How do cats get lost? Summarize 1200 lost cat cases, reduce 90% of the hidden danger of cat loss
128 people agreed with this article
Have you ever experienced a lost cat?
According to statistics, about 15% of pet owners have experienced the loss of their pets, but not every lost cat can be safely returned home.
How should you avoid losing your cat? If a cat owner is accidentally lost, what should be done to increase the probability of finding the cat owner?
The University of Queensland team collected data on 1,210 cats that had been lost. Of the 1,210 lost cats, most were free-ranging cats.
Allowing cats to go out on their own without owner supervision was the most common scenario for lost cats, accounting for 44% of the total data.
Free-ranging cats are at extremely high risk of wandering off, and if owners can monitor them remotely, the situation may be slightly better, but again ranked in the top three of the lost data.
Another surprising statistic in the original paper: 77% of the owners were home when the cats were lost. In other words, many lost indoor cats escape from the doorway and get lost when their owners are at home.
It is very dangerous for cats to leap out of the door when we are collecting delivery or throwing out the garbage, or to open the door and let the cat "breathe" in the hallway when the owner is at home!
Remember to close the door when the owner is at home, and close the windows if you live on a low floor or have a terrace!
Other situations worth talking about
We often see a lot of cat search notices that cats are lost due to moving, so how many cats are lost due to moving in this statistics?
➤ Among the 1210 cases of loss, there were 29 cases of cat loss due to moving, accounting for 2% of the total.
➤ There were 19 cases of loss in foster care at a friend's home, accounting for 1.5% of the total.
➤ There were 13 cases of escaping from the cat cage during transportation, accounting for 1% of the total.
➤ There are also many pooper scoopers who are worried about cats breaking free from the leash and escaping, only 10 cases were recorded, accounting for 0.8% of the total.
These are other relatively common cases that require extra attention from pooper-scoopers.
Of course, each cat is different and it doesn't mean that the probability is low or not mentioned that you don't need to pay attention to it.
How did the lost cats get back?
Of the 1210 lost cats, only 602 were found alive. How were these cats recovered?
Where were they recovered?
83% were recovered from outdoors.
The most common locations were: in the yard (95 cases), found while waiting outside the house (88 cases), under vegetation/bushes (76 cases), and under the balcony/terrace (47 cases).
Another important point is that most of these cats were found near the location where Ta was lost, half of them within 50m and three quarters within 500m.
For "curious" cats, they are more likely to be found in neighbors' homes and public buildings.
When searching for a lost cat, it is best to search the hiding place within 50m several times before expanding the search area!
For cat hiding places, stairs, corridors and underground parking lots of domestic buildings are also very common hiding places!
What method to find back?
Researchers mentioned in their paper that finding cats by walking around the neighborhood is probably the most effective method, and that by actively walking to find them, the probability of cats being found can increase by 49%.
Posting the correct cat search notice and giving the cat a collar with a message was able to increase the chances of recovery by 12 percent.
The golden time to find a cat
Most cats that can be recovered are found within two months of being lost, and about half of them are found within the first seven days.
The first seven days of a cat's loss is the golden time to find your cat, so all pooper scoopers must not give up the search!
Most lost cats have a hard time surviving. In places like the US and Australia where rescue stations are relatively well established and the environment is more relaxed, the survival rate of lost cats is only about 60%. The probability of survival in China is even less.
In order to minimize lost/maximum possible recovery of cats, let us review again the lessons learned from the 1210 lost cat cases.
➤ Do not release cats
➤ Close the door in time, don't let the cat go out for "air" by itself
➤ If the cat is lost, the first seven days must be repeatedly searched within a radius of 50m, and post a cat search notice in time if it cannot be found
➤ If the cat has the habit of "punching the door", it is better to put on a collar with information or implant a microchip for the cat