Friends of Virginia Beach Animal Care and Adoption Center

When it comes to looking for an indoor cat, she emphasizes this tip

--the investigative question to ask when an indoor-only cat

escapes outdoors is: where is the cat hiding? Albrecht gave me

this scenario: A cat owner comes home to find one of their

screen windows pushed out and their indoor-only cat missing.

They immediately go outside with a can of tuna calling for their cat.

With no luck, they make flyers, post them around town, and visit

their local animal shelter to search for their cat unsuccessfully.

Meanwhile, their cat is hiding in fearful silence under their

neighbor’s back porch. It isn’t until the cat reaches the threshold

point (usually 5-7 days later) due to hunger or thirst, that the cat

will start to meow when the owner walks around with a can of

tuna calling their pet’s name. The cat will be found only if the

owner knows to go into their neighbor’s yard (with permission

of course) to search for their kitty. Even if a cat was displaced

or lost due to a natural disaster, such as a fire, the cat may still

be close to home, setting up a new home and reestablishing a

new territory. Albrecht has found lost indoor cats weeks after

they went missing, so she urges pet owners to not lose hope.

Albrecht also stresses that using a baited humane live trap

as a recovery tool is a highly effective means to recover a lost cat.

The tools used to track down your lost cat are much different

if you have an outdoor cat that hasn’t returned home for dinner.

Albrecht says the investigative question to ask when an

outdoor-access cat disappears is: what happened to the cat?

She says that when an outdoor-access cat disappears, most

likely something has happened to interrupt its behavior of

coming home at night. Your outdoor-access cat could be

trapped, injured, or sick. She says that cats are territorial

and they don’t just run away from home like dogs do. So if

an outdoor-access cat is lost, an aggressive, physical search

of the cat’s territory should be conducted, which means looking

in every conceivable hiding place in your yard and your

neighbors’ yards. Albrecht also stresses the importance of

asking for permission to physically search the property of

your neighbors, rather than handing them a flyer and asking

them if they’ve seen your cat.

Aside from tracking down indoor cats versus outdoor cats,

Albrecht also considers the temperament of cats to determine

how far they’ve journeyed. If you have a curious cat, they may

journey farther than a xenophobic cat (cats who are afraid of

everything that is new or unfamiliar). The recovery methods

to find each type are different. Albrecht’s unique methods to

search for cats based on personality can be found on this page

of her website:missingpetpartnership.org

Feral Cats

Albrecht believes that many fearful cats are mistaken for

feral (wild) cats when brought to an animal shelter in a humane trap.

The cat will most likely either be euthanized or returned to the

wild in a feral cat colony, with the likelihood of recovery being slim.

The best thing you can do if you are an owner of a fearful cat,

is to microchip your pet. This doesn’t mean your cat won’t be

mistaken for a feral, but it will increase the chances of your pet

getting returned to you.

Recovering a Lost Dog

When it comes to dogs, Albrecht says they tend to run, rather

than hide; and the majority of stray dogs in shelters are lost

dogs, not stray dogs. Albrecht states: “It’s not as if these dogs

were found living in feral dog colonies. So they are lost not

stray.” She stresses that dog owners looking for their pets

should also check online under “found pets”

on www.craigslist.com or under “adoptable pets”

on www.petfinder.com.

Just as a cat’s temperament will influence the distance it

travels when it becomes lost or displaced, the same is true

for dogs. A gregarious dog is more likely to go up to the

first person who calls out to them. These types of dogs

will most likely be found close to home. Albrecht believes

that outgoing dogs are most likely “adopted” by the person

who finds them because they are afraid to turn them into

shelters. In her experience, Albrecht has seen well-intentioned

people “rescue” a friendly dog only to find an undesirable

behavior down the road and then the dog is turned into a

shelter, long after the owner has stopped looking. More

lost dog recovery tips based on temperament can be found

on this page of Albrecht’s website: missingpetpartnership.org

Lost Pet Posters

Missing Pet Partnership has created an effective tool for recovering

lost pets with a method they call the “five + five + fifty-five rule.”

This rule states that at a given intersection you have five seconds

and five words to get your message across to drivers who are

traveling 55 miles an hour. These are the five rules for making

the poster:

* Make them giant so that people driving by cannot miss them.

* Make them fluorescent so that the color attracts the

attention of everyone.

* Put them at major intersections near where you lost your pet.

* Keep them brief and to the point.

* Make them with a visual image of the pet you have lost.

For an example of the type of poster Albrecht is discussing here, visit missingpetpartnership.org for more details.

Here’s a recap on Albrecht’s recovery tools for locating a lost dog or

cat. For cats, look close to home, set a humane trap, make posters

using the 5+5+55 rule and check your local shelter. For dogs, use

the 5+5+55 rule for creating a poster, check www.craigslist.com

and www.petfinder.com for found and adoptable dogs and check

your local shelter.

Prevention

As usual, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Albrecht suggests the following techniques to prevent your

pet from becoming lost and to help your pet return home

if it happens to become lost.

Microchip your pet. It’s inexpensive and typically lasts your

pet’s lifetime.

* Outfit your dog and cat with a collar and id tag. Albrecht

says that if your pet currently doesn’t have an id tag, create

your own until you can get to the store. Take a piece of white

paper and cut it to the width of your pet’s collar. Write your

phone number down on that piece of paper and tape it on to

the collar with clear packing tape. Albrecht tried this out

with her dog as an experiment and it lasted eight months!

* Check the screens on your windows to make sure they’re secure.

* Check backyard fences to make sure they’re up to par by kicking

the boards to see if they’re loose, checking for holes, etc.

Albrecht would like to see lost pet services available in every

community. It’s difficult for pet owners who are not trained,

and who are panicked and grieving, to search for their own lost

pets, she says. Missing Pet Partnership has dedicated volunteers

that help recover lost pets, however, their funds and resources

are limited. They need donations, volunteers to help with

fundraising, qualified board members with business skills and

assistance in marketing. For more information on how you

can help facilitate the development of community-based lost

pet services, visit lostapet.org.

If you are interested in locating a pet detective in your area, visit missingpetpartnership.org. To learn more about

Kat Albrecht and her organization Missing Pet Partnership,

and to donate to her cause or become a member, visit any

of her three websites:

missingpetpartnership.org, 

petdetectivetraining.com

katalbrecht.com.

Albreccht also has two books: Dog Detectives: Train

Your Dog to Find Lost Pets and The Lost Pet Chronicles:

Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective. Both books

can be found on www.amazon.com