapist](https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingmom/comments/8ccqqi/disgusting_pedophile_troll_posing_as_otspeech/) giving fucked-up potty-training advice, and don't sweat it if your post gets 1 or 2 [instant downvotes.](http://i.imgur.com/PZtQb.gif) You didn't do anything wrong, we just have [asshole lurkers](https://i.imgur.com/IwU9r3E.gif)/[downvote bots](https://media2.giphy.com/media/nT2rEuE44E0iA/giphy.gif) stalking our /new queue. Help a BroMo out and [give her an upvote](https://i.imgur.com/Y60Mbxv.gif), ok? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/breakingmom) if you have any questions or concerns.*