"Snuggles", Siamese/Tonkinese, Alameda

Snuggles is an indoor-only, declawed, neutered nine year old Siamese/Tonkinese mix. He is wearing a blue collar with paw prints with a rabies tag from his veterinarian, and he is microchipped. He was last seen sometime during the night. He has access to a side yard through a cat door, though his people says he never leaves the yard and always stays inside.

The best guess how he got out of the yard was to jump up onto a garbage can that was left against the gate.  There had been no sightings of Snuggles at all.

Search Day #1:

The track we found led from the side gate, down the street, zig zagging up and down walkways and driveways. At the end of the street, the track turned to the right and went along the street doing the same, going up and down walkways and driveways. 

When we got to the end of the street, the track crossed the street and make a left hand turn, and we were now on the sidewalk, and we continued down the street, all along the sidewalk for many, many blocks. Pretty soon, I figured that something had changed from how the track was at the beginning since we were now going directly down the street as if he were in a car or being carried. Being in a car was the best guess since we were walking along the right side, the same side as traffic. This continued for several more blocks.

Suddenly, at a corner, the scent when directly to the right, up a set of stairs to the door, down the stairs, around the edge of the house and then under the gate that leads into a backyard. We approached the person at home and asked her if we could check her yard for the missing cat. She was very agreeable. We checked the yard, and the dogs indicated that the scent was to the back and into a couple of storage rooms and then into the closet of one of the rooms. Both dogs indicated that the cat had spent some time inside that closet. We asked the woman, who was Asian, and had a difficultly with speaking English, said she did not know anything about a cat. 

We continued the track, which was still outside the house and continued down the street, as if the cat was still being carried, though not in a car because the track was now along walkways and through schools and over foot bridges. 

We were kind of confused what we we were looking at until we came up to a warehouse after crossing a car bridge and into Oakland. The warehouse was just over the water. However, what we saw when we got to the warehouse were people who looked very similar to the woman at the last house. They let us look through the warehouse when we said who we were looking for. The scent went all over the warehouse, up some stairs to a storage room above the office. 

The give away was that when I got to the office, after on a minute or two, there was a young Asian woman who said she had not seen the cat we were looking for. I thought that was strange since I did not tell her who we were looking for, and Snuggles' person had not talked to her yet. What we thought was that somebody from the front who we were talking to immediately went to this woman and showed her the flyer. This woman looked very similar to the woman at the house where Snuggles' scent was in the yard and closet. 

What we thought was that Snuggles had jumped from the car who initially picked him up near his house, and then he ran into the yard and storage closets. This woman called somebody to help her get the cat out. A relative came to get the cat out and took him to the warehouse where they had their own business.  They had him in the warehouse, probably locked in the small room above the office. From there Snuggles got away because from there his scent was like he was now running on his own. 

The track went all around and around the Home Depot parking lot and then out and around and around the rest of the shopping center and then out to the street and over to a large members only warehouse, and then, the strangest thing, is that the track went back over the same bridge he originally was brought over. It is a small drawbridge and, with cars, it is very loud and bounces. Dot and Dino were pretty nervous crossing it. Heck, I was nervous crossing it. I figured that Snuggles must have crossed it at night when the sound and motion would be less. 

From there the track when back into Alameda and around along Fernside, where Snuggles' person stopped the track. She said they would continue the search for him and use Findtoto to put out messages and more flyers.

Search Day #2:

I got a call from Snuggles' people the next morning that a Siamese looking cat had been sighted on the far end of Alameda. This person had received the Findtoto phone message about a Siamese missing in his area, saw the cat that morning while walking his dog, and called immediately. I went to that spot, and the dogs definitely indicated that the scent belonged to Snuggles.

We followed that track for several hours all along the edge of Alameda going in and out of schools, homes, apartment complexes, shopping areas, more apartments and on and on and on. After about four hours, we were at the far end of Alameda, almost near to where we ended the search the day before. My guess is that Snuggles was backtracking his way from how he got to the far end.

The search was stopped by Snuggles' person and she said they would continue to look for him.