I am so thrilled that budding pet detective Suzanne (and mom to The Toulouse that Got Loose) discovered a fabulous new way to recover a lost pet — turning a house (or part of a house) into The Trap! I think this will be a VERY important tool in helping owners recover their pets in the future. Humane trapping when it works can be quick and sure, but the strangeness of the contraption intimidates cats and probably delays capture, and the stress it puts kitties in can be heartbreaking; instead the "House Trap" may make a slightly slower, but gentler method of retrieving a lost pet. We will be reevaluating this as we see more cases, but at present, it is a wonderful discovery — thank you Suzanne!
Toulouse fits perfectly into the Classic Complete Cover kitty profile, with a slight twist: he is a former feral so he had some exposure to the outdoors before becoming an indoor-only kitty, he is really only close to Suzanne, runs from strangers, is more bonded to kitty mate Satine than he is to humans.
The great mystery of this case? The fact that after 9 days away, presumably skittering outside from bush to bush to plates of food Suzanne left for him, when he was recovered he was perfectly goomed, and despite the ordeal managed to maintain his pretty long locks as perfectly outside as he did inside — figure that one out!
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My very timid indoor cat Toulouse went missing on Sunday... neither my husband nor I actually saw him go out, and he's never tried to go outside at all, so we don't know how he managed to escape.
I've walked the neighborhood morning and evening for the past few days, I've put up signs, I've spoken to neighbors, my friends have helped search, I've put food and used litter outside, and I've left the door to our screen porch open, just in case he wanders back this way. I've also put an ad in the paper, and called the two local shelters, one of which I've already visited.
Toulouse is a long haired, solid black cat, so it's hard to distinguish him from other black cats without actually seeing either his face (he has a crooked nose) or his fluffy tail. We've had three calls from neighbors who think they've seen him... two were in the same location, a few streets over from our house. One was much farther away, and the woman said the cat she saw had brown spots, so we're less confident that that one could have been him.
One of the two women with more positive sightings said that there is usually a black cat with short hair that hangs around that area, but that the cat she saw was much fluffier, and was running for some bushes. The other woman also emphasized that the cat she saw had a bushy tail.
I set two traps in the area last night, and managed to catch the short haired black cat. I let him go, which I'm now thinking was a mistake... he seemed to be a feral, and probably would have been a good candidate for the TNR program that people are trying to start around here. Also, had I removed that cat from the area for a little while, I could have more confidence that any future sightings were actually Toulouse.
I'm worried sick, my other cat is lonely and confused, and I just don't know what else I could be doing. I'm going to try putting out one of the traps again tonight around the same place, and moving the other one back to our yard, just in case he has come back this way.
If anyone has any other ideas, please pass them along.
Thank you,
Suzanne
Yes, all of us over here could easily qualify for full banananess!
I hope the weather clears up for you soon!