The appliance of science - help with research please?

[LMC]

In case you haven't seen the thread, my cat, BG, has been missing for over a fortnight. One thing that I am finding enormously frustrating is the huge volume of advice - I REALLY appreciate that people want to help, but I live on my own, have no family locally, and my friends are all out of town. With commuting and working, I'm out of the house 6.30 am to 7.30 pm Monday to Friday. The point is: I am doing the best I can. Unfortunately, it isn't enough - and won't be until BG comes back. Which means I need to PRIORITISE. At the moment, that priority is spreading the word as fast and as far as I can.

Of course, different things work for different cats and different people and in different areas. But one thing that seems to be missing are any statistics on how most cats are found. Many come back of their own accord - who knows whether old socks, hoover sweepings or cat litter in the garden helped? If the cat came back, it doesn't matter! - it's all good.

I am trying to put together a table on FOUND cats only with the following information:

How long they were missing
Whether they were microchipped
How they were found - alive and well, or sadly not; method they were found (came back on own, someone phoned having seen a poster, etc)
If they came back of their own accord, what time of day they came back, if known.
If they didn't come back on their own, how far away from home were they found?

This information is limited - but that's because the more information you collect, the more difficult it is to see a pattern. The idea is to get an idea of what to try at *different stages* of a cat having been lost - of course you try everything, but you can't do it all at once, what should come first?

I have already collected loads of information - which is how I've worked out the best few questions to ask to maximise the benefit of this research. If there is a thread on your lost/found cat on here or any other forum, please feel free to post on here as well, but please let me know if there is another thread about your cat so I'm not duplicating information and can make the results as accurate as possible. I will, of course, post them here.

Sorry for the long post - but internet searches and queries don't appear to bring up anything specific - I have vague hearsay results from lots of vets and rescue organisations, but nothing concrete. The more cats I can "collect" in this survey, the more accurate the information will be. Thank you for reading, and thanks in advance for your help if you lost then found your cat and can help with these questions.

[Moli]

Mty Siamese Sam went missing a few years ago, (he is not with us now)I put up posters, got the local paper to do an article on him with pictures, and the local radio stations...
He was not microchipped, but wore a collar with tags on it...He was missing for 16 days, we lived in the country and I went round all the farm asking, he was found as a result of the newspaper article, a farmer phoned me and said he was seen in his barn...He was very thin and very scared...He had got into a corn field and lost his bearings....Hope this helps...

[yola]

LMC - I'm fairly certain there are already some statistics available from Cats Protection as to length of time cats go missing/methods used to find them/most successful methods/percentage of cats that return etc.

If my baby goes to sleep soon I'll try and look out some stuff (but am on my own with a baby and toddler for the next 2 days), however I'll do my best.

It might be an idea for you to contact the Cats Protection headquarters in Sussex directly, speak to their marketing department and see if they can email you the report.

I personally can't offer any input as my cats are mainly indoor and don't really stray outside of my garden/house. However I think this is a very valid peice of research and I wish you luck and look forward to seeing your conclusions.

[LMC]

Thanks Moli - it occurs that distance from home would be useful, so have added that to the Qs! - do you know approximately how far the farm was?

Yola - thanks for the lead. I've been told that YourCat mag did a survey last month so will follow that up as well.

According to, I think (but I've looked at SO many websites, I can't remember) the Blue Cross, over 3,000 cats go missing every week in the UK. Shocking. So the more I think about this, the more I know that to make these figures anything like useful, I need literally thousands of cats.

I'll probably buy a cheap domain name/hosting and set up a website project to collate over time, as the information just doesn't seem to be easily found - all these leads are word of mouth.

[Donna]

How long they were missing

My Misty went missing shortly after being speyed. She was about four months old. She disappared Sunday lunchtime and we found her again Monday evening.


Whether they were microchipped

Wasnt microchipped but had collar and tag.


How they were found - alive and well, or sadly not;

Found alive and well albeit a bit "tatty"!

method they were found (came back on own, someone phoned having seen a poster, etc)

We dropped leaflets to all the houses in the area and someone called from the leaflet to say they had recently seen her in their garden.


If they came back of their own accord, what time of day they came back, if known.
If they didn't come back on their own, how far away from home were they found?

She was only about 10-15 doors down the road and had got stuck in a garden and couldnt get out as she had worn her claws down and couldnt jump back up onto the fences.

Hope this helps.