No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed;
Lay that on your heart,
This truth, this hard and precious stone” -Sara Teasdale
I grew up on a dairy farm where all the cats were outdoor cats. Now as an animal communicator, looking for lost pets is one of my skills. I cannot tell you the NUMBER OF TIMES I have received frantic calls from clients because their INDOOR cat had made it outside and disappeared. Many of these cats are put in even more danger, because they are either declawed, toothless, or both. It is never a good situation.
If you keep your felines inside your apartment or house, which is your right, you need to be aware that them getting outside is a big risk, frankly, a very real threat on their lives. If you have indoor cats, the likelihood that they will get outdoors is gigantic. With the cats I have helped find, The next line to this story is usually something like this: being that they have never been outside, they are scared of the other animals, dogs, coyotes, cars, buses, and humans that they see. One of those things SCARES THE CAT. The cat, never having had to react to (or even ever seen) such a threat panics and runs frantically. Running without noticing what way they are going, what they see around them, what further danger they may be running towards. They run and run, until when they stop, they do not KNOW WHERE they are. For cats that do not have their natural defense mechanisms of teeth and claws, they are immediately vulnerable to predators. Without their claws, they may not be able to climb up a tree where they feel safe and can survey the area they find themselves in.
As kittens, Cats are used to hiding where their mother put them, and having her come back and get them when it is safe. In their lost traumatic situation, many revert to that behavior. So these cats usually do not want to wander around and find where they are. It is really challenging to find them. (I ask them where they are, and they show me some trees, underbrush, the wall of a house. Lost cats aren’t out looking at street signs).
I found every pet I looked for the first years I was in practice. I have found well over 1000 pets now. The first cat I did not find was a client’s cat that had been an “indoor cat”. She lived a few houses down from a Protected Forest Preserve in California. My client’s husband had been away on a business trip, and came home late at night with several suitcases. He propped the door open to get all the suitcases in, and the cat ran out.
When I talked to the cat, he had ran out by the mailbox, when he saw a coyote moving towards him. The cat took of like lightning, not noticing what way he ran, only that it was away from the coyote. When he stopped, he was next to a tall tree. He climbed it. While this cat gave me a breathtaking description of how the forest looked, we never found him. I couldn’t convince him to climb down, and we couldn’t find the specific tree.
I don’t have the choice to have only indoor cats, because I am a sculptor and clay artist. I create art in my studio inside my house, and then carry it out and load it in the kiln. Many of my pieces are quite large, so I need both hands to carry them, and have to have the sliding glass open to accomplish loading the kiln. My cats come in and out. Then last year, I got a pet door.
To my credit, I had the same two cats for 17 years, when my cat Booboo disappeared (I am told an owl carried her away). My cat Speedy lived on to 26 years, and died on my bathroom floor. Currently, I have 4 cats, Frankie, Buffy, Spike and Elvis. Buffy and Frankie are my 10-month-old foster fails from last year. Spike is 13, and Elvis is 8. Frankie is the only one who doesn’t know how to use the dog door. My insurance policy on their safety is that I have saged and salted my entire property, setting down spiritual protection. I ask St. Anthony, the same being I use to find lost pets, to protect my family, every morning when I walk out to my car. In my years of working with him, St. Anthony is someone I trust completely. If I had cats that were exclusively indoor cats, I would somehow make sure they still knew their bearings in their outside neighborhood. Maybe train your cat to a harness and a leash?
Another aspect of finding lost cats is that cats think totally differently than humans. They will wander off, and not consider themselves lost, just taking a walkabout.
The Smithsonian did a study a few years ago, and found that over 50% of cats had a second home where they were also getting fed.
It is common for some cats to wander, more so if they are not neutered. Neuter them, love them, and trust that they also have a life purpose and know what they want out of life. For most of them, that means having a life that includes going outside. A life which still has loving their human as a top priority.
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Enjoy, Ann
