Yuku free message boards

Thanks for responding so quickly Pauline, since I cannot post yet, so I'm replying via email.

To answer your questions, The first time he escaped it was overnight at a different house. In that case, he found him the next day, in the afternoon--under a neighbor's porch. Tony just moved to this condo 3 years ago, so Vinnie is very familiar here. He escaped from the condo a few other times and yes, always ran under the next door neighbor's porch, we always grabbed him despite his scratching and crying--but this time he was 'super scratchy' he bit me and scratched Tony (He NEVER bites or scratches us in the house-- he's very loving--so we understood he was scared).

He has only 'escaped' maybe 4 times total and with the exception of him being outside overnight at Tony's old house, we've always been able to either grab him immediately or let him calm down a few minutes and then grab him. He never walked back into the house of his on volition. We always grabbed him.

Vinnnie's personality is hard to describe, because inside the house, he is friendly with everyone and very outgoing. He always wants to get outside, and tries to escape, but once he gets outside, he becomes a totally different cat. He scratches and bites at us and cries (like a high pitched raaaaaaaaaaaaaare and a guttural noise). When we have had other animals over, he's shown an interest in then, but still is whiney, scratchy and biting. We always teased and called him a 'scaredy cat'--but he's a combination of curious as well.

Once, another cat came to the screen door and Vinnie got so scared, he pooped on the floor (poor Vinnie, but it was hilarious!). So he is frightened, defensive and curious. And no one in the neighborhood has seen him. We posted fliers by all of the mailboxes and got a few calls--but they had seen the other cat in the neighborhood (he's a neutered black and white male too) but has a green collar and Vinnie has no collar---so they all confirmed the cat they saw had a collar on--No Vinnie. Last Saturday, everyone had a community 'garage sale' on their lawns and no one saw him....so I was thinking he was probably more in defensive mode than friendly mode--but I'm not sure.

>From the time he was under the porch---there were no loud noises that I know of. It was dusk. There are no barking dogs or loose dogs in our neighborhood. People do walk dogs, but the dogs are quiet and controlled. And the traffic was minimal--as it was 8pm and pretty much everyone was home. Across from the condos is a parking area, the back of more condos and a small brush area. Behind the condos there is a steep incline and woods.

There was nothing else unusual about last Wednesday. Vinnie is neutered and the only other cat we've seen in the neighborhood is the other male cat--so there are no females around. Nothing unusual at all. He was healthy and fine. He never ever fought with Tony. He was always very loving and playful and we never had a violent or 'scratchy' incident with him in the house. In fact, he fetches coins. We tried to coax him out from under the porch with coins--but he was too worked up!

To get to the woods, Vinnie would have had to run about 50 feet and go behind the condo buildings, the area has a small wooden fence around it, but it ends right where he would have come around back. The wooded area is not large and you can see a highway from the top of the hill (luckily--it's fenced by the highway--so we hope he would stay away from that).

We'd been looking in the front of the house for a week, but just really thought about the woods last night....so I think we'll try that. And I'll get the Feliway spray.

Thank you so much for your help and encouragement!

Kindest Regards,
Jennifer