Ah Joh He Joh Merol
FREAK YUQI
From The Start Laufey
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Nice 2 Me Piri & Tommy

Lost Nekos: An Introduction

If you are here because your cat got lost, because you are curious about this post's title or whatever the case you may be here, I want to say: from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your interest.

Sadly, one of my cats got lost on summer last year. While (thankfully) we found her and is now back home safe and sound, it still was a very traumatic experience: that's why, in a place where we all are fond of cats, I want to talk about what I would have liked to know back then.

Lost Nekos: A Guide

QUICK DISCLAIMER: I'm talking from my own experience, as there's no correct or 100% sucessful universal way to search for a cat as every cat is different! My cat in particular is the type of cat who tends to run away and hide. Research about what a cat with the personality of yours would do! Plus, this guide comes in at the point where you know that your cat is definetely lost (in my case, they saw her run away: you can read my experience down below this guide).

First of all, MAKE POSTERS AND PUT THEM UP.
I know that the last thing you may want to do is make posters when your cat is missing, but please, DO. The main goal is finding your cat, and it's not the same to have the whole neighbourhood paying more attention in their daily routine just in case they see your cat than be just one person looking for them. We ourselves found our cat because of the call of a neighbour who saw our poster-and that's why here is a poster guide.

WHAT INFO ABOUT MY CAT SHOULD THE POSTER HAVE? Photos from different angles in color. Name. Where. When. Is the cat familiar with the area? Personality. Should people try to approach them or should they call you instead? Characteristics that makes your cat different from other cats. Is the cat spayed/neutered? Chip number, if they have it.
WHAT INFO ABOUT ME SHOULD THE POSTER HAVE? Name and phone number. If you want, a reward.
WHERE SHOULD I PUT UP THE POSTER? Social Media. Walls. Streetlights. Strategic places like nearby bus stops or the streetlight you see right after you exit a building. Ask in nearby veterinary clinics if they can put it up.
WHO SHOULD I CONTACT ON SOCIAL MEDIA? Lost and found animal webs/groups, animal shelters, animal control and vets near your area or in your country, kind people who offer help searching for missing pets.
WHAT SHOULD I AVOID IN MY POSTER? Show just one photo. Photos in black and white. Doing the poster without saying where the cat was last seen / if the cat is familiar with the zone / if people should try to approach it or call you instead. Not using red on the "MISSING" header. Doing a cute missing poster instead of going straight to the point. Vertical text instead of horizontal text. Too much text without categorizing it in paragraphs (last seen/basic info/physical appearance/contact...)

While you search...
After doing your posters, is time to search while you put them up. You have to be aware of this when you are looking for your cat:

  • Most cats move at night/dawn, so you should look for them mostly at that time of day.
  • Leave food and water near the area where your cat went lost. Nonetheless, I have to warn you that you shouldn't get your hopes up if it's eaten as birds, dogs or stray cats may have been the ones eating it.
  • Bring with you something they know the smell of. It could be their blanket (or the blanket of a cat they live with), their carrier, your clothes, the perfume you always wear... Rub the item against walls or leave it near the spot where they got lost, so your cat can smell it and will stay near that spot as it smells like home.
  • Call for them, and leave time for them to answer. This depends on your cat's personality, but my cat's second name is fear as she was a stray before we adopted her. That's why when we knew the exact spot where she was, we decided to keep calling for her (waiting for her to recognize us) rather than trying to catch her since that would only make her run away from us as she was already scared. It took us around 30min~1h for her to finally meow back and get out!
  • They are closer than you think, really. We found our cat 190m away from where she went lost after two weeks, and 75% of cats are found within 500m. Look for your lost cat really carefully!
Important Remarks
  • Talk with everyone. The whole neighbourhood (both adults and kids), the postman, the doorman, the garbage man, etc. Anyone who frequents the area who may have seen your cat is worth talking with.
  • Buy outdoor flashlights! The first day we started looking for her, we weren't able to see a thing with the ones we had at home because the light dispersed and was really subtle.
  • In the process of looking for your cat, you may have gotten the location of different cat colonies in the area just as we did. Just in case they didn't let you know, I'm telling you: Do NOT share those locations publicly for everyone to see, as that information can be read by bad people who may hurt the cats. If possible, share it privately with a private message.
  • In our case, we got help from a man who was walking by who quite literally grabbed our cat and didn't let go until we finally got her into her carrier-but there are groups that, while they won't search themselves, once you have the exact location where your cat is they will set traps to catch them for you.

Lost Nekos: An Experience

This is my cat, Iris. As I already said before, she got lost in summer: apparently, she made a grand escape from where she was taken care of while I was on vacation, even if the cat sitter was warned that they should keep an eye on her because of her personality.

Picture this scene: you just got back to your hotel room from swimming in the pool, grab your phone, and the next thing you know is that your cat is missing and there's no room for doubt as she was seen running away. If that weren't enough, not only all of this is happening when you are far away from home, but they are also taking care of your other cats.

As you can imagine, I felt a lot of things when I got that message. Panic, because Iris was missing. Anger, because we asked them to keep an eye specifically on Iris and still something happened to her. Fear, because Iris ran away and who knew if I would get another message soon saying that my other cats ran away as well?!

The next thing I remember after that is being in the car on the way back home to start looking for her asap. Luckily, some of my friends (to whom I will always be grateful for) made missing posters and started looking around for her while I arrived. When we had to face the cat sitter who lost Iris to retrieve my other cats, I remember crying a lot. Crying of distress because I didn't knew what could happen to Iris, and also crying of relief when I hugged my other cats as I knew that they would be okay with me. But, of course, that was momentary as it was just the beggining and Iris was missing.

Lots of things happened during the next two weeks: we made theories, we were uncertain of Iris' safety, we went through sleep deprivation and a messed up sleep schedule, we received lots of compassion and kindness, we got help from people who were passing by, we spent money printing lots of posters and buying good flashlights, we got bruises because of looking for her in cramped spaces where we thought she might hide in, we felt sick as it was summer and the weather was humid and hot, we got calls which got our hopes up just to find out that the cat they saw wasn't her, we regretted every single day having picked who we picked to take care of the cats and (as expected) there was a lots of tears.

Then, the phone rang.

The retrieval
One day, we got a call soon after returning home from looking for her around 5AM. It was one of the neighbours, saying that there was a cat hiding in their yard and, from what they were able to see (which wasn't much, as you can imagine) it looked like her.

Of course, we got in the car asap and headed there, even if we were a little skeptical at that point since we had already received a few calls that ended up being a cat from a neighbour who looked similar to ours.

Nonethess, when we heard the softest meow from inside the yard after a looong time calling for her, I knew that the cat was Iris. You already know the rest: a passerby helped to catch her because she got scared when she saw me with the carrier and tried to run, but we managed (and now that almost a year has passed, we can say that she's alright and didn't catch any illneses during her little adventure)!

Lost Nekos: An Epilogue

I'm typing this 'epilogue' especially to thank you for reading.
Because of people like you who heard me out or decided
to read a poster, Iris is back home today.
THANK YOU!