Happy-the-cat is Home

Neon Posters for the Win!

When guardians of companion animals have the awful experience of having an animal that they love go missing, they become desperate. And when they discover that there are some (not many, but some) search dogs that’ve been trained to track the scent trail of lost pets, they automatically ASSUME that a search dog is THE ANSWER to finding that missing animal. However, there is a technique that has proven over and over again to dramatically increase the probability that a missing companion animal will be found and is way more effective than search dogs—giant, neon LOST PET posters!

Karen Nixon of Halo’s Pet Rescue posted a story (in Facebook) where she realized that her search dog Halo was not the best tool, but a neon poster was the best option. This even though her dog Halo has already found MANY missing cats in her community of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Here’s the recovery story of Happy the cat, as told by Karen Nixon:

Happy is a microchipped,10-year-old, outdoor-access cat. Attempts to keep her as an “inside-only” cat were met with yowling, destruction, and feline “hissy” fits! Happy’s guardian made the difficult decision to start allowing Happy to venture outside—a decision that in spite of the dangers involved, many cat guardians get hijacked into doing by their relentlessly unhappy cats.

Kat here, interrupting Karen’s story, to mention that I understand that allowing cats access outside is a very controversial topic and it is true that cats allowed access outside are at a higher risk of being exposed to diseases and poisons, becoming injured, becoming lost, and even being killed. One unique way to keep an indoor-only cat entertained is to get your cat his own pet, like a fish or a hamster! Check out my story “Every Cat Needs a Pet” about how my indoor-only cat Cheeto was happily entertained every day by his pet mouse, Squeakers!

Now back to Karen’s story…

I interviewed Happy’s guardian and learned that her temperament was that of a gregarious and curious cat. And, perhaps this is obvious by looking at her profile, Happy was very food motivated! Her normal territory was believed to be large, although unknown. Her daily routine involved visiting neighbors for physical affection and, naturally, food. Very frequently Happy would walk right into open doors of neighbors or be so bold to be asked to be let inside! She historically returned before dark, but on Saturday she didn’t come home and was missing. On the day she vanished, the day had started out as a sunny day but as often happens in British Columbia, turned into a major downpour.

Happy’s family was sure coyotes got her, but had a glimmer of hope so I reached out. I decided not to do a search with my search dog Halo as I did not think she was the best first option based on our consult. Instead, I advised the guardian to put out neon LOST CAT posters along with doing a social media push. Of note - they were sure that they had exhausted all possible hiding spots in the event she was injured or ill and hiding nearby.

They received the call the day after the neon posters went up! Happy had run to a house that she visits for snacks when the rain started and the brand new residents (who moved in April 1) did not know her. They thought she was a stray because she didn’t have a collar on and was soliciting food and attention. They had Happy for 5 days and then saw the neon LOST CAT poster. They are not on Facebook and they really wanted to keep her (and that’s why they didn’t bring her to a vet to get her scanned for her microchip). But their conscience got the better of them when they saw the poster!

This case is proof that giant, neon posters are really effective and often finding a missing pet is done by finding the person who has seen or who has possession of the missing pet.

Welcome home Happy!

These are the types of lost cat posters that we encourage cat owners to make to capture the attention of people. These are not Happy’s posters, but were used for a lost cat case that I (Kat) worked back in 2011. (Photo credit: Kat Albrecht)