Before we even begin this section please give thought to giving your cat the best chance of being returned to you should it ever get lost by having it micro chipped NOW.

Most lost cats will wander home in a day or so. However, if your cat has not seen for longer than is normal please consider the following.

• Thoroughly search the house, opening all doors and cupboards, calling them to you or even whistling if this is your normal way of attracting their attention.

   

• Check the garage and any garden sheds or outbuildings and listen for them calling you if they are shut in anywhere.Have a walk around the streets surrounding and backing onto your street and again call/whistle to your cat. Pay particular attention if you see an empty house - cats are by their very nature curious animals. Could they have gained entry to such a house and been locked in?

   

• Prepare leaflets advising the time of disappearance, description and, if possible, a photograph of the cat and your contact details. Post these through letterboxes on the streets you covered earlier and perhaps even a little further afield.

   

• Put more copies of these leaflets in the windows of local shops, vets surgeries and supermarkets.

   

• Ring the local vets, as the cat may have been injured, local animal charities, as the cat may have already been handed into them and the council's cleansing department, as they deal with road accident victims.

It is not unknown for cats to be missing for a month or two or even longer so don't give up on them - keep looking, even widening the search.

                                                                    BIBI

This is Bibi. She went for a quarter of a mile ride under a car. When the car stopped she shot off and over 5 weeks she walked one and a half miles in the wrong direction! She was "found" when a lady saw a poster in a store window and recognised her as the cat she had been feeding for several days. Within hours of Bibi's owner seeing pictures of the cat that was being fed she was home so NEVER GIVE UP HOPE! 

PETWATCH a voluntary organisation which registers lost and found pets in the Leeds area can be contacted on 0113 2689973.

When your cat is found remember to take down all posters and inform everyone that you had previously notified so they can stop their search too.

                                                                                          NEXT PAGE