"Luna", DSH, Black, Tracy

Luna is an all black nine month old spayed female. Her people had recently adopted her a few days earlier from a local shelter.

She had been taken out to her backyard on a leash and collar. She panicked, got loose from her leash, jumped the fence of the yard and took off. I was called in about one and a half month later.

Luna's people said that they had put out food for a couple of days following her disappearance, and that somebody was eating the food. They also have a trap set at their front door with food being set inside.

We started out the search by checking the immediate block. Dino definitely picked up her scent in the immediate area. We followed the track around the block and across the street to a large empty lot. This lot had a lot of ground squirrels. The lot also has a lot of people visitors. We did find Luna's scent throughout the lots. We continued the search around the neighborhood and we found a track that led out of the immediate neighborhood and then it made a left alongside a busy boulevard. The track continued back and forth across the blvd as if Luna had spent regular time going back and forth, so we decided to check the other side of the blvd. We did find more scent on the other side. We talked to several people at these houses. They had not seen Luna specifically, but they were aware of other cats coming and going onto their lots. One woman on a large lot with gardens and buildings said she regularly puts out food for cats, but she had not seen Luna.

On this same side of the street and we found a couple of vacant lots. We left flyers at the doors and check the outside and tried to see over the fences.

We found more of Luna's scent down another street with a small canal/waterway alongside the street. We followed the waterway a ways and Dino indicated her scent along the way. We checked other offshoots of this same canal, and we found Luna's scent here also. This would make sense to give Luna access to food and water like insects, rodents and lizards.

We decided to head back and go back to the neighborhood and check out a large park a couple of blocks away from her person's home. We found Luna's scent throughout the park. We decided to walk back to their home since we had pretty much covered the entire area.

I explained that I believe, based on what Dino found, that Luna is still hanging out in the area. Her scent was all around the area around the house for at least a couple of blocks in each way. I suggested to set out a kitty buffet for a few days and see who shows up. I mentioned that I was in the process of purchasing a motion sensor camera, and that that type of camera would be best to set out to see who was coming to the buffet. If they found out that Luna was coming to the dishes, then set up a trap near the dishes and then move the dishes slowly toward the trap, and then put one of the dishes inside the trap without the door triggering. After a couple of days of knowing the food is being eaten, then set the door so it triggers.

The primary purpose of setting out the food dishes is to keep a cat in the area since they need food. This prevents the cat from roaming further and further out of the area to find food. This keeps the cat close by and dependent upon your dishes so you can trap her.

(Entered into lost pet questionnaire 2/18/10)