"Mug Y", DLH Grey Tabby with White, San Jose

December 5, 2009 - Still Missing.

Mug Y is a friendly indoor/outdoor DLH 16 year old grey/black tabby and he is wearing a collar but no tags, microchip or tattoo. A neighbor said she saw another woman attempting to get Mug Y into a cage and get him into a car. However, his person said she did not believe this person because this neighbor has a tendancy to make up stories.

We found a couple of tracks of Mug Y's that were around the neighborhood and then came back home, so we figured they were part of his regular territory.

While we were on the second track, I saw Dino repeatedly glance across the street, which was a very busy urban street. I made note of that. After we searched an empty lot and were following his track, Dino indicated that their was scent across the street. We went over there and found another track that led straight down the street for several miles. After a few blocks I could tell that Mug Y was not walking because when cats walk they dart in and out of places and streets and parks and walkways. This track was not doing that. I was going straight down the street with no turns so far. My guess was that Mug Y was not walking but in a car and his scent was coming out of the car and Dino was tracking that. I explained this to Mug Y's person and told her that I think her neighbor was correct and saw Mug Y being put into a car.

We continued to follow the track and then suddenly after several miles of going in a straight line, the scent turn to the right and make a sharp right turn into a driveway. The scent continued over a wall that was directly to the right of the driveway and into a parking lot of a type of professional building. The scent went all around the parking lot and up and down a set of stairs and back into the parking lot and up to a fence that borders on the house that has the driveway that the scent went into originally.

We contacted the person at the house and asked them if they knew about anybody with a cat that come over that night, and, as it turns out, the homeowner was a friend of Mug Y's person. He said he knew nothing about anybody coming over that night or any cat. He let us check his backyard, and Mug Y's scent was definitely in there. My guess is that he jumped the fence from the parking lot and made it into that yard and then exited over another fence into another yard. The fencing in that yard was broken and in disrepair in many spots, making it easy for Mug Y to leave.

We checked the area in all directions and did not find any other indication of Mug Y's scent. My suggestion was to check the neighborhood in the areas of the houses that border on this particular yard to see if he came out anywhere and if anybody had seen him.