Help! My cat is missing!

What do you do in the awful instance that your cat gets out? We have a number of steps and some templates for missing posters to help. Social media can be a useful tool, but sharing a missing poster often is the least effective tool to find a missing cat. Contact your neighbors in person and actively look for the best results. Most cats will stay in the yard or a few houses away in order to look for a safe place to hide and food.

Our volunteers are often busy trapping stray cats and kittens and we need you to do the leg work to find your cat. Please read our guide and take as many steps as possible. We are happy to help consult or provide guidance but cannot always help with watching traps, putting up posters, etc.

  • Contact your town animal control officer (ACO), any neighboring town ACO’s, and the rescue you adopted from immediately to let them know. You may be able to borrow a have-a-heart trap. Work with the ACO/rescue to properly set up the trap.
  • If microchipped – contact the company to report missing.
  • Contact your neighbors within a 4-6 house radius and ask them to check sheds, garages and basements – the cat may have gotten in when a door was open and is now trapped.
  • Make posters to hand out and post up. Post these all over in a one mile radius from the house, at the local vets and surrounding town vets, with your town shelter and surrounding town shelters, and stores – if close to your home. Poster should include:
    • Picture and description of cat
    • Day, street, and town the cat went missing from
    • Any pertinent info: wearing a collar, shy, friendly etc
    • List your contact information
  • You can send the poster to rescues/local social media accounts but this is not as effective as reaching out to local places where the cat will be!
  • Leave food and water out for them. If you notice the food or water is being consumed, consider using a game camera to confirm what is eating the food. It may be wild animals or other cats.
  • Work with your neighbors – have them call you if they have a sighting as you may need to trap there. You will need permission to look on their property or set traps.
  • Contact the rescue you adopted from or Angelcat Haven with your specific situation and what you have done already. We can help but our resources are limited and we need your dedication. We have had success catching cats after several weeks of trapping. 
  • Simple fliers can be made in Word and are very effective. See next image for examples. PDF fliers are the easiest for us to post on our page. Please take the time to send us a flier with the necessary information. We cannot post incomplete fliers or share private posts on our page. Please send the flier via PDF to us on our Facebook page to make it as easy as possible to repost. We get many requests and can only post local requests. Below is a sample flier.

Angelcat Haven recommends that all cats be indoor cats. Click to read this article for tips on how to keep them indoors.