Cat missing: what should I do?
Of the 927 cat reports at ChipReaders, 161 came home. Of the cases we could measure, half were back within 4 days and 72 percent within a week.
Search close by first, and do it after dark. A frightened cat usually hides within a few hundred metres of home and only comes out once it is quiet. Report the disappearance straight away so that whoever finds her can reach you, and ask your neighbours today to check their shed and garage.
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1
Search nearby, not far
Start in your own garden and those of your immediate neighbours. Look under the hedge, behind the fence, under the shed and under parked cars. A cat that has been startled away from home rarely goes far; she takes the first place where she can make herself small.
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2
Go out after dark
Search just after sunset or early in the morning, when traffic is quiet. Call, then wait twenty seconds and listen. Shake a bowl of biscuits or tap a spoon on her food bowl. A frightened cat often will not answer, but she will move.
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3
Ask the neighbours to open their shed
Cats get shut into a shed, garage, cellar or lean-to the moment someone closes the door. Ask the neighbours within a few houses to look and call themselves; someone glancing from the pavement will not see her.
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4
Report the disappearance and check your details
Report your cat missing with ChipReaders. It is free and needs no account. If your cat is already registered with us, set her to missing in your dashboard and check right away that your phone number is still correct: that is what a finder sees.
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5
Put up a poster and alert the neighbourhood
Every approved report comes with a printable search poster with a photo. Put it up at the supermarket, the vet and on lamp posts in the surrounding streets. Share the report in the local Facebook group and on neighbourhood apps; far more people look there than you think.
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6
Call the animal ambulance and the shelters
Call the animal ambulance for your region and the shelters nearby, and call again after a few days. They keep their own list of animals brought in, and not every animal ends up in a national system.
Why a cat is different from a dog
A dog that runs off stands out and is often taken to a vet or shelter. A cat does the opposite: she hides. A cat startled by a dog, a house move or fireworks crawls into the first safe place and often stays there for hours or days, even when you call her.
That means two things. Searching further afield makes little sense while you have not thoroughly covered the immediate surroundings. And quiet helps more than bustle: the more people calling and searching at once, the longer a frightened cat stays put.
What often does and does not help
What works best in practice: neighbours opening their own shed and garage, searching after dark, and a poster with a clear photo in the surrounding streets.
There is no single agreed advice about scent. Some owners put the litter tray or a worn piece of clothing outside; others advise against it because it also attracts other cats. We mention it because it is widely done, not because it is proven. What certainly helps is keeping the food bowl in its usual place.
What we see in our own figures
ChipReaders holds 927 reports of missing cats. Of these, 377 are open now and 161 came home.
Of the 159 cases where we know both the day of disappearance and the day of return, half were back within 4 days and 72 percent within a week. So keep searching, even once a few days have passed.
These figures cover reports at ChipReaders, not the Netherlands or Belgium as a whole. They are counted afresh on every request.
Frequently asked questions
How far does a missing cat usually go?
How long should I keep searching?
Do I have to pay to report a disappearance?
My cat has no microchip, is reporting still useful?
What if someone finds my cat?
Should I report it elsewhere as well?
Report your cat missing now
It takes a few minutes, is free and needs no account. Your cat then appears on the missing list and the map, the alerts go out, and you have a poster to put up.
Report a missing pet