Your Pet Is Missing: What to Do in the First 24 Hours

Search close first

The instinct is to drive around widely. Resist it. Frightened cats almost never travel far — they hide within a few properties and stay silent. Search your own property properly first: under decks, in roof spaces, inside cupboards, in the car, in the tumble dryer. Then ask immediate neighbours to check sheds and garages.

Search at the right time

A hiding cat comes out when it is quiet and dark. Go out at two in the morning with a torch, and sit still rather than walking and calling. Sweep the torch low — eyes reflect. Take something that smells of food and shake the treat container you always use.

Post fast and locally

Community WhatsApp groups, neighbourhood Facebook groups, and the local lost pets pages all work best in the first hours. One clear recent photograph, the road you live on, and your number. Print A4 posters for intersections and the local shops — plenty of people who find a pet are not in any group.

Call the places they end up

Every vet within a few kilometres, the local SPCA, and the municipal pound. Phone rather than email, and phone again the next day, because animals arrive continuously and the person who took your call may not be the one at the desk.

Leave their smell out

Put their litter tray, bedding, or an unwashed item of your clothing outside the door. Scent carries and it gives a disoriented animal a direction home. Leave a door or gate open if you safely can, and keep checking through the night.