Junior is a large grey tabby with white who is neutered, microchipped and an indoor/outdoor friendly cat with both people and other cats. He wasn't wearing a collar or tags. Junior did not come home from his nightly outing. His people know that his territory extends for as least three blocks. There is another elderly cat in the house that sometimes Junior follows, but that cat did not go out that night. The area is a dense suburban neighborhood with small lots and wall in on one side by a very high sound wall with a freeway on the other side. The other sides are bordered by a busy feeder street.
We started first checking the house's yard to confirm Junior was not stuck in the yard. His known way out of the yard was over the back fence, usually leaving his home from the sliding glass door of his house. Then we started a house and yard check in the immediate block, which was a dense suburban neighborhood. We went to each door and showed them the flyer and asked to check the yard. A couple of houses were vacant, a few people let us check the yard, a few did not, and many, many people did not answer, which was surprising given it was only about 10:30 AM on a Saturday. I was told that this neighborhood received many solicitors, so many people, apparently, don't answer their doors to a stranger.
We did receive a couple of people say that they had seen Junior in their yard in the past, but had not seen him in a few days. This helped us to confirm Junior's territory, and also that he was going out in the daytime, in addition to nighttime.
His people ran out of flyers, so they went back to their house to print up more. I continued with Dino around the neighborhood to determine Junior's track. We followed his scent around the neighborhood, in and out of courts and then out to a feeder street. Dino crossed the street and made a left turn. We continued for another two blocks and then made a left to another street that was outside Junior's immediate neighborhood. We followed Junior's scent down this whole street and then it suddenly stopped as the street made an elbow turn to the right.
About 45 minutes later I met up with Junior's people after they made more flyers. I showed them the street and where it stopped. Along this wall is very thick vegetation with high trees and bushes. This is the same wall that extends back down to Junior's neighborhood, and Dino had picked up Junior's scent along the street where the other wall is inside Junior's neighborhood.
My opinion is that Junior is out having a good time and decided not to come back home right away. We did talk to a couple of people along this route that put out cat food and they know that various cats come around to feed. We left flyers with them in case Junior showed up. Since he has only been gone for three days, my guess is that he hasn't figured a reason to come back yet. He is left along for long periods during the day and night, so I figured that Junior got a little bored and decided to stay out and get some entertainment. One of his people is going to go into the fenced space along the sound wall and to see if he can find Junior in that location.
I also suggested that, in addition to continuing to hand out flyers door to door in the neighborhood and having them check their yards, to post large flourescent posters on the short streets coming and going from and to the neighborhood. Also, to post the posters on the street next door to the neighborhood where Dino tracked Junior.
(entered into lost pet questionnaire 2/5/10)
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